Red Deer Lake is a

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

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 ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

. The primary inflow and outflow is the

Red Deer River The Red Deer River is a river in Alberta and a small portion of Saskatchewan, Canada. It is a major tributary of the South Saskatchewan River and is part of the larger Saskatchewan-Nelson system that empties into Hudson Bay. Red Deer River ...

. It is located in the west central part of the province, approximately north of Barrows and west of Dawson Bay, which is the north-west part of

Lake Winnipegosis Lake Winnipegosis is a large (5,370 km2) lake in central North America, in Manitoba, Canada, some 300 km northwest of Winnipeg. It is Canada's eleventh-largest lake. An alternate spelling, once common but now rare, is Lake Winipigoos or ...

, and east of the

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 ...

border. The lake is situated almost entirely in the north-west corner of Manitoba's Census Division No. 19, although its northernmost reaches extend into the south-west corner of Division No. 21. While the Red Deer River is the primary inflow for the lake, there are several smaller rivers and creeks that flow into the lake too. Some of those tributaries include Grassy River,

Armit River Armit River is a river in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan in the Nelson River drainage basin. The river begins in the Porcupine Hills of the Manitoba Escarpment at Armit Lake and flows in a northerly direction closely follo ...

, Little Woody River, Wilson Creek, Homestead Creek, North Shore Creek, and Lost River. There are several named bays along the lake's shore, including Grassy Bay, Armit River Bay, Ellis Bay, Woody Bay, Long Point Bay, and Lost River Bay. There are no notable islands in the lake.

History

In 1901, the

Red Deer Lumber Company The Red Deer Lumber Company was a forestry company that had approximately 10 logging operations along the Red Deer River, and owned and operated a sawmill on the south shore of Red Deer Lake. The Red Deer Lake sawmill was one of Manitoba's three ...

opened a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

on the south shore of the lake, and built a

rail spur A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An indust ...

to connect the mill to the

Canadian Northern Railway The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway , the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonton. Mani ...

line to the south. The company also created two settlements to serve the mill: the community of Red Deer Lake was built near the mill on the lakeshore, and the community of Barrows was built at the railway junction. The sawmill closed in 1926.

Industry

The area is heavily forested, and in the years since the Red Deer Lumber Company's mill closed, the area has hosted a number of other logging companies and smaller sawmills as well. Fishing is common and fisheries in the lake and Dawson Bay process catch from Red Deer Lake. There is also coal exploration in the area as well, targeting the

Mannville Formation The Mannville Group is a stratigraphical unit of Cretaceous age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. It takes the name from the town of Mannville, Alberta, and was first described in the ''Northwest Mannville 1'' well by A.W. Nauss in 1945 ...

.Robert Charles Wallace (1919). ''Mining and mineral prospects in northern Manitoba.'' p. 38.

References

{{authority control Lakes of Manitoba

History

Industry

See also

References