Whiteshell River - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Whiteshell River is one of the major rivers in Whiteshell Provincial Park

Whiteshell Provincial Park

Whiteshell Provincial Park is a 2,729 km2 park centrally located in Canada in the province of Manitoba. It can be found in the southeast of the province along the Manitoba-Ontario border, approximately 130 km east of Winnipeg. The park is located in the Canadian Shield region and has many...

, located in southeastern 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...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, near the Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

border. This river is close to some petroform

Petroform

Petroforms, also known as boulder outlines or boulder mosaics, are human-made shapes and patterns made by lining up large rocks on the open ground, often on quite level areas. Petroforms in North America were originally made by Indigenous Peoples, who used various terms to describe them...

sites that are about 2000 years old or older. The name "whiteshell" is in reference to the Meegis or cowry

Cowry

Cowry, also sometimes spelled cowrie, plural cowries, is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries...

shells used by Ojibwa

Ojibwa

The Ojibwe or Chippewa are among the largest groups of Native Americans–First Nations north of Mexico. They are divided between Canada and the United States. In Canada, they are the third-largest population among First Nations, surpassed only by Cree and Inuit...

peoples in their ceremonies and teachings, especially the Midewiwin

Midewiwin

The Midewiwin or the Grand Medicine Society is a secretive religion of the aboriginal groups of the Maritimes, New England and Great Lakes regions in North America. Its practitioners are called Midew and the practices of Midewiwin referred to as Mide...

, and as recorded in their birch bark scrolls

Birch bark scrolls

Wiigwaasabak are birch bark scrolls, on which the Ojibwa people of North America wrote complex geometrical patterns and shapes. When used specifically for Midewiwin ceremonial use, these scrolls are called mide-wiigwaas...

.

The river was used for thousands of years as a major canoe

Canoe

A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...

route by native

Indigenous peoples

Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....

peoples. The Winnipeg

Winnipeg River

The Winnipeg River is a Canadian river which flows from Lake of the Woods in the province of Ontario to Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba. This river is long from the Norman Dam in Kenora to its mouth at Lake Winnipeg. Its watershed is in area, mainly in Canada. About of this area is in northern...

and Whiteshell Rivers are the only waterways to easily travel between Lake Winnipeg

Lake Winnipeg

Lake Winnipeg is a large, lake in central North America, in the province of Manitoba, Canada, with its southern tip about north of the city of Winnipeg...

and Lake Superior

Lake Superior

Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...

. The copper culture period of about 4000 years ago involved the trade of copper from the north shore of Lake Superior

Lake Superior

to the Whiteshell Provincial Park

Whiteshell Provincial Park

area and other areas now known as Manitoba

Manitoba

and northwestern Ontario

Ontario

. Manitoba also has prehistoric quartz mines to the far north, and evidence of ancient quartz mining also exists along the Winnipeg River area. Quartz, copper, and other minerals were used to make prehistoric arrow heads, tools, scrapers, spears, and artwork.

Whiteshell Provincial Park

Whiteshell Provincial Park

is still a popular area for wild rice harvesting, as it was for thousands of years. Today this river system area is popular for canoeing, hiking, swimming, fishing, boating, and many cottages are located along the lakes and rivers of the park.

The geography and geology of the area consists of Canadian Shield

Canadian Shield

The Canadian Shield, also called the Laurentian Plateau, or Bouclier Canadien , is a vast geological shield covered by a thin layer of soil that forms the nucleus of the North American or Laurentia craton. It is an area mostly composed of igneous rock which relates to its long volcanic history...

granite rock ridges, cliffs, boreal forest, bogs, and only one main road through the park. It is a very wild and pristine area with many deer, bear, wolves, coyotes, bald eagles, fox, cougars, lynx, and other wildlife.

See also