Carrot River is a town located in east-central

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

(population: 1000) in Canada. The administration office for the Rural Municipality of Moose Range No. 486 is located in Carrot River.

History

The name Carrot River comes from the Plains Cree word for river of wild carrots, referring to the

wild carrot ''Daucus carota'', whose common names include wild carrot, European wild carrot, bird's nest, bishop's lace, and Queen Anne's lace (North America), is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae. It is native to temperate regions of the Old World ...

s growing along the Carrot River. Settlement was slow until the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

came in 1931 bringing farmers from the south. The building of roads and drainage ditches improved land conditions around Carrot River. It became a village in 1941 and incorporated as a town on April 1, 1948.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

, Carrot River had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Economy

In 1963, the Squaw Rapids Hydro-Electric was built north of Carrot River, forming Tobin Lake, an excellent fishing and recreation area close to the town which attracts tourists from all over the world. It was renamed to E.B. Campbell Hydroelectric Dam in honour of E.B. (Bruce) Campbell, a former

SaskPower Saskatchewan Power Corporation, trade name, operating as SaskPower, is the principal electric utility in Saskatchewan, Canada. Established in 1929 by the Saskatchewan#Government and politics, provincial government, it serves more than 550,000 cu ...

president, who was the assistant chief engineer during the construction of this station. The dam consists of eight units with a combined generating capacity of 288 net MW. The

Weyerhaeuser The Weyerhaeuser Company ( ) is an American timberland company which owns nearly of timberlands in the U.S., and manages an additional of timberlands under long-term licenses in Canada. The company has manufactured wood products for over a c ...

sawmill once provided the town's largest source of employment. The operation has recently undergone a $14 million upgrade, although on February 20, 2008, Weyerhaeuser stated the mill would close permanently. In 2011, Edgewood Forest Products, after purchasing the mill, began production of wood for China. Premier Sask Inc. harvests

peat Peat is an accumulation of partially Decomposition, decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, Moorland, moors, or muskegs. ''Sphagnum'' moss, also called peat moss, is one of the most ...

, a decayed matter and the precursor to

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

and has a packing and shipping plant at Carrot River. Expanding markets for peat have allowed the Carrot River plant to expand. Premier Sask Inc. ships approximately 1.6 million cubic foot bales per year.

Attractions

* Pasquia Regional Park is less than south of town. * Pasquia Park Golf Club is at Pasquia Regional Park. * The Dickson Hardie Interpretive Centre at Pasquia Regional Park is home to " Big Bert", the remains of a 92-million-year-old '' Terminonaris robusta''

crocodile Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large, semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term "crocodile" is sometimes used more loosely to include ...

, found near Pasquia Park on the shores of the Carrot River. These were the first such remains to be found in North America. * To the north of Carrot River is Tobin Lake, a top fishing and recreation lake created by the E.B. Campbell Hydroelectric Station. Carrot River provides one of the few accesses to Tobin Lake and its many boat launches and beaches, as well as being the closest community to the hydroelectric station.

Sports

The town is also the home of the Carrot River Outback Thunder Junior B Hockey Team. Games located in Carrot River draw crowds of 100-200, and play-off games draw crowds of 300-500.

References

External links

* {{coord, display=title, name=Carrot River, Saskatchewan, 53, 17, N, 103, 35, W, region:CA_type:city Towns in Saskatchewan