Athabasca Sand Dunes 

History of Area

People have lived in this region, at least intermittently for the past 7000 to 8000 years. Archaeological findings indicate that the south shore of Lake Athabasca was used by prehistoric hunters who relied on barren ground caribou that migrated here from farther north. The rivers, especially the McFarland, were important travel networks to early inhabitants. Inuit inhabited the area as evidenced by Arctic Small Tools tradition. Later, Chipewyan Indians, ancestors of today's Fond-du-Lac First Nation, occupied the region. The first European to see the area was fur trader and explorer Peter Pond, who was in the Athabasca region between 1778 and 1783. Surveyor Philip Turnor, assisted by Peter Fidler, explored the south shore in 1791, and was the first to describe the dunes in any detail. J.B. Tyrrell and D.B. Dowling surveyed much of the dunes for the Canadian government in 1892.

The nearest community to the park, Fond-du-Lac, became a Hudson's Bay Company trading post in 1851. Over the years, people from Fond-du-Lac and other Lake Athabasca communities such as Camsel Portage and Fort Chipewyan hunted, fished and trapped along the south shore. In recent years, life in established communities has taken over from live on the land. Today, no one lives within the provincial wilderness park.

The Denesuline of Fond-du-Lac continue many aspects of a traditional lifestyle, with trapping and caribou hunting still important to the local economy. They continue their close association with the Athabasca Sand Dunes Provincial Wilderness Park.