Wollaston Lake

Where is Wollaston Lake?

Countries on its shores: Canada.

Middle of the lake: 58.25° N, 103.33° W

The story behind it

Wollaston Lake lies 398 m above sea level in the north of Saskatchewan, in Canada. Together with its islands it covers about 2 681 km²; the water alone covers about 2 286 km². It is the largest lake that lies completely inside Saskatchewan. What makes it special is that it has two outflows. About one tenth of its water leaves through the Fond du Lac River to the north-west. It reaches Lake Athabasca and finally, through the Mackenzie River, the Arctic Ocean. The other nine tenths flow through the Cochrane River to Reindeer Lake and on to Hudson Bay. The explorer David Thompson saw these two outlets in 1796 and wrote that they were “perhaps without parallel in the world”. Northern pike, Arctic grayling and walleye live in the lake. When the lake is frozen, a winter road crosses the ice; the rest of the year, a barge carries people across.

Find it on the globe

Wollaston Lake is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.