Cree Lake is a large

glacial lake A glacial lake is a body of water with origins from glacier activity. They are formed when a glacier erodes the land and then melts, filling the depression created by the glacier. Formation Near the end of the last glacial period, roughly 10,0 ...

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 is the fourth largest in the province and is located west of Reindeer Lake and south of

Lake Athabasca Lake Athabasca ( ; French: ''lac Athabasca''; from Woods Cree: , " herethere are plants one after another") is in the north-west corner of Saskatchewan and the north-east corner of Alberta between 58° and 60° N in Canada. The lake is ...

in the

Mackenzie River The Mackenzie River (French: ; Slavey language, Slavey: ' èh tʃʰò literally ''big river''; Inuvialuktun: ' uːkpɑk literally ''great river'') is a river in the Canadian Canadian boreal forest, boreal forest and tundra. It forms, ...

drainage basin. Cree Lake is the remnant of a large

proglacial lake In geology, a proglacial lake is a lake formed either by the damming action of a moraine during the retreat of a melting glacier, a glacial ice dam, or by meltwater trapped against an ice sheet due to isostatic depression of the crust around t ...

that flowed south into the Churchill River during the last ice age. Cree Lake has no highway access.

Floatplane A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, ...

s are the means used to access the lodges and amenities on the lake.

Description

Cree Lake is in the

Canadian Shield The Canadian Shield ( ), also called the Laurentian Shield or the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), th ...

in Saskatchewan's Northern Administration District. Covering an area of , it is Saskatchewan's fourth largest lake. It spans a length of , a width of , and has a depth of about . The lake has many islands and a jagged shoreline that measures about long. Several rivers feed the lake with the larger ones being Brustad River, Karras River, and Routledge River. Cree River, the lake's outflow, flows out at the northern end and heads north into Black Lake, which is connected to

via the Fond du Lac River. The whole system is part of the

drainage basin. South of Cree Lake is a

portage Portage or portaging ( CA: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a '' ...

that connects it to the Mudjatik River, which is a tributary of the Churchill River. The Churchill River flows east into the

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay, sometimes called Hudson's Bay (usually historically), is a large body of Saline water, saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of . It is located north of Ontario, west of Quebec, northeast of Manitoba, and southeast o ...

Proglacial lake

Cree Lake is the remnant of a much larger

. The proglacial lake was formed by the meltwaters of retreating continental glaciers during the last ice age about 8,700 years ago. This proglacial lake flowed south into the Churchill River drainage basin via glacial spillways. After the retreat of the glaciers,

isostatic rebound Post-glacial rebound (also called isostatic rebound or crustal rebound) is the rise of land masses after the removal of the huge weight of ice sheets during the last glacial period, which had caused isostatic depression. Post-glacial rebound ...

redirected Cree Lake's outflow to the north. The lake's current elevation is above sea level while that proglacial lake reached a height of .

Cree Lake settlements

Cree Lake is in the traditional territory of the

Dene The Dene people () are an Indigenous group of First Nations who inhabit the northern boreal, subarctic and Arctic regions of Canada. The Dene speak Northern Athabaskan languages and it is the common Athabaskan word for "people". The term ...

and the English River Dene Nation, which is based in

Patuanak Patuanak ()is a community in northern Saskatchewan, Canada. It is the administrative headquarters of the Dene First Nations reserve near Churchill River and the north end of Lac Île-à-la-Crosse. In Dene, it sounds similar to ''Boni Cheri'' (B� ...

. There are three

Indian reserve In Canada, an Indian reserve () or First Nations reserve () is defined by the '' Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." ...

s on the lake; Cree Lake 192G and Cable Bay 192M are at the south-west corner and Barkwell Bay 192I is at the northern end on Barkwell Bay. A Dene settlement with an airport was located on the south-west shore of the lake (). It may have been the location of a

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

trading post from 1891 to 1902. In 1971 there were 36 residents (22 were First Nations). Another settlement was located at the north-east end of the lake near the Cree River outflow. In the 1960s it had an airport, a small log church and numerous houses (). A fish plant on Turner Island was built in 1957 by Waite Fisheries. Other locations on Cree Lake with populations in the 1970s were the Cree Lake Weather Station in the south-west at the entrance to Cable Bay and an airfield (with 10 people) there operated by the Canadian Government. On Turner Island, there was the Cree Lake DNS Radio Station (Department of Northern Saskatchewan) with 10 people and a camp at the north-end with 15 people.

Recreation and amenities

Crystal Lodge is a fly-in fishing lodge on Ispatinow Island in Cree Lake. The lodge has cabins, walled tents, a firepit area, and 16 or 18-foot aluminum boats for guests. Access to the lodge is from Cree Lake/Crystal Lodge (Midgett Field) Aerodrome and Cree Lake (Crystal Lodge) Water Aerodrome. At the northern end of the lake, at the southern tip of Rushmer Peninsula, is another fly-in lodge called Cree Lake Lodge. It has guided fishing tours and bear hunts.

Fish species

Fish species 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

lake trout The lake trout (''Salvelinus namaycush'') is a freshwater Salvelinus, char living mainly in lakes in Northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, namaycush, lake char (or charr), touladi, togue, laker, and grey trout. In Lake Sup ...

lake whitefish The lake whitefish (''Coregonus clupeaformis'') is a species of freshwater whitefish from North America. Lake whitefish are found throughout much of Canada and parts of the northern United States, including all of the Great Lakes. The lake white ...

cisco Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, s ...

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 ...

Arctic grayling The Arctic grayling (''Thymallus arcticus'') is a species of freshwater fish in the salmon family Salmonidae. ''T. arcticus'' is widespread throughout the Arctic and Pacific drainages in Canada, Alaska, and Siberia, as well as the upper Missou ...

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 ...

, and

longnose sucker The longnose sucker (''Catostomus catostomus'') is a species of cypriniform freshwater fish in the family Catostomidae. It is native to North America from the northern United States to the top of the continent. It is also found in Russia in riv ...

GeoMemorial Commemorative Naming Program

The GeoMemorial Commemorative Naming Program is a program that names geographical features in honour of those who lost their lives in the service of Canada. Many islands in Cree Lake have been name through this program: *Pelletier Island — named after John Pelletier * Turner Island — named after Alfred Gordon Turner *Rogers Island — named after Sidney John Rogers *Long Island — named after Lindsay Lester Long *Keeping Island — named after John Ross Keeping * Fleming Island — named after Kenneth Gordon Fleming * Johns Island — named after Irving Lawrence Johns *Morrison Island — named after Earl Wellington Morrison *Dixon Island — named after Garth Lavain Dixon *Currie Island — Arthur Archibald Currie *Davies Island — named after Leonard Owen Davies *Dahl Island — named after William Earl Dahl *Davidson Island — named after Marvin Davidson * Auriat Island — named after Jean Marie Joseph Auriat

References

External links

Crystal LodgeCree Lake Lodge
{{Authority control Lakes of Saskatchewan Hudson's Bay Company trading posts