| Tagish Lake | |
| Pushpin Map: | Canada Yukon |
| Location: | Yukon, British Columbia |
| Coords: | 60°N -149°W |
| Inflow: | Wann River, Swanson River, Fantail River, Tutshi River |
| Catchment: | 2062sqmi |
| Basin Countries: | Canada |
| Length: | 74miles |
| Width: | 2miles |
| Area: | 354.48km2 |
| Depth: | 62m (203feet) |
| Max-Depth: | 307m (1,007feet) |
| Elevation: | 662m (2,172feet) |
Tagish Lake is a lake in Yukon and northern British Columbia, Canada. The lake is 74miles long and averages 2miles wide with an area of 354.48km2, about two thirds of which is in British Columbia.[1] [2] The average depth is 62m (203feet) and maximum depth is 307m (1,007feet).
It has two arms, the Taku Arm in the east which is very long and mostly in British Columbia and Windy Arm in the west, mostly in Yukon. The Klondike Highway runs along Windy Arm south of Carcross. Bennett Lake flows into Tagish Lake, so the northern portion of Tagish Lake was part of the route to the Klondike used by gold-seekers during the Klondike Gold Rush.
On January 18, 2000, a carbonaceous chondrite meteorite now known as "Tagish Lake", fell on the frozen surface of the Taku Arm. A number of fragments were recovered and studied by researchers from the University of Calgary, University of Western Ontario, and NASA; the meteorite currently resides in the University of Alberta meteorite collection.
The lake is named for the Tagish people. Tagish means fish trap in the old Tagish language, an Athabascan language.[3] [4] Other sources translate Tagish as "it (spring ice) is breaking up".[5]
Tagish lies in the path of migratory swans that come every spring to wait out the melting of the more Northern Lakes.
Tagish is also home to the Southern Lakes with trophy fishing.