The Naskaupi River is the second largest river in

Labrador, Canada , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Provinces and territories of C ...

. Its drainage basin lies north of that of Labrador's longest river, the Churchill River. Like the Churchill River, it drains into the western end of the

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

known as

Lake Melville Lake Melville is an estuary of Hamilton Inlet (itself an extension of Groswater Bay) on the Labrador coast of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Comprising and stretching inland to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, it forms part of the l ...

Nascaupee Native American 1921 Frank Weston Benson

The

Naskapi The Naskapi (Nascapi, Naskapee, Nascapee) are an Indigenous people of the Subarctic native to the historical country St'aschinuw (ᒋᑦ ᐊᔅᒋᓄᐤ, meaning 'our nclusiveland'), which is located in northern Quebec and Labrador, neighb ...

First Nation peoples used the river to travel to Labrador. Several expeditions explored the river around the turn of the 19/20th century. Mina Benson, the widow of

Leonidas Hubbard Leonidas Hubbard Jr. (1872–1903) was an American journalist and adventurer. He was born in Michigan and studied at the University of Michigan (1893–97), choosing journalism as a career. In 1901 he married Mina Adelaine Benson, a woman two y ...

, who died on a failed 1903 expedition is noted as having made admirable observations during a successful 1905 expedition.

Frank Weston Benson Frank Weston Benson, frequently referred to as Frank W. Benson, (March 24, 1862 – November 15, 1951) was an American artist from Salem, Massachusetts known for his Realism (arts), Realistic portraits, American Impressionism, American Impressio ...

, an American artist with not apparent relationship to Mina Benson, sketched the Naskapi. The river's drainage basin is . The basin has no permanent inhabitants, and no roads. Just under half the area is covered by forest. Slightly more than one quarter of the area is covered by other vegetation. Approximately 17 percent is covered by lakes, rivers, or wetlands. The government of Newfoundland and Labrador classes the rest as "barren" or "unclassified". When a series of 88 dikes were built, to establish the Smallwood reservoir, for the Churchill Falls Hydroelectric Project, water was diverted from the Naskaupi River to the Churchill River drainage basin.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Newfoundland and Labrador