Auriat Island is a small island within
Cree Lake
Cree Lake is a large glacial lake in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The lake is the fourth largest in the province and is located west of Reindeer Lake and south of Lake Athabasca in the Mackenzie River drainage basin. Cree Lake is th ...
in the
northern part of 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 ...
of
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 ...
. The island is named after Jean Auriat who was a Canadian soldier in the
North Shore New Brunswick Regiment during World War II. He was killed in action by shrapnel on 7 June 1944 while attacking a German radar station in
Douvres, France.
Geography
Auriat Island is an island in an
archipelago
An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...
on Cree Lake, which is in the Athabasca Plain ecoregion. The island is very rugged and the soil is not arable due to
permafrost
Permafrost () is soil or underwater sediment which continuously remains below for two years or more; the oldest permafrost has been continuously frozen for around 700,000 years. Whilst the shallowest permafrost has a vertical extent of below ...
underneath the soil. Cree Lake freezes over during the winters. Summers are short and mildly warm.
Name
Auriat Island is named after Jean Auriat, a Canadian soldier killed during World War II. The Auriat family operated a farm in
Saint-Front, Saskatchewan. During World War II, four Auriats joined the military. On 6 June 1944, Jean and Maurice Auriat landed on
Juno Beach
Juno and or Juno Beach was one of five beaches of the Allies (World War II), Allied invasion of German occupation of France during World War II, German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 during the World War II, Second Wo ...
with fellow Canadians. The following day, their regiment launched an attack on the a German radar station in Douvres, Normandy. Jean was hit with shrapnel, and Maurice used his entire medical kit, however, he was ordered to advance, leaving Jean behind.
Jean is buried in the Douvres war cemetery with ten other Canadians. Maurice was wounded the same day. The rest of the family survived the war. Following the war, the Canadian government offered a program to honour veterans of the war by naming landmarks. The family filed a request and Auriat Island was named.
See also
*
List of islands of Saskatchewan
This is an incomplete list of islands of Canada.
Arctic islands
Islands and island groups in the Arctic Archipelago include (all islands in Nunavut unless noted): Queen Elizabeth Islands
The Queen Elizabeth Islands consist of:
* Adams Island
*A ...
*
Recursive islands and lakes
A recursive island or lake, also known as a nested island or lake, is an island or a lake that lies within a lake or an island.
For the purposes of defining recursion, small continental land masses such as Madagascar and New Zealand count as isla ...
References
{{Authority control
Uninhabited islands of Saskatchewan
Lake islands of Saskatchewan