Becharof Lake
Lake in the state of Alaska, United States
Becharof Lake | |
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Location | Lake and Peninsula Borough, Alaska |
Coordinates | 57°57′08″N 156°22′36″W / 57.95222°N 156.37667°W / 57.95222; -156.37667 [1] |
Basin countries | United States |
Max. length | 37 mi (60 km) [1] |
Surface area | 453 sq mi (1,170 km 2 ) [2] |
Surface elevation | 13 ft (4.0 m) [1] |
References | [1] [2] |
Becharof Lake is a 37-mile (60 km) long lake on the Alaska Peninsula . It is located 23 miles (37 km) south-east of Egegik , in the Aleutian Range . It is the second largest lake in Alaska after Iliamna Lake . It ranks eighth on list of largest lakes of the United States by volume and fourteenth on list of largest lakes of the United States by area . [2]
History
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/Becharof_Refuge_Lake.jpg/220px-Becharof_Refuge_Lake.jpg)
Russian navigator Dmitry Bocharov of the Imperial Russian Navy explored at Kodiak, Alaska , in 1788, and returned to Alaska in 1791. In late spring 1791, Alexander Andreyevich Baranov , chief manager of the Shelikhov-Golikov Company in Russian America , ordered Bocharov to explore the northwest shore of the Alaska Peninsula . His orders directed him to seek a portage across the peninsula near Kodiak. Twenty to thirty men crewed two 30-foot (9.1 m) walrus-skin-covered open boats under his command. They sailed and paddled from Unalaska Island along the northwest shore of the Alaska Peninsula as far as Bristol Bay via Egegik Bay . In search of a portage, he traveled up the Egegik River into a large inland lake. This lake now bears his name with an Americanized spelling: Becharof Lake. He probed the lake to its most eastern extent in the summer of 1791. After making a portage from the easternmost point of the lake to the North Pacific Ocean, he returned to Kodiak and reported his findings to Baranov. [3] [4]
The Russian Hydrological Department published the name "Oz(ero) Ugashek" on Chart 1455 in 1852. [1]
The Alaska Purchase of 1867 transferred the territory from the Russian Empire to the United States of America. Naturalist William Healey Dall of the Smithsonian Institution , later Acting Assistant to the United States Coast Survey , named the lake in 1868.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Becharof Lake
- 1 2 3 "Profile of the People and Land of the United States" . US Department of Interior , National Atlas of the United States . Archived from the original on 2012-09-15.
- ↑ Black, Lydia T. (2004). Russians in Alaska: 1732–1867 . University of Alaska Press. p. 113. ISBN 1889963054 .
- ↑ Chevigny, Hector (1942). Lord of Alaska – The Story of Baranov and the Russian Adventure . Portland OR: Binfords & Mort. p. 46. ASIN B00EYBFJG6 .
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