The Rankin River is a river in the town of South Bruce Peninsula, Bruce County in

southwestern Ontario Southwestern Ontario is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula bounded by Lake Huron, including Georgian Bay, to the north and northwest; the St. Clair River, Lake St. ...

, Canada which flows from the east side of the Bruce Peninsula to join the Sauble River near

Sauble Falls Provincial Park Sauble Falls Provincial Park is located in the town of South Bruce Peninsula, Bruce County in southwestern Ontario, Canada, west of Owen Sound. It is in the lower drainage basin of the Sauble River, which flows into Lake Huron. The campground c ...

on the west side. The river is in the

Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrology, Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Michigan, to which it is connected by the , Strait ...

drainage basin and was named after

Charles Rankin Charles Rankin, (1797 − 1886 or 12 October 1888) was an early Irish-born and Scottish-descended settler and land surveyor in Upper Canada (the predecessor to the province of Ontario, Canada). He is significant due to his role in the surveyin ...

, who first surveyed the Bruce Peninsula.

Course

The Rankin River begins at Berford Lake about southeast of the community of Mar, and flows west over Berford Dam, then under Ontario Highway 6 to Isaac Lake, where it takes in the right tributary Albemarle Brook arriving from Sky Lake. The river heads south to Boat Lake where it receives the left tributary Clavering Creek at Jordan Bay. It heads south out of the lake over Rankin Dam, then southwest to its mouth at the Sauble River, just upriver of the community of Sauble Falls. In addition to the Rankin River drainage basin lying in the town of South Bruce Peninsula in Bruce County, portions of the tributary Clavering Creek drainage basin lie in

Georgian Bluffs Georgian Bluffs is a township in southwestern Ontario, Canada, in Grey County located between Colpoy's Bay and Owen Sound on Georgian Bay. The township was incorporated on January 1, 2001, by amalgamating the former townships of Derby, Keppel, ...

in Grey County.

History

During the 18th century, this river was part of a

portage Portage or portaging (Canada: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a ...

from Georgian Bay across the Bruce Peninsula used by

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...

rs. In the second half of the 19th century, large numbers of passenger pigeons nested along the river. The river is now popular for recreational canoeing and

kayak A kayak is a small, narrow watercraft which is typically propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic word ''qajaq'' (). The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each se ...

ing.

Natural history

The river hosts fish species such as bass, Bowfin, northern pike, pickerel and perch, as well as trout and salmon during their spawning seasons. Whereas the entire Rankin River drainage basin has excellent (greater than 35%) forest cover, the riparian zones have only fair (25% to 50%) forest cover. Water chemistry was excellent but

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...

species were only fair.

Tributaries

*Clavering Creek (left) *Albemarle Brook (right)

References

Sources