Assiniboine
Assiniboine is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Coordinates
- 49.90°, -100.24°
About Assiniboine
The Assiniboine River ( ə-SIN-ih-boyn; French: Rivière Assiniboine) is a 1,070-kilometre (660 mi) long river that runs through the prairies of Western Canada in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It is a tributary of the Red River. The Assiniboine is a typical meandering river with a single main channel embanked within a flat, shallow valley in some places and a steep valley in others. Its main tributaries are the Qu'Appelle, Souris, Shell River and Whitesand Rivers.
The river takes its name from the Assiniboine, a First Nations peoples of the northern Great Plains. Robert Douglas of the Geographical Names Board of Canada (1933) made several comments as to its origin: "The name commemorates the Assiniboine natives called by La Vérendrye in 1730 'Assiniboils' and by Governor Knight in 1715 of the Hudson's Bay Company 'stone Indians.' Assiniboine is the name of an Indian tribe and is derived from 'assine' a stone and 'bwan' native name of the Sioux, hence Stony Sioux name was possibly given because they used heated stones in cooking their food."
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Assiniboine River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Assiniboine in Depth
Course
The Assiniboine River rises in eastern Saskatchewan east of the community of Kelvington on the upper prairie level above the Manitoba Escarpment. The Assiniboine River flows through three basic zones with different channel characteristics. Upstream of Brandon, the main stem of the river and its most important tributaries flow within a very large valley. The valley was cut by huge glacial melt water flows at the end of the last glaciation. The floor of this spillway valley provides a natural floodplain for the river and the valley provides a significant storage volume making the construction of the Shellmouth Dam north of Russell both technically and economically viable. The major tributaries in this reach are the Qu'Appelle, Shell, and Little Saskatchewan Rivers.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Assiniboine River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Assiniboine: Key Facts
| Length | 1,275 km |
|---|---|
| Average discharge | 45 m³/s |
| Drainage basin | 100,000 km² |
| Mouth | Red River of the North |
| Drainage system | Lake Winnipeg basin |
| Tributaries | Shell River, Little Saskatchewan River, Qu'Appelle River, Souris River, Whitesand River, Cypress River |
Facts from Wikidata Q220503 (CC0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Assiniboine: Quick Answers
- Where is Assiniboine?
- Assiniboine is located in Canada, at 49.8972° N, 100.2412° W.
- Are there dams on the Assiniboine?
- No dam on the Assiniboine is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.