The Cascade River is a medium-sized river in southwestern

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 ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

. It originates in the

Canadian Rockies The Canadian Rockies (french: Rocheuses canadiennes) or Canadian Rocky Mountains, comprising both the Alberta Rockies and the British Columbian Rockies, is the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains. It is the easternmost par ...

, flows through

Lake Minnewanka Lake Minnewanka () ("Water of the Spirits" in Nakoda) is a glacial lake located in the eastern area of Banff National Park in Canada, about northeast of the Banff townsite. The lake is long and deep, making it the 2nd longest lake in the mount ...

, and in turn, joins the

Bow River The Bow River is a river in Alberta, Canada. It begins within the Canadian Rocky Mountains and winds through the Alberta foothills onto the prairies, where it meets the Oldman River, the two then forming the South Saskatchewan River. These ...

. The Cascade River is formed from the glacial melt of Flints and Bonnet Peaks, as well as Block Mountain. Glacial lakes that drain into the Cascade include Goat Lake, Sawback Lake, Elk Lake, and Cuthead Lake. The river also takes on Stoney Creek before entering the dramatic Stewart Canyon, then draining into Lake Minnewanka. Prior to the Cascade Hydro Electric Development completion in 1942 the river exited the lake near the current day use area a flowed past the former town of Bankhead though what is now known as the Cascade Ponds. However currently the old river channel functions only as a spillway during flood events and most of the rivers water is diverted through a canal and penstock to the Cascade Powerhouse next to

Highway 1 The following highways are numbered 1. For roads numbered A1, see list of A1 roads. For roads numbered B1, see list of B1 roads. For roads numbered M1, see List of M1 roads. For roads numbered N1, see list of N1 roads. For roads numbered ...

leaving the old river bed dry for most of the year. The Cascade project also included a small diversion dam directing some water from the Ghost River into Lake Minnewanka to increase the flow rate of water though the Cascade Powerhouse. The Cascade River is named after Cascade Mountain. The mountain was named by Sir James Hector, who took the native name which meant "mountain where the water falls" and abbreviated the term to ''Cascade''.Karamitsanis, Aphrodite (1991). ''Place Names of Alberta, Volume 1''. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, pg. 42

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See also