The English River is a river in

Kenora District Kenora District is a district and census division in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. The district seat is the City of Kenora. It is geographically the largest division in Ontario: at , it covers 38 percent of the province's area, making it larger ...

and Thunder Bay District in

Northwestern Ontario Northwestern Ontario is a secondary region of Northern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario which lies north and west of Lake Superior and west of Hudson Bay and James Bay. It includes most of subarctic Ontario. Its western boundary is the ...

, Canada. It flows through Lac Seul to join the Winnipeg River at Tetu Lake as a right tributary. Shows the course of the river on a topographic map. The river is in the

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

, is long and has a drainage basin of . Although there are several

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

plants on this river, the English River upstream of Minnitaki Lake is notable as one of the few large river systems in northwestern Ontario with a natural flow and without any upstream source of pollution. It is the fourth longest river entirely in Ontario. There is also a settlement on the river called English River, located where Highway 17 crosses the river at its confluence with the Scotch River, along with a nearby railway point of the same name, constructed as part of the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canad ...

transcontinental Transcontinental may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Transcontinental", a song by the band Pedro the Lion from the album ''Achilles Heel'' * TC Transcontinental, a publishing, media and marketing company based in Canada, a subsidiary o ...

main line.

Geography

The English River forms in Thunder Bay District, just east of English River settlement on the boundary with

. Flowing north straddling the district boundary until Mattawa Lake, it continues northwest through Minnitaki Lake and passes Sioux Lookout, the largest town along its course. Through Lac Seul, it flows to its mouth at Tetu Lake on the Winnipeg River, which flows via the

Nelson River The Nelson River is a river of north-central North America, in the Canadian province of Manitoba. The river drains Lake Winnipeg and runs before it ends in Hudson Bay. Its full length (including the Saskatchewan River and Bow River) is , i ...

to Hudson Bay. It flows through numerous lakes during its course. 2 non-contiguous segments of the river are protected in 2 separate provincial parks: the

East English River Provincial Park The East English River Provincial Park is a linear waterway park in Kenora District, Ontario, Canada. It includes a wide strip of land on both sides of the English River and its lakes, from the intersection of Highway 599 to Minnitaki Lake ...

and West English River Provincial Park.

Tributaries

* Vermilion River *

Wabigoon River The Wabigoon River is a river in Kenora District in northwestern Ontario, Canada. It flows from Raleigh Lake past Dryden, Ontario on Wabigoon Lake to join the English River. The name "Wabigoon" comes from the Ojibwe ''waabigon'', "marigold", o ...

Settlements

Settlements along its course are (in upstream order): *

Caribou Falls Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subsp ...

Ear Falls Ear Falls is a township located in Northwestern Ontario, Canada, on the banks of the English River, Lac Seul, Pakwash Lake and Wenesaga Lake. It is located along Highway 105, north of Highway 17 and Vermilion Bay, about halfway between Hig ...

*Kejick Bay / Lac Seul First Nation * Sioux Lookout * English River

Fauna

The English River is considered as one of the best fisheries in Ontario. Notable trophy 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 ...

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

, smallmouth bass, and muskellunge. At least 21 fish species have been identified, including

sauger The sauger (''Sander canadensis'') is a freshwater perciform fish of the family Percidae that resembles its close relative, the walleye. The species is a member of the largest vertebrate order, the Perciformes.Jaeger, Matthew. 2004. Montana's ...

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 ...

rock bass The rock bass (''Ambloplites rupestris''), also known as the rock perch, goggle-eye, red eye, and black perch, is a freshwater fish native to east-central North America. This red eyed creature is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish ...

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, ...

, lake whitefish, and mooneye.

Hydroelectricity

There are 4 hydro-electric generating stations on the English River, owned and operated by

Ontario Power Generation Ontario Power Generation Inc. (OPG) is a Crown corporation and "government business enterprise" that is responsible for approximately half of the electricity generation in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is wholly owned by the government ...

References

Sources

* * * {{refend Rivers of Kenora District Tributaries of Hudson Bay