Codette Lake, which was named after

Métis The Métis ( , , , ) are a mixed-race Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They ha ...

fur trader The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...

Baptiste Codette, is a

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

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 ...

. The lake was impounded in 1986 with the construction of the Francois-Finlay Dam across the

Saskatchewan River The Saskatchewan River (Cree: , "swift flowing river") is a major river in Canada. It stretches about from where it is formed by the joining of the North Saskatchewan River and South Saskatchewan River just east of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan ...

about upstream from the town of

Nipawin Nipawin () is a town in Saskatchewan, Canada, on the Saskatchewan River portion of Tobin Lake. The town lies between Codette Lake, created by the Francois-Finlay Dam (built in 1986) and Tobin Lake, created by the E.B. Campbell Dam built i ...

. The dam is the site of the

Nipawin Hydroelectric Station Nipawin Hydroelectric Station is a hydroelectric station owned by SaskPower in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It is about upstream from the town of Nipawin at the Francois-Finlay Dam. The dam, which was completed in 1986, crosses the ...

. Downstream from Codette Lake is Tobin Lake, which is another man-made lake along the course of the Saskatchewan River. It was created in 1963 with the construction of the E.B. Campbell Dam. The creation of Codette Lake submerged Bushfield Flats, which was an important site for

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

and an historic trading post. The lake's northern shoreline is in the RM of Torch River No. 488 while the southern shore is in the RM of Nipawin No. 487.

Bushfield Flats

The Bushfield Flats, which were submerged under Codette Lake when the dam was built, was an important site for local

Indians Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

and the site of the trading post built by James Finaly and Francois LeBlanc in 1768. The Francois-Finlay Dam was named after the pair. The flats were directly upstream from the current site of the dam on a peninsula that jutted out into the Saskatchewan River. These flats were the original "meeting place" for the town of

's namesake. The flats were named after William Bushfield, a local farmer. Prior to the flooding of the lake in 1986, there were two archaeological digs there. The West Site had a pre-historic

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 ...

encampment while the East Site showed evidence "that the area had been an important Indian stopover for centuries". Bushfield's Landing — a marina located on the lake's southern shore — is near the original site.

Recreation

Wapiti Valley Regional Park straddles the lake near the western end. The park has downhill and

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing whereby skiers traverse snow-covered terrain without use of ski lifts or other assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreational activity; however, some still use it as a m ...

in the winter and camping in the summer. The park is accessed from Highways 6 and

789 __NOTOC__ Year 789 ( DCCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 789 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Eu ...

. About south of Nipawin along

Highway 35 The following highways are numbered 35: The Karakoram Highway (Urdu language, Urdu: شاہراہ قراقرم, ''Śāhirāh-i Qarāquram''), also known as the KKH, National Highway 35 (Urdu language, Urdu: قومی شاہراہ ۳۵), N-35, and ...

is Francois Finlay Hydroelectric Dam Vista Viewpoint. The viewpoint is on a plateau and has views of Codette Lake, the dam and power station, and the

gorge A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tend ...

. On the southern shore of the lake, about west of Codette, is Smit's Campground and Blue Winds Fish n' Tours. Access is from Highway 789.

Fish species

Fish commonly found in Codette Lake include

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', Synonym (taxonomy), synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the walleyed pike, yellow pike, yellow pikeperch or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern ...

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus ''Esox'' (pikes). They are commonly found in brackish water, moderately salty and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). T ...

burbot The burbot (''Lota lota''), also known as bubbot, mariah, loche, cusk, freshwater cod, freshwater ling, freshwater cusk, the lawyer, coney-fish, lingcod, or eelpout, is a species of coldwater ray-finned fish native to the subarctic regions of ...

yellow perch The yellow perch (''Perca flavescens''), commonly referred to as perch, striped perch, American perch or preacher is a freshwater perciform fish native to much of North America. The yellow perch was described in 1814 by Samuel Latham Mitchill fr ...

white sucker The white sucker (''Catostomus commersonii'') is a species of freshwater cypriniform fish inhabiting the upper Midwest and Northeast in North America, but it is also found as far south as Georgia and as far west as New Mexico. The fish is common ...

goldeye The goldeye (''Hiodon alosoides'') is a freshwater fish found in Canada and the northern United States. It is one of only two extant species in the family Hiodontidae, the other species being ''Hiodon tergisus''. The species name ''alosoides' ...

Lake sturgeon The lake sturgeon (''Huso fulvescens''), also known as the rock sturgeon, is a North American temperate freshwater fish, one of 27 species of sturgeon. Like other sturgeons, this species is a bottom feeder and has a partly cartilaginous skele ...

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 ...

, and

white sturgeon White sturgeon (''Sinosturio transmontanus'') is a species of sturgeon in the family Acipenseridae of the order Acipenseriformes. They are an anadromous (migratory) fish species ranging in the Eastern Pacific; from the Gulf of Alaska to Monterey, ...

References

{{Authority control Lakes of Saskatchewan Nipawin No. 487, Saskatchewan Torch River No. 488, Saskatchewan

Bushfield Flats

Recreation

Fish species

See also

References