Asessippi Provincial Park is a

provincial park Ischigualasto Provincial Park A provincial park (or territorial park) is a park administered by one of the provinces of a country, as opposed to a national park. They are similar to state parks in other countries. They are typically open to the ...

in the

Rural Municipality of Riding Mountain West The Rural Municipality of Riding Mountain West is a rural municipality (RM) in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It is located in Manitoba's Parkland region, between Riding Mountain National Park near the province's western border with Saska ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It is located near

Inglis, Manitoba Inglis is a local urban district in the Rural Municipality of Riding Mountain West, Manitoba, Canada. Located on Provincial Road 366. approximately east of Highway 83 between Russell and Roblin, Inglis is the closest community to the Asessi ...

, about west of Dauphin, and is in size. A campground on the south shore of the

Shellmouth Reservoir The Shellmouth Reservoir (also known as Lake of the Prairies) is a man-made reservoir on the Assiniboine River in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada. The Shellmouth Dam () is a multi-purpose, embankment dam built by the Prairie Farm Rehabilitatio ...

has serviced and un-serviced sites as well as a group-use area. Asessippi Ski Resort is also in the area. The park is considered to be a Class III protected area under the

IUCN protected area management categories IUCN protected area categories, or IUCN protected area management categories, are categories used to classify protected areas in a system developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The enlisting of such areas is part ...

, and was designated a

by the

Government of Manitoba The powers and structure of the provincial Government of Manitoba (french: Gouvernement du Manitoba) are set out in the Constitution Act, 1867. In modern Canadian use, the term "government" referred broadly to the cabinet of the day (formally ...

on 9 April 1964.

History

Asessippi Park was established as part of the creation of the Shellmouth Dam and its reservoir, the Lake of the Prairies. The lake provides anglers with opportunities to fish for

perch Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Percif ...

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus '' Esox'' (the pikes). They are typical of brackish and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). They are known simply as a ...

, and

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the yellow pike or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relat ...

. ''Asessippi'' comes from the

Cree language Cree (also known as Cree– Montagnais–Naskapi) is a dialect continuum of Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories to Alberta to Labrador. If considered one language, it is th ...

—the second part is the word ''sîpiy'' ('river'); and the first part may be the word ''êsa'' ('clam shell') or the word ''asinîs'' ('stone'). The park is named after the town of Assessippi, which was established on the Shell River in 1882. A

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

was built in the town, with which

water power Hydropower (from el, ὕδωρ, "water"), also known as water power, is the use of falling or fast-running water to produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by converting the gravitational potential or kinetic energy of a wa ...

was harnessed to power a

flour mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separated ...

and a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

. A cheese factory, a brickyard, and blacksmith followed. The town lasted less than ten years as the hope of the railroad passing through the town failed. A plaque commemorates its existence on PTH 83, north of Russell. A trail with interpretive signs provide information about the townsite and its history On 9 April 1964, the

designated Asessippi as a

Geography

The park is shaped by the melting of the Keewatin Ice Flow, part of

Laurentide Ice Sheet The Laurentide Ice Sheet was a massive sheet of ice that covered millions of square miles, including most of Canada and a large portion of the Northern United States, multiple times during the Quaternary glacial epochs, from 2.58 million years a ...

more than 10,000 years ago. Assessippi is situated at the meeting of the valley of the

Assiniboine River The Assiniboine River (''; french: Rivière Assiniboine'') is a river that runs through the prairies of Western Canada in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It is a tributary of the Red River of the North, Red River. The Assiniboine is a typical meand ...

, a glacial

spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure tha ...

and the Shell River valley, a

meltwater channel A meltwater channel (or sometimes a glacial meltwater channel) is a channel cut into ice, bedrock or unconsolidated deposits by the flow of water derived from the melting of a glacier or ice-sheet. The channel may form on the surface of, within ...

. Water from large meltwater lakes to the northwest emptied into

Lake Agassiz Lake Agassiz was a large glacial lake in central North America. Fed by glacial meltwater at the end of the last glacial period, its area was larger than all of the modern Great Lakes combined. First postulated in 1823 by William H. Keating, it ...

through the Assiniboine River. The modern-day Assiniboine and Shell Rivers are much smaller and meander within the large valleys created by their glacier fed predecessors. They are examples of a

misfit stream A misfit stream is a river that is either too large or too small to have eroded the valley or cave passage in which it flows. This term is also used for a stream or river with meanders that obviously are not proportional in size to the meanders ...

, where a river occupies a river channel that does not match its size. Annual flooding results in stepped terraces in the

alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

till deposited after

glaciation A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betw ...

. A portion of an

valley terrace can be found by the west end of the Shellmouth Dam. The pavilion area and the old Asessippi townsite are found on terraces in the Shell River valley.

Mass wasting Mass wasting, also known as mass movement, is a general term for the movement of rock or soil down slopes under the force of gravity. It differs from other processes of erosion in that the debris transported by mass wasting is not entrained in ...

continues to modify the shape of the valley walls.

Surface runoff Surface runoff (also known as overland flow) is the flow of water occurring on the ground surface when excess rainwater, stormwater, meltwater, or other sources, can no longer sufficiently rapidly infiltrate in the soil. This can occur when th ...

from snow melt and precipitation as well as groundwater springs contribute to instability that result in

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion.slumping Slumping is a technique in which items are made in a kiln by means of shaping glass over molds at high temperatures. The slumping of a pyrometric cone is often used to measure temperature in a kiln. Technique Slumping glass is a highly techni ...

. The Ancient Valley Self-guiding Trail ascends the slope of the valley to a viewpoint that offers vistas of the Assiniboine River Valley. Interpretive signs provide information on the glacial origin of the valley and the processes of erosion that continue to shape it.

References

External links

*Government of Manitoba
Asessippi Provincial Park
*Asessippi Ski Area & Resort
Asessippi Resort
*Tourism Information
Asessippi Parkland TourismiNaturalist: Asessippi Provincial ParkeBird: Asessippi Provincial Park
{{Manitoba parks Provincial parks of Manitoba Ski areas and resorts in Manitoba Parks in Parkland Region, Manitoba Protected areas of Manitoba

History

Geography

See also

References

External links