Wollaston Lake

Wollaston Lake lies on a great divide in the northern Shield. Its waters leave by two different rivers: the Fond du Lac flows west towards Lake Athabasca and the Arctic Ocean, while the Cochrane runs east to Reindeer Lake and the Hudson Bay drainage. Rocky shores and islands break up the lake, which lies within Dene country.

In 1796 David Thompson travelled through this lake country with two Chipewyan guides while seeking a route to Lake Athabasca for the Hudson's Bay Company. They reached the lake by a route that avoided the swift Cochrane River and continued towards the Fond du Lac. The journey showed a possible passage between the two great watersheds, but when Thompson and Malcolm Ross attempted it with heavily loaded canoes later that year, they found it impassable.