The Blindman River is in

central Alberta Central Alberta is a region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. Central Alberta is the most densely populated rural area in the province. Agriculture and energy are important to the area's economy. Geography Central Alberta is bordered ...

. It forms south of Winfield and flows southeastward before joining the

Red Deer River The Red Deer River is a river in Alberta and a small portion of Saskatchewan, Canada. It is a major tributary of the South Saskatchewan River and is part of the larger Saskatchewan / Nelson River, Nelson system that empties into Hudson Bay. T ...

near

Red Deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or Hart (deer), hart, and a female is called a doe or hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Ir ...

. The Blindman is bridged by

Alberta Highway 20 Highway 20 is a highway in central Alberta, Canada, west of Highway 2. Route description Highway 20 begins Highway 11 and travels north for along the east side of the town of Sylvan Lake to a roundabout with Highway 11A. It continues f ...

a number of times in its upper reaches, before passing near the town of

Rimbey Rimbey is a town in central Alberta, Canada. It is located at the junction of Alberta Highway 20, Highways 20 and Alberta Highway 53, 53 in the Blindman River valley area approximately northwest of Red Deer, Alberta, Red Deer and southwest of ...

. The river then takes on the outflow of Gull Lake. It is bridged by

Alberta Highway 2 Highway 2 (also known as the Queen Elizabeth II Highway) is a major List of Alberta provincial highways, highway in Alberta that stretches from the Canada–United States border through Calgary and Edmonton to Grande Prairie. Running primaril ...

at Red Deer before flowing into the Red Deer River. Blindman River Mouth

There are two competing theories regarding the name of the river. One theory suggests a

Cree The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...

hunting party became snowblind while travelling and had to rest on the river banks until their eyes healed. The hunting party applied the name to the river, which translates as 'He is blind'. The second theory argues that ''Blindman'' is a descriptive term, applied to the river because of its numerous

meanders 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 or river cliff) and deposits sediments on an inn ...

and curves.Tracey Harrison, ''Place Names of Alberta: Volume III, Central Alberta.'' (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1994), page 28. The

Paskapoo Formation The Paskapoo Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Middle to Late Paleocene age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. The Paskapoo underlies much of southwestern Alberta, and takes the name from the Blindman River ( means 'He is blind' in Cr ...

, first described in its banks, takes its name from the Plains Cree name for the Blindman.

Tributaries

*Anderson Creek *Lloyd Creek *Boyd Creek *Potter Creek * Gull Lake

References

Rivers of Alberta {{Alberta-river-stub

Tributaries

See also

References