The regions along the river are the traditional home of the Dane-zaa people, called the Beaver by the Europeans. The fur traderPeter Pond is believed to have visited the river in 1785. In 1788 Charles Boyer of the North West Company established a fur trading post at the river's junction with the Boyer River.
In 1792 and 1793, the explorer Alexander Mackenzie travelled up the river to the Continental Divide.[4] Mackenzie referred to the river as Unjegah, from the Dane-zaa meaning "large river."
The decades of hostilities between the Dane-zaa and the Cree, (in which the Cree dominated the Dane-zaa), ended in 1781 when a smallpox epidemic decimated the Cree. The Treaty of the Peace was celebrated by the smoking of a ceremonial pipe. The treaty made the Peace River a border, with the Dane-zaa to the North and the Cree to the South.[5]
In 1794, a fur trading post was built on the Peace River at Fort St. John; it was the first settlement established on the British Columbia mainland by Europeans.
The rich soils of the Peace River valley in Alberta have been producing wheat crops since the late 19th century. In the early 21st century, the BC Grain Producers Association was researching the productivity of wheat and other grain crops near Dawson Creek.[6] The Peace River region is also an important centre of oil and natural gas production. There are also pulp and paper plants along the river in Alberta and British Columbia.
The Grenfell was one of the vessels that shipped cargo on the Peace River.
Hydroelectric development began on the Peace River in 1968 and continues to be an important source of renewable energy for British Columbia's main electricity provider, BC Hydro. The river’s first dam, the W. A. C. Bennett Dam, was completed in 1968 and is British Columbia's largest dam and the third-largest hydroelectric facility in Canada. It supplies over 30% of British Columbia's total power demand. Engineers took advantage of the W. A. C. Bennet Dam's large reservoir storage to further develop the river with the Peace Canyon Dam opened in 1980.[8] The Site C dam is under construction and scheduled to be finished in 2025; it will further benefit from the upstream dams and generate additional electrical capacity to meet British Columbia's growing demand for green energy and reduce the carbon footprint of residents.[9] As of 2020[update] both the Alberta government and private producers were studying the possibility of hydroelectric development on the Alberta stretch of the river with one run-of-the-river project currently being proposed.[10]
Existing and proposed dams on Peace River listed in downstream order
This river is 1,923 kilometres (1,195 mi) long (from the head of Finlay River to Lake Athabasca). It drains an area of approximately 302,500 square kilometres (116,800 sq mi).[11] At Peace Point, where it drains in the Slave River, it has an annual discharge of 68.2 billion cubic metres (55.3 million acre-feet).[12]
The only river cutting completely through the Rockies,[13][14] it nowadays flows into Dinosaur Lake, a reservoir for the Peace Canyon Dam. After the dams, the river flows east into Alberta and then continues north and east into the Peace-Athabasca Delta in Wood Buffalo National Park, at the western end of Lake Athabasca. Water from the delta flows into the Slave River east of Peace Point and reaches the Arctic Ocean via the Great Slave Lake and Mackenzie River.
Communities
Peace River in Fort Vermilion, Alberta.The Peace River as it winds past the town of Peace River during the autumntime.
Communities located directly on the river include:
^David W., Leonard. "Peace River". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
^Bennett, R.M.; Card, J.R.; Hornby, D.M. (1973-03-09). "Hydrology of Lake Athabasca: Past, Present and Future"(PDF). Hydrological Sciences Bulletin, XVIII. International Association of Hydrological Science. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2013-05-16. Retrieved 2010-10-08.
^Edward L. Affleck. "Steamboating on the Peace River"(PDF). British Columbia History. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2013-09-21. Retrieved 2012-12-06. The brothers built a fleet of small primitive steamers, extending by 1903 to the waters of the Peace above the Vermilion Chutes. In that year the pint—sized sternwheeler St. Charles began to work the 526 mile stretch from Fort Vermilion to Hudson's Hope, carrying lumber and supplies for the Mission at Fort St. John in British Columbia, as well as goods for the Northwest Mounted Police.
