Arm River is a river in the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

. It is located in the south central part of the province in a region called the

Prairie Pothole Region The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) is an expansive area of the northern Great Plains that contains thousands of shallow wetlands known as potholes. These potholes are the result of glacier activity in the Wisconsin glaciation The Wisconsin gl ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, which extends throughout three Canadian provinces and five

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

s. It is also within

Palliser's Triangle Palliser's Triangle (), or the Palliser Triangle, is a semi-arid steppe occupying a substantial portion of the Western Canadian Canadian Prairies, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba, within the Great Plains region. While initially determined to be ...

and the

Great Plains ecoregion The ecology of the Great Plains is diverse, largely owing to their great size. Differences in rainfall, elevation, and latitude create a variety of habitats including short-grass prairie, short grass, mixed-grass prairie, mixed grass, and tall-gras ...

. The river is a main tributary of

Last Mountain Lake Last Mountain Lake, also known as Long Lake, is a prairie lake formed from Last Glacial Period, glaciation 11,000 years ago. It is located in south central Saskatchewan, Canada, about north-west of the city of Regina, Saskatchewan, Regina. I ...

and is part of the Last Mountain Lake Sub-basin of the Upper Qu'Appelle Watershed. Last Mountain Creek drains Last Mountain Lake into the Qu'Appelle River near Craven.

River's course

The Arm River starts in the south-east corner of the

Allan Hills The Allan Hills () are a group of hills, mainly ice free and about long, lying just north-west of the Coombs Hills near the heads of Mawson Glacier and Mackay Glacier in the Oates Land and Victoria Land regions of Antarctica. Exploration and n ...

in the RM of McCraney, near Horseshoe Lake. From there it heads south through a

coulee Coulee, or coulée ( or ), is any of various different landforms, all of which are kinds of valleys or drainage zones. The word ''coulee'' comes from the Canadian French ''coulée'', from French ''couler'' 'to flow'. The term is often used ...

into Vanzance Lake and then onto Arm Lake, near Craik and Highway 11. From Arm Lake, it parallels Highway 11 in a south-east direction through a valley that was formed during the last ice age over 11,000 years ago. Near Bethune, Arm River heads east and empties into Last Mountain Lake at Little Arm Bay.

Indian reserve In Canada, an Indian reserve () or First Nations reserve () is defined by the '' Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." ...

is located on both sides of the bay and

Regina Beach Regina Beach is a town in south central Saskatchewan, located on Highway 54, close to where Highway 11 (which connects Saskatoon to Regina) intersects with the Qu'Appelle Valley. As Regina Beach rests on shores of the south end of Last Mount ...

is located to the east of the reserve and bay. Directly across the lake from the bay is Pelican Point, which is where the community of Pelican Pointe is located.

Arm Lake

Arm Lake (), also known as Craik Reservoir, is a four-mile long, man-made lake, along the course of Arm River. Arm Lake Dam (also known as Craik Dam) is about north-east of Craik. At the southern end of the lake, by the dam, is a 26-acre

regional park A regional park is an area of land preserved on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, recreational use or other reason, and under the administration of a form of local government. Definition A regional park can be a special park distr ...

called Craik and District Regional Park. Along the west side of the park, at the west side of the dam, is Craik and District Golf Course. The original dam across the river was built about north of the current dam by the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

(CNR) in the early 1900s to supply water for the

trains A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

. By the 1950s, the dam had fallen into disrepair and held very little water. Between 1962 and 1963, the

Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) was a branch under Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), a department of the Federal Government of Canada. The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration was established by an Act of Parliam ...

built a new dam. It was turned over to the RM of Craik No. 222 in 1964.

Arm River Recreation Site

Arm River Recreation Site () is a picnic site in the Arm River Valley along Highway 2. It is located at a bend in the river about halfway between Chamberlain and Findlater in the RM of Sarnia No. 221. The picnic area is a day-use site with washrooms, picnic tables, parking, and access to Arm River for fishing.

References

{{Authority control Rivers of Saskatchewan Tributaries of Hudson Bay Division No. 6, Saskatchewan Tributaries of the Assiniboine River

River's course

Arm Lake

Arm River Recreation Site

See also

References