Battle River is a river in central

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

and western

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

. It is a major tributary of the

North Saskatchewan River The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river that flows from the Canadian Rockies continental divide east to central Saskatchewan, where it joins with the South Saskatchewan River to make up the Saskatchewan River. Its water flows eventual ...

. The Battle River flows for and has a total drainage area of . The mean discharge is 10 m³/s at its mouth.

History

The river did not gain its current name until relatively recently. When

Anthony Henday Anthony Henday ( fl. 1750–1762) was one of the first Europeans to explore the interior of what would eventually become western Canada. He ventured farther westward than any white man had before him. As an employee of the Hudson's Bay Compan ...

passed through the region in the 1750s, he did not mention a river with this name. But by 1793

Peter Fidler Peter Fidler (16 August 1769 – 17 December 1822) was a British surveyor, map-maker, fur trader and explorer who had a long career in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in what later became Canada. He was born in Bolsover, Derbyshir ...

mentions arriving at the "Battle or Fighting River", likely so named because of the beginning of a period of rivalry between the

Iron Confederacy The Iron Confederacy or Iron Confederation (also known as Cree-Assiniboine in English or cr, script=Latn, Nehiyaw-Pwat, label=none in Cree) was a political and military alliance of Plains Indians of what is now Western Canada and the northern Uni ...

(Cree and Assiniboine) and the

Blackfoot Confederacy The Blackfoot Confederacy, ''Niitsitapi'' or ''Siksikaitsitapi'' (ᖹᐟᒧᐧᒣᑯ, meaning "the people" or " Blackfoot-speaking real people"), is a historic collective name for linguistically related groups that make up the Blackfoot or Bla ...

Course

The headwaters of Battle River is Battle Lake in west-central Alberta, east of Winfield. The river

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex bank ...

s through Alberta eastward into Saskatchewan, where it discharges into the North Saskatchewan River at

Battleford Battleford ( 2011 population 4,065) is a small town located across the North Saskatchewan River from the City of North Battleford, in Saskatchewan, Canada. Battleford and North Battleford are collectively referred to as "The Battlefords" b ...

. Over its course, the river flows through Ponoka and by

Hardisty Hardisty may refer to: * Hardisty (surname) *Hardisty, Alberta, a town in Canada *Hardisty, an area in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; usually defined as encompassing the neighbourhoods of Fulton Place, Capilano, Forest Heights, Gold Bar, and Terrace ...

and Fabyan within Alberta.

Big Knife Provincial Park Big Knife Provincial Park is a small provincial park in central Alberta, Canada. It was established in 1962 on the Battle River, at the confluence with Big Knife Creek, and is located between the villages of Donalda and Forestburg, 10 km so ...

is situated on the south bank of the river west of Highway 855, approximately southwest of Forestburg. The

Fabyan Trestle Bridge The Battle River Railway Trestle, commonly known as the Fabyan Trestle Bridge, was constructed between 1907 and December 10, 1908 west of Fabyan, Alberta, Canada at the cost of $600,000. The bridge is located at approximately mile 149 of Canadian ...

crosses the river.

Tributaries

*Sunny Creek *Wolf Creek *Pigeon Lake Creek *Stoney Creek *

Pipestone Creek Pipestone Creek is a waterway that runs through central Alberta, Canada. For example, over of Pipestone Creek parkland is situated in Millet, Alberta, with a combination of meadows and urban forest. It originates east of Pigeon Lake and flows ea ...

*Driedmeat Creek *Meeting Creek *Paintearth Creek * Castor Creek *Iron Creek *Ribstone Creek ''Battle Lake'', ''Samson Lake'', ''Driedmeat Lake'' and ''Big Knife Lake'' are formed along the river, and numerous other lakes (such as Pigeon Lake, ''Coal Lake'', ''Bittern Lake'', ''Vernon Lake'', ''Ernest Lake'', ''Soda Lake'') lie in the Battle River hydrographic basin.

References

External links

Battle River Watershed Alliance - designated Watershed Planning and Advisory CouncilFish Species of Saskatchewan
{{Authority control Rivers of Alberta North Saskatchewan River Tributaries of Hudson Bay

History

Course

Tributaries

See also

References

External links