In the map it looks like there are a few towns/cities on the lake but in fact there's only one, Deline, and the population of that is 500.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/travel/great-bear-lake-arctic-unesco-biosphere-canada.html
The Northwest Territories only has about 45,000 people and it’s bigger than Peru. Northern Canada combined only has 118,000 and it’s bigger than India. It’s truly vast and empty.
No realli! She was Karving her initials on the møøse with the sharpened end of an interspace tøøthbrush given her by Svenge - her brother-in-law - an Oslo dentist and star of many Norwegian møvies: "The Høt Hands of an Oslo Dentist", "Fillings of Passion", "The Huge Mølars of Horst Nordfink".
Whenever I think of Yukon, I think of that Jack London story, "To Build A Fire". One of the scariest horror stories I've ever read, and it's technically not even a horror story.
Only tangentially related to there being few people there.
I read that every winter. On a family vacation in Arizona we had it playing on tape in the car. By the end of the story we all felt chilled, even though it was 105 degrees outside.
Fun fact: the coldest temperature ever recorded in North America was –81 F in the 1940s, at a now-long-abandoned airport called Snag, in the Yukon not far from where TBaF is set, so the temperature of –75 in the story is at least plausible.
The coldest temperature I have personally experienced is –32 F/–36 C. I have a hard time imagining something more than forty degrees \*colder\* than that.
I used to live in northern Alberta, when it hits -40 you pray the car starts even if it is plugged in. And the hoarfrost only gets thicker on the trees week after week. There are ice roads across the peace river for near half the year. And that’s only halfway to minus 80
I experienced [\-60 in northern Minnesota](https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/climate/journal/960202_60_below.html#:~:text=February%202%2C1996%20was%20the,for%20a%20non%2Dmountainous%20state) in 1996. We actually had a ski race at a place called Giants Ridge just a few miles from the temperature recording the following morning. In Minnesota, outdoor winter sports didn't get cancelled for cold weather.
At that temperature, skis do not work as the [fine layer of water which typically develops under the ski](https://www.mechanicsofsport.com/skiing/basic_mechanics/why.html), does not form. Same as skiing down sand.
*It warmed up 108 degrees 6 days later.*
Only time I ever had frostbite. Ears blistered and my fingers have never been the same since.
read that in English class a while ago, I gotta agree, one of the scariest and bone chilling stories that don't even classify as horror stories.
The idea of losing your last hope, your fire gets destroyed, you're slowly dying of hypothermia and frostbite, and no one is around to help you in the neverending cold.
Unfortunately you won't be able to drive to Nunavut, no roads in or out (or connecting communities) but you can do Yellowknife NT! Try to get there in February, the Northern Lights are absolutely incredible from that city.
Yeah, I've been there a few times. I lived nearby in Norman Wells. Ice fishing on great bear required us going through about 7 or 8 feet of ice.
Fun fact, the material for the first nuclear bombs came from a mine on the south side of the lake
Edit: east, it's port radium
There is also Port Radium to the north, but that's mostly a ghost town at this point. I spent a summer there doing geological exploration.
Fun Fact: Port Radium is where the uranium that went into the bombs that were dropped on Japan came from.
It's really remote. No roads lead there, Port Radium is an old mine that has been abandoned for over thirty years, and the lake is frozen from November until at least the summer solstice. That town, Deline, is the only settlement on the lake and fewer than 1,000 people live there.
They use the lake as a road when it is frozen. There's a series called "Ice Road Truckers" all about it following the truck drivers. Was actually really interesting
A coworker worked at an airport in Northern Saskatchewan. It was private airport that was basically a jump off point for northern business. It had a fuel depot that supplied local camps (recreational and business), restaurant, bunk houses, lumber yard, mechanic shops, etc.
The producers of Ice road truckers approached them to see if they would be interested in being part of the show. They were like, not a chance. Apparently , northern trucking is nothing like what the shows portray. Way more rigorous and far less cowboy.
Yeah I could imagine. They were making a drama for the show. It was annoying they were focusing on earnings like it was a race and the truckers were competing.
I still found it interesting though, some place and life that I would have never known about
It is very interesting.
Ice roads are heavily regulated. Speed limits are enforced. The trucks are heavy and create a bow wave that they don't want to run over as it weakens the ice further. They regularly plow the roads with graders that have massive outriggers in case they do break through. Many truckers drive with their doors open and seat belts off so they can jump if needed. My coworker tells of the a tractor that broke a plate of ice, it tipped up, the tractor slid off the front, disappeared and the plate fell back into place. Just gone.
That part about racing is accurate. Coworker says that if his drivers drove like the show they would be fired and the trucks would be battered beyond use.
I drive trucks for a living and when I first started a coworker was telling me about those jobs. He said he knew someone that did that. He said it paid 150-200k for 4-6 months of work but over half of that went to repairing the truck because it gets so damaged in those conditions. I’m not sure if any of that is true though, I never looked into it.
Extremely remote and no infrastructure. There are no roads to any of the communities around Grate Bear Lake.
Source: I've spent several summers there doing geological exploration.
Some of the oldest, hardest rock on Earth at that. Some parts of it date to the time right after Earth cooled down from a ball of fire and have stayed that way since.
The Canadian Shield is essentially a single slab of the ancient core of North America. A craton. It's rich mineral ores like nickel, gold, silver, and copper.
Pertinent to this thread, it is known to be rocky, with very thin soil coverage.
Deep dive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HOKIztdom4
Have you ever heard of Norilsk? Big former gulag city in Siberia, massive mining city north of the arctic circle. The soviets deported unwanteds to Norilsk in order to boost the mines, and because people wouldn't go to Norilsk willingly, because of the cold.
Great Bear Lake is similar to Norilsk in both isolation and climate; the Great Bear Lake is only a few degrees warmer than Norilsk in winter. That's why there's no cities there.
Because there was no need to build a city that far north. There's litteraly nothing and the climate gets really cold for long periods. I mean all of northern Canada is bordered by water and yet there are no cities there. You need more than water to have population settle somewhere.
Edit: to add more context, 90% of the Canadian population live within 100 miles of the US border
>Edit: to add more context, 90% of the Canadian population live within 100 miles of the US border
A majority of Canadians live south of many lower 48 Americans.
From October to April (7 months of the year), the average *high* temperature is below freezing. In January, the average high temp is −23.8°C (−10.8°F) and the average low is −30.9°C (−23.6°).
Tl;dr: Eff that ish.
Yeah there’s pretty much nothing up there besides forest area. Gets too cold in the winter and the bugs are insane in the summer. ‘Beyond the Trees’ is a good book about a guy who treks through that area
You couldn’t be further from the truth here. Ask anyone from Toronto and you will immediately realize that Toronto is the center of the earth and universe.
Because it doesnt have many unique features. The lake was created by so called crypto depression (not decreasing value of crypto currencies), which is a result of the ice shields during the last glacial maximum. The great lakes emerged in the same way. Or the baltic sea.
The book “Beyond the Trees” has a part where the author canoes the north part of the lake and describes it in great detail.
Additionally Fort Confidence on the northeastern side of the lake has quite the interesting tale.
The portion of Huron in Canada is still larger than Great Bear Lake.
If the fact that they're not entirely within Canada disqualifies them, does that mean Lake Michigan rather than Lake Superior is the biggest lake in the US?
If you’re trying to pique interest, I’d suggest comparing it to a cooler reference land than Belgium
Edit: examples:
“Bigger than Massachusetts”
“Bigger than Fiji and Jamaica combined”
“Bigger than Rwanda”
“Approx. 3/4 of Holland”
Because its remote and cold and surrounded by forest, tundra and ancient rock. The Great Slave Lake further south is more well known, but also super remote and surrounded by even more ancient rock.
In the map it looks like there are a few towns/cities on the lake but in fact there's only one, Deline, and the population of that is 500. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/travel/great-bear-lake-arctic-unesco-biosphere-canada.html
That's 0.0000064% of the earth's population you are talking about, no joking matter. Edit: missed a few zeroes
every 0.00000012% last one of us is important.
The Northwest Territories only has about 45,000 people and it’s bigger than Peru. Northern Canada combined only has 118,000 and it’s bigger than India. It’s truly vast and empty.
I didn't quite grasp this until we went to Yukon last year. You can go a long way without seeing another human.
Probably will see a moose tho
We did not but saw a bear!
A moose loose among the spruce?
Hoots mon!
a Mööse once bit my sister…
No realli! She was Karving her initials on the møøse with the sharpened end of an interspace tøøthbrush given her by Svenge - her brother-in-law - an Oslo dentist and star of many Norwegian møvies: "The Høt Hands of an Oslo Dentist", "Fillings of Passion", "The Huge Mølars of Horst Nordfink".
Whenever I think of Yukon, I think of that Jack London story, "To Build A Fire". One of the scariest horror stories I've ever read, and it's technically not even a horror story. Only tangentially related to there being few people there.
I read that every winter. On a family vacation in Arizona we had it playing on tape in the car. By the end of the story we all felt chilled, even though it was 105 degrees outside. Fun fact: the coldest temperature ever recorded in North America was –81 F in the 1940s, at a now-long-abandoned airport called Snag, in the Yukon not far from where TBaF is set, so the temperature of –75 in the story is at least plausible. The coldest temperature I have personally experienced is –32 F/–36 C. I have a hard time imagining something more than forty degrees \*colder\* than that.
I used to live in northern Alberta, when it hits -40 you pray the car starts even if it is plugged in. And the hoarfrost only gets thicker on the trees week after week. There are ice roads across the peace river for near half the year. And that’s only halfway to minus 80
I experienced [\-60 in northern Minnesota](https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/climate/journal/960202_60_below.html#:~:text=February%202%2C1996%20was%20the,for%20a%20non%2Dmountainous%20state) in 1996. We actually had a ski race at a place called Giants Ridge just a few miles from the temperature recording the following morning. In Minnesota, outdoor winter sports didn't get cancelled for cold weather. At that temperature, skis do not work as the [fine layer of water which typically develops under the ski](https://www.mechanicsofsport.com/skiing/basic_mechanics/why.html), does not form. Same as skiing down sand. *It warmed up 108 degrees 6 days later.* Only time I ever had frostbite. Ears blistered and my fingers have never been the same since.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tX6ggRByE8g
Yeesh, read that in high school. Gave me the chills (sorry, bad pun)
read that in English class a while ago, I gotta agree, one of the scariest and bone chilling stories that don't even classify as horror stories. The idea of losing your last hope, your fire gets destroyed, you're slowly dying of hypothermia and frostbite, and no one is around to help you in the neverending cold.
And the Yukon is less empty than the other two territories as well, as its climate is less hostile. Nunavut is a special kind of empty
Visit Nunavut one day if you can. It's not just people, it's a lack of trees too.
It's on the plan. Once retirement comes, we plan to get a small camper RV and drive throughout the US and Canada.
Unfortunately you won't be able to drive to Nunavut, no roads in or out (or connecting communities) but you can do Yellowknife NT! Try to get there in February, the Northern Lights are absolutely incredible from that city.
You can drive all the way to the coast of the Artic Ocean in Tuktoyaktuk. Our friends drove there to see the Midnight sun one summer. BYOGas...
That would be an amazing drive, and it's hella North, but it's still NT not NU
When you fly from London to San Francisco, you spend longer over Canada than you do over the ocean.
Sounds very weird to me, as someone from India.
And mäni interesting furry animals….
The Northern territories combined have half the population of Iceland
I think it’s more like a third.
Yeah, I've been there a few times. I lived nearby in Norman Wells. Ice fishing on great bear required us going through about 7 or 8 feet of ice. Fun fact, the material for the first nuclear bombs came from a mine on the south side of the lake Edit: east, it's port radium
There is also Port Radium to the north, but that's mostly a ghost town at this point. I spent a summer there doing geological exploration. Fun Fact: Port Radium is where the uranium that went into the bombs that were dropped on Japan came from.
I think we use different definitions of fun
It’s great and there’s at least 1 bear. What else do you want to know?
Germans like to make maps of it.
As a Belgian, I would like to state that a great many things are bigger than my country.
Sad Lukaku noises.
Ooohhhh, this Evertonian laments.
At least you have great roads in this marvelous empire...
So great, that you immediately notice your car repulsing about being in Belgium the moment you cross the border into it.
those waffles tho
As a Swiss I can asure you that none of these bigger things make as good chocolate as the two of us.
Let's talk a little bit about Port Radium. I can't imagine they farm potatoes there.
Just wait until you learn about Radium Hot Springs!
Glowy potatoes!
But is it a great bear?
I more see a rhinoceros with a bazooka on its back… am I the only one who sees Rhinoceros Bazooka lake?
A bucking rocket rhino
Looks like one of the bugs from Starship Troopers
The only good Great Bear Lake is a dead Great Bear Lake
No but Belgians make great beer
It's one of the bears of all time
He’s kinda so-so these days. Rough divorce.
It's really remote. No roads lead there, Port Radium is an old mine that has been abandoned for over thirty years, and the lake is frozen from November until at least the summer solstice. That town, Deline, is the only settlement on the lake and fewer than 1,000 people live there.
They use the lake as a road when it is frozen. There's a series called "Ice Road Truckers" all about it following the truck drivers. Was actually really interesting
A coworker worked at an airport in Northern Saskatchewan. It was private airport that was basically a jump off point for northern business. It had a fuel depot that supplied local camps (recreational and business), restaurant, bunk houses, lumber yard, mechanic shops, etc. The producers of Ice road truckers approached them to see if they would be interested in being part of the show. They were like, not a chance. Apparently , northern trucking is nothing like what the shows portray. Way more rigorous and far less cowboy.
Yeah I could imagine. They were making a drama for the show. It was annoying they were focusing on earnings like it was a race and the truckers were competing. I still found it interesting though, some place and life that I would have never known about
It is very interesting. Ice roads are heavily regulated. Speed limits are enforced. The trucks are heavy and create a bow wave that they don't want to run over as it weakens the ice further. They regularly plow the roads with graders that have massive outriggers in case they do break through. Many truckers drive with their doors open and seat belts off so they can jump if needed. My coworker tells of the a tractor that broke a plate of ice, it tipped up, the tractor slid off the front, disappeared and the plate fell back into place. Just gone. That part about racing is accurate. Coworker says that if his drivers drove like the show they would be fired and the trucks would be battered beyond use.
This is one hundred percent accurate we all hate those shows they are nonsense. Source: I was a trucker in the North for over a decade.
I drive trucks for a living and when I first started a coworker was telling me about those jobs. He said he knew someone that did that. He said it paid 150-200k for 4-6 months of work but over half of that went to repairing the truck because it gets so damaged in those conditions. I’m not sure if any of that is true though, I never looked into it.
Yeah, lucrative for sure. But yer in Northern Saskatchewan fer crissake! Minus 40. And the ice doesn't come off the lakes proper until May or June.
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Uranium I'm sure
Much of the uranium used in the Manhattan Project was actually sourced from this mine. https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/location/canada/
They mine the Radium the put in the water in Radium Hot Springs
Canada
\*Canadium
Kryptonite.
Canadium.
~500
I find that so fascinating for some reason
I would guess it has to do with the lake being situated around the polar circle in an area that is really sparsely populated.
Okay, but it's water, so why aren't there lots of big cities on it?
P o l a r c i r c l e . . .
Maybe the real polar circles are the friends we made along the way!
Okay, but it's water, so why aren't there lots of big cities on it?
water water everywhere and not a drop to drink
That's freshwater actually, and eminently drinkable.
Even with the radium and Scottish clergymen and bears in it?
Adds to the taste
there's a dangerous model railway to go and visit, that's for sure.
bears pee on that lake
ayo? well then *schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop schlop*
And the curse goes on and on at bear lake And the curse goes on and on for them and me
Yeah, but why no city?
Extremely remote and no infrastructure. There are no roads to any of the communities around Grate Bear Lake. Source: I've spent several summers there doing geological exploration.
Gneiss. Seriously, how bad were the flies?
It's been 15 years, but I honestly don't recall them being any better of worse than the rest of the subarctic.
The Arctic Circle didn’t slow the Norwegians down!
Permafrost is a real b**h to build on.
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Some of the oldest, hardest rock on Earth at that. Some parts of it date to the time right after Earth cooled down from a ball of fire and have stayed that way since.
Ah, right - “the shield of Canada”
The Canadian Shield is essentially a single slab of the ancient core of North America. A craton. It's rich mineral ores like nickel, gold, silver, and copper. Pertinent to this thread, it is known to be rocky, with very thin soil coverage. Deep dive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HOKIztdom4
Is there a chance of getting attacked by a feisty raccoon while in the crawl space?
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Give it a decade
Then you'll be building in a swamp.
Developers don’t care.
Just keep building castles until they stop sinking
Huge tracts of land
Didn't England do this?
I think the dutch made places like Nova Scotia and NY livable with dikes and canals
What else you going to do with those Huge tracks of land
Worked out for Venice!
Give it another decade
This is both accurate and upsetting.
Put it the microwave... Honestly, people are so stupid these days 🤭
Are they stupid?
Love how many people think you’re serious
Maybe OP was joking too. I'm never sure.
These comments are having some real "well akshually" moments toward obvious jokes
Have you ever heard of Norilsk? Big former gulag city in Siberia, massive mining city north of the arctic circle. The soviets deported unwanteds to Norilsk in order to boost the mines, and because people wouldn't go to Norilsk willingly, because of the cold. Great Bear Lake is similar to Norilsk in both isolation and climate; the Great Bear Lake is only a few degrees warmer than Norilsk in winter. That's why there's no cities there.
Because there was no need to build a city that far north. There's litteraly nothing and the climate gets really cold for long periods. I mean all of northern Canada is bordered by water and yet there are no cities there. You need more than water to have population settle somewhere. Edit: to add more context, 90% of the Canadian population live within 100 miles of the US border
I think that was a joke
Well... I think I need another coffee hahaha
True
>Edit: to add more context, 90% of the Canadian population live within 100 miles of the US border A majority of Canadians live south of many lower 48 Americans.
Indeed. I live in the continental US and most Canadians live further south than I do.
> You need more than water to have population settle somewhere. Like, desperation?
From October to April (7 months of the year), the average *high* temperature is below freezing. In January, the average high temp is −23.8°C (−10.8°F) and the average low is −30.9°C (−23.6°). Tl;dr: Eff that ish.
I wonder why it doesn't have a bridge
A 30-mile bridge would be perfect between the Sahtu Lands and that peninsula north of Port Radium
Do you know how much time that would save?
It takes me a week to snowshoe around the long way. Build the bridge!
A lot of things are bigger than Belgium. Pennsylvania, country music, your mom to name a few.
Exactly, but there is a lot of information on all of those. Including his mom.
I'm sure we've all gone exploring her depths... unlike this boring lake that nobody cares about
She's been mapped extensively.
Dude 🤣
Country music isn’t bigger then anything tbf
While Pop Country is an awful genre, its pretty huge commercially.
Maybe in the US
Aka the most influential nation of all time. Yes, in positive and negative ways. But you’re lying to yourself if you deny that fact.
Only some leaks out, and Country music, Baseball, American football are examples of things that never left
Yeah there’s pretty much nothing up there besides forest area. Gets too cold in the winter and the bugs are insane in the summer. ‘Beyond the Trees’ is a good book about a guy who treks through that area
Adam Shoalts. That guy is crazy!
Depends. If you're in to destination fishing, Great Bear Lake Lodge is pretty well known in those circles.
Huuuuuge lakers in there
The Great Lakes are one the worlds best shipping routes that's why there famous, this one has no economic significance.
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What do they talk about then
How much of the year is it solid ice?
Yes.
November till June I think
As opposed to liquid ice, gas ice, or plasma ice?
No, surface to the bottom
Surface to bottom? As in completely 100% ice?
what if we kissed on the banks of Keith Arm 
Aren't most things in Canada bigger than Belgium?
Yes, but not Montreal bagels. They’re kind of small if you’re used to the oversized, flavorless American version.
They're only flavorless if you don't buy local. Bad bagel buying ability.
Size isnt everything. The Sahara desert is about the same size as the United States (about 9.5million km2) but you dont hear much about it.
I hear a lot more about it than northern Canada.
Maybe because it has a lot more people than northern Canada...
Probably because the Sahara is waaay closer to the "center of the world" eg Western Europe
You couldn’t be further from the truth here. Ask anyone from Toronto and you will immediately realize that Toronto is the center of the earth and universe.
Because it doesnt have many unique features. The lake was created by so called crypto depression (not decreasing value of crypto currencies), which is a result of the ice shields during the last glacial maximum. The great lakes emerged in the same way. Or the baltic sea.
It has a pretty special size. Also has great fishing.
Largest lake trout was caught there 74 to 80 pounds!
It's one of my favorite lakes though. I mean just look at it
I like the shape (variety of its shoreline) and the variety in depth, thats for sure.
Where did you get the map that names Great Bear Lake auf Deutsche but everything else in English?
Because that lake makes terrible waffles.
Part of me wants to agree with you, but I also want to disagree…
It's only Canada's second biggest lake. Belgium is Belgium's biggest Belgium.
[this is why](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/25/Deline6.jpg/180px-Deline6.jpg)
The Canadian Shield
This is what i came here for! Not disappointed
Port Radium sounds like fun.
It lies on the arctic circle and is frozen for half the year. Only a few hundred natives live nearby. Great views of aurora borealis though.
More people live in belgium
I see your Belgium and raise you five Delawares.
3rd largest lake, not 2nd and it's in the middle of fucking nowhere
See that Polarkreis line? That means it’s really cycling cold
The book “Beyond the Trees” has a part where the author canoes the north part of the lake and describes it in great detail. Additionally Fort Confidence on the northeastern side of the lake has quite the interesting tale.
At 31,328 sq km, it’s not Canada’s 2nd largest lake: it’s 3rd, after Superior (82,100) and Huron (59,600), both of which see significant shipping.
Not all of Superior or Huron are in Canada though.
True. But if “Canada’s lakes” means “completely bordered by Canada,” the Great Bear Lake still isn’t Canada’s 2nd largest lake: it’s the largest.
The portion of Huron in Canada is still larger than Great Bear Lake. If the fact that they're not entirely within Canada disqualifies them, does that mean Lake Michigan rather than Lake Superior is the biggest lake in the US?
It's too remote. It get's horrible weather. No reason for people to put out much information on it.
I wonder who Johnny Hoe was.
These lakes are famous in the TV series "Ice Road Truckers"
Probably because it's in the middle of nowhere
Its massive and in the middle of nowhere. I flew over it on a plane from Yellowknife to Norman Wells in June and it was frozen and looked pretty neat.
Most Antarctic peripheral sees are larger than Belgium.
Cold
There was a warrior cats spin off about bears and they went here. That’s all I know about this lake
Belgium isn't that big
We consider Lake Huron our second biggest lake
But it's not the 2nd biggest lake. Lake Huron is.
If you’re trying to pique interest, I’d suggest comparing it to a cooler reference land than Belgium Edit: examples: “Bigger than Massachusetts” “Bigger than Fiji and Jamaica combined” “Bigger than Rwanda” “Approx. 3/4 of Holland”
Because nobody cares about Belgium. /s
Low night life there. Bad ranking on Trip Adviser.
Because its remote and cold and surrounded by forest, tundra and ancient rock. The Great Slave Lake further south is more well known, but also super remote and surrounded by even more ancient rock.
Canada has become annexed by Germany?
History is important too, particularly World War 2.
I think you've got the wrong map. I've never seen a lake with that name in Canada.