Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan 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
- 53.88°, -102.12°
About Saskatchewan
The Saskatchewan River (Cree: kisiskāciwani-sīpiy ᑭᓯᐢᑳᒋᐊᐧᓂ ᓰᐱᕀ, "swift flowing river") is a major river in Canada. It stretches about 550 kilometres (340 mi) from where it is formed by the joining of the North Saskatchewan River and South Saskatchewan River just east of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. It flows roughly eastward across Saskatchewan and Manitoba to empty into Lake Winnipeg. Through its tributaries the North Saskatchewan and South Saskatchewan, its watershed encompasses much of the prairie regions of Canada, stretching westward to the Rocky Mountains in Alberta and north-western Montana in the United States.
Including its tributaries, it reaches 1,939 kilometres (1,205 mi) to its farthest headwaters on the Bow River, a tributary of the South Saskatchewan in Alberta.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Saskatchewan River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Saskatchewan in Depth
History
The river, labelled as the "Kish-stock-ewen" is identified on a Hudson's Bay Company map of 1760, produced from oral information from a First Nations man named Attickasish who had been Anthony Henday's guide. Another map from 1774 shows a fairly accurate course of the river.
The Saskatchewan River and its two major tributaries formed an important transportation route during the precontact, fur trade, and early settlement periods in the Canadian West. In early fur trading days the South Saskatchewan tributary was known as "La Fourche des Gros Ventres" ("Fork of the Great Gorges") and the North Saskatchewan was known as "Rivière du Pas".
First Nations inhabiting the area of the rivers included at one time or another the Atsina, Cree, Saulteaux, Blackfoot Confederacy, Assiniboine, and Sioux.
Description
It is formed in central Saskatchewan, approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) east of Prince Albert, by the confluence of its two major branches, the North Saskatchewan and the South Saskatchewan, at the Saskatchewan River Forks. Both source rivers originate from glaciers in the Alberta Rockies. The St. Mary River, draining the Hudson Bay Divide region of Glacier National Park (U.S.), also empties into the Saskatchewan River via the south fork.
The combined stream flows east-northeast, into Codette Lake formed by the Francois Finlay Dam at Nipawin then into Tobin Lake, formed by the E.B. Campbell Dam. It then flows northeast, passing through a region of marshes, where it is joined from the northwest by the Torch River and the Mossy River.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Saskatchewan River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Saskatchewan: Key Facts
| Length | 547 km |
|---|---|
| Average discharge | 700 m³/s |
| Drainage basin | 335,900 km² |
| Source | South Saskatchewan River |
| Mouth | Lake Winnipeg |
| Drainage system | Lake Winnipeg basin |
| Tributaries | Sturgeon-weir River, Carrot River, Whitefish River, Pasquia River, Torch River |
Facts from Wikidata Q3047 (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
Saskatchewan: Quick Answers
- Where is Saskatchewan?
- Saskatchewan is located in Canada, at 53.8830° N, 102.1243° W.
- Are there dams on the Saskatchewan?
- No dam on the Saskatchewan is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.