The Conestogo River is a river in
Waterloo Region
The Regional Municipality of Waterloo (Waterloo Region or Region of Waterloo) is a metropolitan area of Southern Ontario, Canada. It contains the cities of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo (KWC or Tri-Cities), and the townships of North Dumfri ...
and
Wellington County in
Southwestern Ontario
Southwestern Ontario (census population 2,796,367 in 2021) is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula, bounded by Lake Huron (includ ...
, Canada.
The river was named by Mennonite settlers after the
Conestoga River
The Conestoga River (), also referred to as Conestoga Creek (), is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 8, 2011 tributary of the Susquehanna River flowing through t ...
in Pennsylvania. In the 1800s there were several different spellings of the name of the river and of the nearby settlement of
Conestogo, Ontario
Conestogo (pronounced Œkʰɒ̽.nÉ™.ˈsÍ¡tÌ Ë É™ÊŠÌ¯.É¡É™ is a community in the Canada, Canadian province of Ontario, located in the township (Canada), township of Woolwich, Ontario, Woolwich in Waterloo Regional Municipality, Ontario, Waterlo ...
but the name ending in "o" became official.
It is in the
Lake Erie Basin and joins the
Grand River as a right tributary at the community of
Conestogo.
A dam built on the river for flood control formed
Conestogo Lake, which covers an area of about . A conservation area operated by the
Grand River Conservation Authority
The Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) is a conservation authority in Ontario, Canada. It operates under the Conservation Authorities Act of Ontario. It is a corporate body, through which municipalities, landowners and other organizatio ...
is located on this lake.
Natural history
Fish species in the river include
brown trout
The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a species of salmonid ray-finned fish and the most widely distributed species of the genus ''Salmo'', endemic to most of Europe, West Asia and parts of North Africa, and has been widely introduced globally ...
,
pike
Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to:
Fish
* Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus''
* Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes
* ''Esox'', genus of ...
,
smallmouth bass
The smallmouth bass (''Micropterus dolomieu'') is a species of freshwater fish in the Centrarchidae, sunfish family (biology), family (Centrarchidae) of the order (biology), order Centrarchiformes. It is the type species of its genus ''Micropterus ...
,
perch
Perch is a common name for freshwater fish from the genus ''Perca'', which belongs to the family Percidae of the large order Perciformes. The name comes from , meaning the type species of this genus, the European perch (''P. fluviatilis'') ...
,
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 ...
and
carp
The term carp (: carp) is a generic common name for numerous species of freshwater fish from the family (biology), family Cyprinidae, a very large clade of ray-finned fish mostly native to Eurasia. While carp are prized game fish, quarries and a ...
.
See also
*
List of rivers of Ontario
This is the list of rivers which are in and flow through Ontario. The watershed list includes tributaries as well.
Dee River, flows between Three Mile Lake and Lake Rosseau.
List of rivers arranged by watershed Hudson Bay
Atlantic Ocean
...
References
Sources
*
*
*
Rivers of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo
Rivers of Wellington County, Ontario
Tributaries of the Grand River (Ontario)
Wellesley, Ontario
{{Ontario-river-stub