Carrot River
Encyclopedia
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
, and northwestern Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
. The river begins at Waterhen Marsh located south of Kinistino, Saskatchewan
Kinistino, Saskatchewan
- External links :...
and continues through northeast Saskatchewan until it empties into the Saskatchewan River
Saskatchewan River
The Saskatchewan River is a major river in Canada, approximately long, flowing roughly eastward across Saskatchewan and Manitoba to empty into Lake Winnipeg...
north-west of The Pas, Manitoba
The Pas, Manitoba
The Pas is a town in Manitoba, Canada, located in Division No. 21, Manitoba in the Northern Region, some 630 kilometres northwest of the provincial capital, Winnipeg, near the border of Saskatchewan. It is sometimes still called Paskoyac by locals as the first trading post was called Fort Paskoyac...
.
The Carrot River serves as the main watershed for northeastern Saskatchewan as all smaller streams and rivers empty into the Carrot River. This causes major flood problems during the spring run off and rainy seasons around the Town of Carrot River
Carrot River, Saskatchewan
- Entertainment and tourism :Carrot River is home to an acclaimed golf course at Pasquia Park, located six miles south of the town. Tourism is bolstered by the discovery of Big Bert, the remains of a 92-million-year-old crocodile near Pasquia Park on the shores of the Carrot River; these are the...
and Red Earth Indian Reserve. The floods usually strand everyone east of the river with very few ways around the flooded area.
Another Carrot River enters Oxford Lake
Oxford Lake
Oxford Lake is a lake on the Hayes River in Manitoba, Canada. It is vaguely man-shaped, with a 'head' on the east, a 'neck', a northwest-southeast shoulder line and a 'torso' that tapers to a point in the west. The head is about 7 by 5 miles, the neck one mile across and the shoulder line 11...
on the Hayes River
Hayes River
The Hayes River is a river in Northern Region, Manitoba, Canada that flows from Molson Lake to Hudson Bay at York Factory. It was an historically important river in the development of Canada, and is today a Canadian Heritage River and the longest naturally flowing river in Manitoba.-Course:The...
.
History
The Carrot River valley was initially inhabited by CreeCree
The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...
and Saulteaux
Saulteaux
The Saulteaux are a First Nation in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, Canada.-Ethnic classification:The Saulteaux are a branch of the Ojibwe nations. They are sometimes also called Anihšināpē . Saulteaux is a French term meaning "people of the rapids," referring to...
First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
. English fur trader and explorer Henry Kelsey
Henry Kelsey
Henry Kelsey , aka the Boy Kelsey, was an English fur trader, explorer, and sailor who played an important role in establishing the Hudson's Bay Company. Kelsey was born and married in East Greenwich, south-east of central London...
explored the river in the summer of 1691. Louis de la Corne, Chevalier de la Corne
Louis de la Corne, Chevalier de la Corne
Louis de la Corne or Louis Chapt, Chevalier de la Corne was born at Fort Frontenac in what is now Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and began his career in the colonial regular troops as a second ensign in 1722 and was made full ensign five years later.He married in 1728 and began investing heavily in...
and Anthony Henday
Anthony Henday
Anthony Henday was one of the first white men to explore the interior of the Canadian northwest. His explorations were authorized and funded by the Hudson's Bay Company because of their concern with La Vérendrye and the other western commanders who were funnelling fur trade from the northwest to...
also explored the valley during the 1750s.
Fossils and historical finds
During the 1980s the Royal Saskatchewan MuseumRoyal Saskatchewan Museum
The Royal Saskatchewan Museum was established in Regina as the Provincial Museum in 1906 to "secure and preserve natural history specimens and objects of historical and ethnological interest." It was the first museum in Saskatchewan, Canada, and the first provincial museum in the three Prairie...
explored the banks and rock edges of the Carrot River, because a local farmer had been finding numerous fossils in that area. The tests on the found fossils showed them to be approximately 92 million years old. The sites along the Carrot River proved to be some of the wealthiest deposits of fossils and showed deposits from numerous other species including sharks and fish.
The most notable find was in 1991, when the Royal Saskatchewan Museum and the Canadian Museum of Nature
Canadian Museum of Nature
The Canadian Museum of Nature is a natural history museum in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Its collections, which were started by the Geological Survey of Canada in 1856, include all aspects of the intersection of human society and nature, from gardening to gene-splicing...
unearthed the remains of an ancient crocodile. During the next couple of years, using shovels, pick-axes, and explosives, they retrieved a six-meter skeleton of Terminonaris Robustus
Terminonaris
Terminonaris is a genus of extinct crocodilian reptiles that lived in the Late Cretaceous . Its remains are known from North America...
but everyone called it "Big Bert". Big Bert turned out to be very well preserved and the only one of its kind found in Canada. They also found a complete fossil of xiphactinus
Xiphactinus
Xiphactinus was a large, 4.5 to 6 m long predatory bony fish that lived in the Western Interior Sea, over what is now the middle of North America, during the Late Cretaceous. When alive, the fish would have resembled a gargantuan, fanged tarpon...
and toothed birds.
Fish Species
The fishFish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
species include walleye
Walleye
Walleye is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the northern United States. It is a North American close relative of the European pikeperch...
, yellow perch
Yellow perch
The yellow perch is a species of perch found in the United States and Canada, where it is often referred to by the shortform perch. Yellow perch look similar to the European perch, but are paler and more yellowish, with less red in the fins. They have six to eight dark, vertical bars on their sides...
, northern pike
Northern Pike
The northern pike , is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus Esox...
, burbot
Burbot
The burbot is the only gadiform fish inhabiting freshwaters. It is also known as mariah, the lawyer, and eelpout. It is closely related to the marine common ling and the cusk...
and white sucker
White Sucker
The White Sucker is a bottom-feeding freshwater fish inhabiting North America from Labrador in the north to Georgia and New Mexico in the south. It is a long, round-bodied fish with a dark green, grey, copper, brown, or black back and sides and a light underbelly. When fullgrown, it is between 12...
.