__NOTOC__ The Saguenay River () is a major

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada. It drains

Lac Saint-Jean Lac Saint-Jean (Canadian French: ) is a large, relatively shallow lake in south-central Quebec, Canada, in the Laurentian Highlands. It is situated north of the Saint Lawrence River, into which it drains via the Saguenay River. It covers an area ...

in the Laurentian Highlands, leaving at

Alma Alma or ALMA may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Alma'' (film), a 2009 Spanish short animated film * ''Alma'' (Oswald de Andrade novel), 1922 * ''Alma'' (Le Clézio novel), 2017 * ''Alma'' (play), a 1996 drama by Joshua Sobol about Alma ...

and running east; the city of Saguenay is located on the river. It drains into the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connectin ...

Tadoussac Tadoussac () is a village in Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saguenay and Saint Lawrence rivers. The indigenous Innu call the place ''Totouskak'' (plural for ''totouswk'' or ''totochak'') meaning "bosom", probably in reference to the t ...

, founded as a French colonial trading post in 1600, is located on the northeast bank at this site. The river has a very high flow-rate and is bordered by steep

cliff In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on co ...

s associated with the

Saguenay Graben The Saguenay Graben is a rift valley or graben in the geological Grenville Province of southern Quebec, Canada. It is an elongated flat-bottomed basin long and wide, bounded by normal faults running parallel to its length. Formation of the S ...

Tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravity, gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide t ...

waters flow in its

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Ice ...

upriver as far as

Chicoutimi Chicoutimi () is the most populous borough (arrondissement) of the city of Saguenay in Quebec, Canada. It is situated at the confluence of the Saguenay and Chicoutimi rivers. During the 20th century, it became the main administrative and com ...

(about 100 kilometres). Many

Beluga whales The beluga whale () (''Delphinapterus leucas'') is an Arctic and sub-Arctic cetacean. It is one of two members of the family Monodontidae, along with the narwhal, and the only member of the genus ''Delphinapterus''. It is also known as the whi ...

breed in the cold waters at its mouth, making Tadoussac a popular site for

whale watching Whale watching is the practice of observing whales and dolphins ( cetaceans) in their natural habitat. Whale watching is mostly a recreational activity (cf. birdwatching), but it can also serve scientific and/or educational purposes.Hoyt, E. 2 ...

and

sea kayak A sea kayak or touring kayak is a kayak developed for the sport of paddling on open waters of lakes, bays, and the ocean. Sea kayaks are seaworthy small boats with a covered deck and the ability to incorporate a spray deck. They trade off the man ...

ing;

Greenland shark The Greenland shark (''Somniosus microcephalus''), also known as the gurry shark, grey shark, or by the Kalaallisut name ''eqalussuaq'', is a large shark of the family Somniosidae ("sleeper sharks"), closely related to the Pacific and souther ...

s also frequent the depths of the river. The area of the confluence of the Saguenay and Saint Lawrence is protected by the Saguenay–St. Lawrence Marine Park, one of Canada's

national parks A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individua ...

History

The Saguenay River was used as an important trade route into the interior for the

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

people of the area. During the

French colonization of the Americas France began colonizing the Americas in the 16th century and continued into the following centuries as it established a colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere. France established colonies in much of eastern North America, on several Caribbe ...

, the river became a major route for the

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 ...

. The French established Tadoussac, France's first trading post in Canada, in 1600. They named the river for the legendary Kingdom of Saguenay. It is the namesake of

Saguenay Herald The Canadian Heraldic Authority (CHA; french: Autorité héraldique du Canada) is part of the Canadian honours system under the Canadian monarch, whose authority is exercised by the Governor General of Canada. The authority is responsible for t ...

at the

Canadian Heraldic Authority The Canadian Heraldic Authority (CHA; french: Autorité héraldique du Canada) is part of the Canadian honours system under the Canadian monarch, whose authority is exercised by the Governor General of Canada. The authority is responsible for t ...

. Beginning in the 19th century, the river was exploited for transport and power by the

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...

and pulp and paper industries. A dam on the upper Saguenay generates

hydroelectricity Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other Renewabl ...

for local industries, such as

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

smelting and paper mills. Severe flooding of the Saguenay's tributary rivers from July 18 to 21, 1996, devastated the region in one of Canada's costliest natural disasters, the Saguenay Flood. However, an unexpected effect of the flood was to cover the heavily contaminated

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand an ...

s at the bottom of the river with of new, relatively clean sediments. Research has shown that the old sediments are no longer a threat to

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

s.Project Saguenay
/ref>

Geography

The Saguenay originates in

. There are two channels: La Petite Décharge and La Grande Décharge, on which is built the dam Île Maligne hydroelectric plant. The island formed by these two rivers is part of the municipality of

. At this place, the water is freshwater. Three bridges cross the "Petite Décharge" and two others cross the "Grande Décharge". It is when these two rivers meet just east of Alma that the Saguenay really begins. It begins in the form of a reservoir several kilometers long, unlike the rapids and powerful falls that dotted the river before the erection of dams. At Shipshaw, Quebec, the Saguenay splits again in two. On the northern watercourse, there is the Shipshaw hydroelectric station and, on the south side, the Chute-à-Caron power plant. It is here that the Aluminum Bridge is located. Between Chicoutimi and Jonquière, the two come together to form the Saguenay. It becomes accessible to navigation at this point. Moreover, Chicoutimi means "how deep is it" Pierre-Georges Roy, "The Geographical Names of the Province of Quebec", Lévis, Le Soleil, 1906, . in Montagnais. In downtown

, the and the are located. At Tadoussac, a ferry provides the link between

and Baie-Sainte-Catherine.

Tributaries

Riverside municipalities

Notes

External links