Churchill Lake is a

glacial lake A glacial lake is a body of water with origins from glacier activity. They are formed when a glacier erodes the land and then melts, filling the depression created by the glacier. Formation Near the end of the last glacial period, roughly 10,0 ...

in the north-west part of the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

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 ...

. Frobisher Lake flows in from the north while Peter Pond Lake flows in from the east through the Kisis Channel. Highway 155 crosses this channel at the village of Buffalo Narrows . It is part of the Churchill River

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...

. As the source of the Churchill River, the length of the river is measured from the north end of the lake to the

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...

. The lake can freeze from as early as November and remain frozen till May.

Historic map

Route of the Franklin Expedition from Isle a la Crosse to Fort Providence in 1819 & 20 (1823)

John Franklin's Coppermine Expedition map of 1819–1822 shows details of the fur trade route from Île-à-la-Crosse to Methye Portage. Churchill Lake is shown as Clear Lake with its northern reaches still unknown. Also not yet surveyed are the waters of Wasekamio Lake,

Turnor Lake Turnor Lake is a community on the southern shore of Turnor Lake. From Highway 155 it is accessible by Highway 909. The community includes the Northern Hamlet of Turnor Lake and Turnor Lake 193B of the Birch Narrows First Nation. The combined ...

then Frobisher Lake that flow from the north into Churchill Lake. From the north-west Lac La Loche (Methye Lake) then Peter Pond Lake (Buffalo Lake) flow into Churchill Lake. Clearwater Lake (or Clear Lake) was renamed Churchill Lake in 1944 and Buffalo Lake was renamed Peter Pond Lake in 1932.

Fish Species

The lake's fish species include:

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 ...

, sauger,

yellow perch The yellow perch (''Perca flavescens''), commonly referred to as perch, striped perch, American perch, American river perch or preacher is a freshwater perciform fish native to much of North America. The yellow perch was described in 1814 by Samu ...

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 ...

, lake trout, lake whitefish,

cisco Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...

white sucker The white sucker (''Catostomus commersonii)'' is a species of freshwater cypriniform fish inhabiting the upper Midwest and Northeast in North America, but it is also found as far south as Georgia and as far west as New Mexico. The fish is commonl ...

longnose sucker The longnose sucker (''Catostomus catostomus'') is a species of cypriniform freshwater fish in the family Catostomidae. It is native to North America from the northern United States to the top of the continent. It is also found in Russia in rive ...

, and

burbot The burbot (''Lota lota'') is the only gadiform (cod-like) freshwater fish Freshwater fish are those that spend some or all of their lives in fresh water, such as rivers and lakes, with a salinity of less than 1.05%. These environments di ...

References

{{Authority control Lakes of Saskatchewan

Historic map

Fish Species

See also

References