The Back River, formerly Backs River (Dogrib: Thlewechodyeth, Inuktitut: Haningayok, or Great Fish River), is the 20th longest Canadian river and is located in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. It rises at an unnamed lake in the North Slave Region of the Northwest Territories and flows more than mostly through the Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, to its mouth at the Arctic Ocean in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut.
Course
The river begins at the outflow of an unnamed lake at an elevation of and flows west into Sussex Lake, then north to Muskox Lake, at the border between the Northwest Territories and the Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, where it takes in the left tributary Icy River. It flows over the Muskox Rapids, takes in the left tributary Contwoyto River, and heads east through the Heywood Range. The Back River heads over the Malley Rapids, takes in the left tributary Siorak River and enters the long lake-expansion Lake Beechey in a southeast direction. It heads east, takes in the right tributary Baillie River, left tributary Warren River, right tributary Jervoise River, passes over the Hawk Rapids, takes in the right tributary McKinley River and right tributary Consul River. Between the Baillie and Consul Rivers, the Back River forms the northern border of the Thelon Wildlife Sanctuary. The river turns northeast, takes in the left tributary Bullen River, and reaches Pelly Lake at an elevation of . It flows east through, in immediate succession: Upper Garry Lake, where it takes in the right tributary Morse River; Garry Lake; Lower Garry Lake; Buliard Lake; Upper MacDougall Lake; and Lower MacDougall Lake. The Back River then heads over the Rock Rapids, Sinclair Falls, Escape Rapids, Sandhill Rapids, and Wolf Rapids, and takes in the right tributary Meadowbank River. The river curves around Mount Meadowbank, takes in the right tributary Hermann River and left tributary Montresor River, passes McKay Peak, heads over the Whirlpool Rapids, and reaches Franklin Lake. It continues northeast, takes in the right tributary Mistake River, passes north into Kitikmeot Region, takes in the right tributary Hayes River and reaches its mouth at Cockburn Bay on Chantrey Inlet on the Arctic Ocean.
Watershed
The river has a watershed of and a mean discharge of per second. The river is long to the Muskox Lake outlet, though the river continues further upstream to its source.
Like the Coppermine, Hood, Dubawnt or Kazan, which are other large rivers in this part of Canada, it is navigable only by experienced canoeists because of the numerous and challenging 83 rapids.
The entire river is above the tree line.
History
The Back River is the historic homeland of the Haningayogmiut (or Hanningajurmiut) Copper Inuit, also referred to as the Ualininmiut by their Caribou Inuit northern neighbours, the Utkusiksalinmiut. The Kaernermiut (also Kainermiut) and the southerly Ahiagmiut of the Copper Inuit also frequented this area. The Back River and Thelon River were also the northern and northeastern edges of the tribal territories of the enemy Yellowknives and Chipewyan to the south.
Its first exploration by Europeans was led by George Back in 1834, as part of an expedition initially mounted to seek the 1829 expedition of Captain John Ross. Back learned of the river from local guides, and throughout his memoir of the expedition he referred to the river as the "Thlew-ee-cho-dezeth", which he translated as "Great Fish River". Later 19th-century explorers habitually referred to the river as "Back's Great Fish River", but gradually this was shortened to "Back River" over time.
On abandoning their ships to the ice, the remaining members of Sir John Franklin's 1845 expedition to map a Northwest Passage set out for the Back River but did not survive. In search of them, James Anderson and James Stewart of the Hudson's Bay Company descended the river in 1855 to Chantrey Bay and Montreal Island.
After a hiatus of slightly over 100 years, it was again descended in 1962 by two groups. One was a British group of four young men and the other was a group of four young Americans. The British group was led by Robert Cundy, who wrote a book about their descent called Beacon Six, and the Americans were led by Austin Hoyt. The Americans started at the source of the river, Sussex Lake, with two cedar canvas canoes and reached the coast before the British team. Robert Cundy's group started lower down on Beechey Lake and were overtaken by the Americans. The British were paddling three foldup kayaks, one of which was destroyed on the expedition. Both groups filmed the trip and the British film, Beacon Six, was shown on TV by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).