It flows 100 kilometres (62 mi) from Night Hawk Lake in the city of Timmins to its mouth at the Abitibi River in Cochrane, Unorganized, North Part.

His boats proved defective and he was forced to winter at the junction of the Frederick House and Abitibi rivers.

In January 1812 there was a proposal for the HBC to give up its post on Lake Abitibi in exchange for the Northwest Company's withdrawal from Frederick House.

In 1911 a steam shovel building the Ontario Northland Railway unearthed the remains of the fort and several skeletons were found in shallow graves.

The site is said to have been on Barber's Bay, but the southern part of the Lake was drained when the Frederick House River was diverted.