The Clearwater River is located in the Canadian provinces of

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

and

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

. It rises in the northern forest region of north-western Saskatchewan and joins the

Athabasca River The Athabasca River (French: ''Rivière Athabasca'') is a river in Alberta, Canada, which originates at the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park and flows more than before emptying into Lake Athabasca. Much of the land along its banks is ...

in north-eastern Alberta. It was part of an important trade route during the fur trade era and has been designated as a

Canadian Heritage River The Canadian Heritage Rivers System (CHRS; french: Le réseau de rivières du patrimoine canadien) is a joint program administered by the federal, provincial and territorial governments to conserve and protect the best examples of Canada's river her ...

Course

The Clearwater River has a total length of . It flows south-eastward from its

headwaters The headwaters of a river or stream is the farthest place in that river or stream from its estuary or downstream confluence with another river, as measured along the course of the river. It is also known as a river's source. Definition The ...

at Broach Lake and turns to the south-west from Careen Lake to the Alberta / Saskatchewan border. From there it flows westward for a distance of to join the

Fort McMurray Fort McMurray ( ) is an urban service area in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in Alberta, Canada. It is located in northeast Alberta, in the middle of the Athabasca oil sands, surrounded by boreal forest. It has played a significan ...

. The section of the river in Fort McMurray is affectionately referred to as ''the Chant''. From Broach Lake at an elevation of above sea level, the Clearwater drops about to the confluence at Fort McMurray. Its waters eventually reach the Arctic Ocean via the Athabasca and Mackenzie Rivers. Tributaries of the Clearwater River include Descharme River and McLean River in Saskatchewan and the

Christina River The Christina River is a tributary of the Delaware River, approximately 35 miles (56 km) long, in northern Delaware in the United States, also flowing through small areas of southeastern Pennsylvania and northeastern Maryland. Near i ...

in Alberta.

Geology

In its upper reaches, the Clearwater River flows over the Precambrian rocks of the Canadian Shield. That section of the river is rough, characterized by rapids, small waterfalls, and a gorge. The river leaves the Shield near the Alberta border and enters the

Interior Plains The Interior Plains is a vast physiographic region that spreads across the Laurentian craton of central North America, extending along the east flank of the Rocky Mountains from the Gulf Coast region to the Arctic Beaufort Sea. In Canada, it en ...

where it becomes

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex ba ...

ing, with numerous sand bars and small islands. There it is flanked by

outcrop An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. Features Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficia ...

s of the Devonian

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

dolomite Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...

, and shales of the

La Loche La Loche () is a village in northwest Saskatchewan. It is located at the end of Highway 155 on the eastern shore of Lac La Loche in Canada's boreal forest. La Loche had a population of 2,827 in 2016 and is within the Northern Saskatchewan Admini ...

, Contact Rapids, Keg River, and Waterways Formations, as well as the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

oil sands Oil sands, tar sands, crude bitumen, or bituminous sands, are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. Oil sands are either loose sands or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, and wate ...

of the

McMurray Formation The McMurray Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Early Cretaceous age (late Barremian to Aptian stage) of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in northeastern Alberta. It takes the name from Fort McMurray and was first described from outcrops a ...

. The Clearwater River is an

underfit stream A misfit stream is a river that is either too large or too small to have eroded the valley or cave passage in which it flows. This term is also used for a stream or river with meanders that obviously are not proportional in size to the meanders ...

; that is, its present flow is insufficient to have carved its broad, steep-sided valley. Instead, its morphology may be the result of a catastrophic paleoflood that originated from

Glacial Lake Agassiz Lake Agassiz was a large glacial lake in central North America. Fed by glacial meltwater at the end of the last glacial period, its area was larger than all of the modern Great Lakes combined. First postulated in 1823 by William H. Keating, i ...

during late

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

time and flowed through the Clearwater and Athabasca river valleys on its way to the Arctic Ocean.Smith, D.G. and Fisher, T.G. 1993
Glacial Lake Agassiz: The northwestern outlet and paleoflood
Geology, vol. 21, p. 9-12. The channel cut by that flood is known as the Clearwater Spillway. There are several salt springs and saline marshes that discharge into the Clearwater River in northeastern Alberta. The water, which comes from the underlying Devonian rock formations, is

effervescent Effervescence is the escape of gas from an aqueous solution and the foaming or fizzing that results from that release. The word effervescence is derived from the Latin verb ''fervere'' (to boil), preceded by the adverb ''ex''. It has the same lin ...

in places and smells of sulfur.

History

Franklin map fur route 3751971809 c0c67ca7d3 o huge map (2)

Rock-paintings along the upper portion of the river, shapes and symbols on rock surfaces, suggest that the area was already inhabited 5,000 years ago. Before the European colonisation, native groups of Beaver,

Chipewyan The Chipewyan ( , also called ''Denésoliné'' or ''Dënesųłı̨né'' or ''Dënë Sųłınë́'', meaning "the original/real people") are a Dene Indigenous Canadian people of the Athabaskan language family, whose ancestors are identified ...

, and Cree people lived in the Clearwater River area. During European exploration and the fur trade of the 18th century, the lower Clearwater River was part of an important canoe route between Hudson Bay and

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

in the east, and the

District of Athabasca The District of Athabasca was a regional administrative district of Canada's Northwest Territories. It was formed in 1882, was later enlarged, and then abolished with the creation of the provinces of Saskatchewan (its central-eastern part) and ...

in the west. The rough Precambrian upper portion of the Clearwater River was a barrier to the traders until 1778, when explorer

Peter Pond Peter Pond (January 18, 1739 – 1807) was an American explorer, cartographer, merchant and soldier who was a founding member of the North West Company and the Beaver Club. Though he was born and died in Milford, Connecticut, most of his life ...

crossed the

Methye Portage The Methye Portage or Portage La Loche in northwestern Saskatchewan was one of the most important portages in the old fur trade route across Canada. The portage connected the Mackenzie River basin to rivers that ran east to the Atlantic. It wa ...

to bypass it. Methye Portage extended between Lac La Loche and the Clearwater River, forming a overland link on the route from Churchill, Manitoba to Athabasca, Alberta. For almost 40 years, this was the only overland connection for the fur trade in the region, and it continued in use for most of the 19th century.

Fish species

The river's fish species include:

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the yellow pike or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relat ...

yellow perch The yellow perch (''Perca flavescens''), commonly referred to as perch, striped perch, American perch, American river perch or preacher is a freshwater perciform fish native to much of North America. The yellow perch was described in 1814 by Sam ...

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus ''Esox'' (the pikes). They are typical of brackish and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). They are known simply as a p ...

lake trout The lake trout (''Salvelinus namaycush'') is a freshwater char living mainly in lakes in northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, namaycush, lake char (or charr), touladi, togue, and grey trout. In Lake Superior, it can also ...

Arctic grayling The Arctic grayling (''Thymallus arcticus'') is a species of freshwater fish in the salmon family Salmonidae. ''T. arcticus'' is widespread throughout the Arctic and Pacific drainages in Canada, Alaska, and Siberia, as well as the upper Mis ...

lake whitefish The lake whitefish (''Coregonus clupeaformis'') is a species of freshwater whitefish from North America. Lake whitefish are found throughout much of Canada and parts of the northern United States, including all of the Great Lakes. The lake white ...

cisco Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...

white sucker The white sucker (''Catostomus commersonii)'' is a species of freshwater cypriniform fish inhabiting the upper Midwest and Northeast in North America, but it is also found as far south as Georgia and as far west as New Mexico. The fish is common ...

longnose sucker The longnose sucker (''Catostomus catostomus'') is a species of cypriniform freshwater fish in the family Catostomidae. It is native to North America from the northern United States to the top of the continent. It is also found in Russia in ri ...

and

burbot The burbot (''Lota lota'') is the only gadiform (cod-like) freshwater fish. It is also known as bubbot, mariah, loche, cusk, freshwater cod, freshwater ling, freshwater cusk, the lawyer, coney-fish, lingcod, and eelpout. The species is closel ...

Conservation

Provincial park

The province of Saskatchewan has established the

Clearwater River Provincial Park Clearwater River Provincial Park is a Canadian wilderness park in the boreal forest of northern Saskatchewan. The park begins at the south end of Lloyd Lake on the Clearwater River and includes territory on both sides of the river until it r ...

, encompassing an area of 865 mi²; or 2240 km², to protect the river's environment.Saskatchewan Parks
- Clearwater River Park

Canadian Heritage Rivers System

The Saskatchewan section was granted

status because of its "unspoiled, clear-water river in a pristine" isolated "wilderness setting of spectacular beauty".

Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program (RAMP)

The Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program (RAMP) uses the Clearwater River as a "baseline river system" to provide "information on the variability and characteristics of natural systems". Although natural outcrops of McMurray Formation oil sands are present along the river, the "lack of significant oil sands developments" within its watershed allows it to be used as a baseline.

References

External links

Map of the river's course
from Canadian Heritage Rivers System
Fish Species of Saskatchewan

Clearwater River Provincial Park
{{authority control Rivers of Alberta Rivers of Saskatchewan Canadian Heritage Rivers