Keele
Keele is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Coordinates
- 64.22°, -127.01°
About Keele
The Keele River is a tributary of the Mackenzie River, about 410 kilometres (250 mi) long, in the western part of the Canadian Northwest Territories. Flowing in a generally northeast direction, it drains a sparsely populated, rugged area of the Mackenzie Mountains.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Keele River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Keele in Depth
Course
The Keele River originates in a small, unnamed lake near the border of the Northwest Territories and the Yukon, approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) south of Macmillan Pass, which is the terminus of the drivable section of the North CANOL Road. The river begins its journey by flowing northwest through the alpine tundra area known as the Mackenzie Mountain Barrens, joining the Tsichu and Intga Rivers along the way. It then drops off the alpine plateau and begins its long descent to the Mackenzie River, tumbling gradually down into the dramatic Backbone Ranges of the Mackenzie Mountains. Approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) from the Keele's source, the Natla River rushes into the Keele from the south and almost doubles the flow and size of the river.
History
People have inhabited the mountainous area surrounding the Keele River for at least 11,000 years. The Dene name for the Keele River is Begádeé, which translates to "Winding River". The river was used extensively as a trade route for some tribes of the Mountain Dene people. After spending the summer hunting and trading along the Yukon/NWT border the Mountain Dene, or shúhtagot'ıne, would build large moose skin boats, fill them with furs and goods and paddle down the Keele River to their winter camps along the Mackenzie River Valley. There they would trade these furs and goods for supplies to survive the long winter months with the Lowland Dene People and the Hudson Bay trading post after it was built at Fort Norman in the 1800s.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Keele River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Keele: Key Facts
| Length | 410 km |
|---|---|
| Drainage basin | 19,000 km² |
| Mouth | Mackenzie River |
| Tributaries | Tsichu River, Intga River, Sekwi Brook, Nainlin Brook, Toochingkla River, Inlin Brook, Summit Creek, Moose Nest Creek |
Facts from Wikidata Q12282935 (CC0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Keele: Quick Answers
- Where is Keele?
- Keele is located in Canada, at 64.2151° N, 127.0079° W.
- Are there dams on the Keele?
- No dam on the Keele is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.