The Brazeau River is a river in western
Alberta, Canada. It is a major tributary of the
North Saskatchewan River.
The river was named for Joseph Brazeau, a linguist associated with the
Palliser Expedition.
Course
The river originates in the heights of the
Canadian Rockies
The Canadian Rockies (french: Rocheuses canadiennes) or Canadian Rocky Mountains, comprising both the Alberta Rockies and the British Columbian Rockies, is the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains. It is the easternmost part ...
from Brazeau Lake (which is fed by creeks that flow from Coronet Glacier and the
Queen Elizabeth Ranges) and flows east through the Rocky Mountains foothills until it merges into the North Saskatchewan River between
Drayton Valley and
Rocky Mountain House at Brazeau Forks.
The upper course runs eastwards from
Jasper National Park into Brazeau Canyon Wildland Provincial Park. The
O'Chiese First Nation is established at the confluence with Nordegg River.
The total length of the river is . The river, and various other local geographic features, were named after Joseph Brazeau, a Missouri-born fur trader working for the
Hudson's Bay Company in the area between 1852 and 1864.
Hydroelectric development
The Brazeau River has long been seen as a potential site for hydroelectric power generation. The earliest scheme to harness the
power of the river was hatched in 1913 and involved a
dam and storage on Brazeau Lake. The potential power generation was estimated at 5,000 to 10,000
kilovolt-amperes, and power would have been
transmitted to
Edmonton and
Calgary
Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...
, both roughly from the
generator
Generator may refer to:
* Signal generator, electronic devices that generate repeating or non-repeating electronic signals
* Electric generator, a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy.
* Generator (circuit theory), an eleme ...
(this was a relatively ambitious plan: long-distance transmission was not common at the time). The plan was scuttled after the discovery of a large underflow at Brazeau Lake, precluding its use as a storage facility.
[C. H. Attwood, ''Proposed Hydro-electric Development Scheme on the Brazeau River'', (Ottawa: Water Power Branch, 1915).]
The
Brazeau Reservoir was created on the lower course through the construction of the
Brazeau Dam Brazeau may refer to:
Places
Canada
*Brazeau, an obsolete alternative name for Nordegg, a hamlet in Alberta
*Brazeau County, a municipal district in Alberta
* Brazeau River, a river in Alberta
*Brazeau Reservoir, a man-made lake in Alberta
*Moun ...
. Its hydroelectric power plant is Alberta's largest, with a capacity of 355 megawatts and an annual production of about 394,000 megawatt hours of electrical energy.
[
An unusual feature of this hydroelectric development, commissioned in 1965, is a pump system capable of lifting water from the reservoir into the long canal leading to the power plant so that it can operate at low reservoir water levels.
]
Tributaries
*Boulder Creek
*Four Point Creek
*Brazeau Lake
**John-John Creek
*Upper Longview Lake
*Job Creek
**Whisker Creek, Whisker Lakes, Job Lake, Leah Lake, Samson Lake
*Isaac Creek
*Race Creek
* Southesk River
**Southesk Lake
*Thistle Creek
**Chimney Creek
*Marshybank Creek
**Marshybank Lake
*Canyon Creek
*Moosehound Creek
*Cardinal River
Cardinal River is a short river in western Alberta, Canada. It flows from the Canadian Rockies, and empties into the Brazeau River, itself a major tributary of the North Saskatchewan River.
At its origin, just east of Jasper National Park, the Ca ...
* Blackstone River
* Elk River
*Nordegg River
Nordegg is a hamlet in west-central Alberta, Canada within Clearwater County. It is located in the North Saskatchewan River valley in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, just east of the intersection of the David Thompson Highway and the H ...
See also
* Geography of Alberta
* List of Alberta rivers
References
External links
{{authority control
Rivers of Alberta
North Saskatchewan River