Manitou Lake is a

salt lake A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per litre). ...

located mostly in the RM of Manitou Lake No. 422 in 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 ...

, about away from the provincial border with

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 ...

. The eastern shore of the lake is in the RM of Hillsdale No. 440. Manitou Lake is located in a region called the

Prairie Pothole Region The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR; french: Région des cuvettes/fondrières des prairies) is an expansive area of the northern Great Plains that contains thousands of shallow wetlands known as potholes. These potholes are the result of glacier act ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, which extends throughout three Canadian provinces and five

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

s. It is also within

Palliser's Triangle Palliser's Triangle, or the Palliser Triangle, is a semi-arid steppe occupying a substantial portion of the Western Canadian Prairie Provinces, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba, within the Great Plains region. While initially determined to be uns ...

and the

Great Plains ecoregion The ecology of the Great Plains is diverse, largely owing to their great size. Differences in rainfall, elevation, and latitude create a variety of habitats including short grass, mixed grass, and tall-grass prairies, and riparian ecosystems. Th ...

. Because the lake is an

endorheic lake An endorheic lake (also called a sink lake or terminal lake) is a collection of water within an endorheic basin, or sink, with no evident outlet. Endorheic lakes are generally saline as a result of being unable to get rid of solutes left in the l ...

and quite salty, there are no fish in the lake. Manitou Island in the centre of the lake is now connected to the southern shore as the water level has lowered.

Description

The primary inflow for the lake is from Eyehill Creek at the south end. There are also many small springtime meltwater tributaries that feed the lake. Eyehill Creek originates in neighbouring Alberta from Sounding Lake, which in turn is fed by Sounding Creek. Manitou Lake and its tributaries are part of a

closed basin An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into lakes ...

watershed. When the lake level rises high enough, it overflows to the north through Wells Lake near Marsden and then into the

Battle River Battle River is a river in central Alberta and western Saskatchewan. It is a major tributary of the North Saskatchewan River. The Battle River flows for and has a total drainage area of . The mean discharge is 10 m³/s at its mouth. His ...

, which is a 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 ...

. This has happened only once since settlers arrived in the area, and that was in approximately 1905. Lake levels were relatively constant until 1980 and have been declining rapidly since then by approximately one metre every six years. Less annual snowfall and heavier utilization of water from the Eyehill Creek system by urban, industrial, and agricultural users is blamed for this trend. Along the southern shore of the lake are the

Manitou Sand Hills The Rural Municipality of Manitou Lake No. 442 ( 2016 population: ) is a rural municipality (RM) in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan within Census Division No. 13 and Division No. 6. History The RM of Manitou Lake No. 442 incorporate ...

. The hills total of Crown grazing land set aside by the Saskatchewan government. There are no

communities A community is a Level of analysis, social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place (geography), place, Norm (social), norms, religion, values, Convention (norm), customs, or Identity (social science), identity. Communiti ...

on the lake's shore. The nearest communities are Marsden, about north of the northwest corner of the lake in the Rural Municipality of Manitou Lake No. 442, and Neilburg, about north of the northeast corner of the lake in the Rural Municipality of Hillsdale No. 440, along Highway 40. At the lake's North-West Bay, there is Big Manitou Regional Park. Originally founded as part of Suffern Lake Regional Park in 1975, it became its own indepenant

regional park A regional park is an area of land preserved on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, recreational use or other reason, and under the administration of a form of local government. Definition A regional park can be a special park distri ...

in 2019. The park features camping, cabins, picnicking, swimming, and the Manitou Lake Golf Club. Just to the east of the regional park, is Manitou Lake Bible Camp.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Lakes of Saskatchewan Manitou Lake No. 442, Saskatchewan Endorheic lakes of Canada Division No. 13, Saskatchewan Saline lakes of Canada Important Bird Areas of Saskatchewan

Description

See also

References

External links