Athabasca, Alta, Town, pop 2575 (2006c), 2415 (2001c), inc 1911. Athabasca is located on the ATHABASCA RIVER, 150 km north of EDMONTON. It was known until 1904 as ATHABASCA LANDING. A major freighting departure point for the North, the Landing reached its zenith during the Klondike era and was incorporated as a town in 1911, changing its name to Athabasca in 1913. However, when the Canadian National Railway reached Athabasca in 1912, and with the completion of the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway and the Edmonton Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway in 1919, the town's importance as a transportation hub waned. It became a local agricultural service centre, and is today the home of ATHABASCA UNIVERSITY, Canada's "open university" . The world's largest and technologically most sophisticated bleached kraft pulp mill is also located nearby.