The Souris River (; french: rivière Souris) or Mouse River (as it is alternatively known in the U.S., a

calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language ...

of its French name) is a river in central North America. It is about in length and drains about . It rises in the Yellow Grass Marshes north of Weyburn,

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in 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 the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North ...

. It wanders south through

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, S ...

beyond Minot to its most southern point at the city of Velva, and then back north into

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Win ...

. The river passes through the communities of Melita, Hartney, Souris and Wawanesa and on to its confluence with the

Assiniboine River The Assiniboine River (''; french: Rivière Assiniboine'') is a river that runs through the prairies of Western Canada in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It is a tributary of the Red River. The Assiniboine is a typical meandering river with a sing ...

near Treesbank, about southeast of Brandon. The main tributaries which flow into the Souris in Manitoba are the Antler River, the Gainsborough, and Plum Creeks. At the end of the last ice age over 10,000 years ago the rapid draining of former Glacial Lake Regina eroded a large channel that is now occupied by the much smaller contemporary Souris River. Also, much of the drainage basin is fertile silt and clay deposited by another former glacial lake,

Lake Souris 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 larger ...

Flow rates and flood potential

During the period from 1930 to 1941 severe drought conditions prevailed and

PFRA PFRA may refer to: * Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration * Professional Football Researchers Association The Professional Football Researchers Association (PFRA) is an organization of researchers whose mission is to preserve and, in som ...

constructed four stock watering dams. In 1937 the Snyder and Ross Dams were built near Melita. In 1938 the Napinka Dam was built and the Hartney Dam was built in 1941. These were all stop log dams with a total capacity of . The Souris Dam was originally built in 1911 and was rebuilt in 1935. The Wawanesa Dam was completed in 1951 storing about of water. Most of the annual flow of the Souris River comes from snow melt and spring rains. The annual flow volume varies dramatically from in 1937 to in 1976. It is expected that the total runoff for 2011 at Wawanesa will exceed about a one in 500 year event. The average annual runoff is equivalent to 3 mm over the entire Souris River watershed.Archived data from Water Survey Canada Two large dams in Saskatchewan, Rafferty Dam and

Grant Devine Dam The Grant Devine Dam, formerly ''Alameda Dam'', is an embankment dam located near Alameda, and Oxbow, Saskatchewan, Canada. It was constructed in 1994 to control flows on the Moose Mountain Creek, and Souris River. It provides flood protection ...

were built, in part, to reduce flood peaks on the Souris River. In summer 2011, a historic flood affected much of the Souris River basin, overtopping levees and causing the evacuation of about 11,000 residents in Minot as well as significant damage to farmland and other property along the length of the river. The channel capacity of the river in Manitoba varies from about near the border, to about through Melita, to about near Lauder and near Hartney. North of Hartney the capacity increases to more than . The drop between the border and Hartney is only about .

Tributaries

* Long Creek * Short Creek * Moose Mountain Creek * Des Lacs River *Livingston Creek *

Wintering River Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Different cultures ...

* Deep River ** Little Deep Creek ***Spring Coulee **

Cut Bank Creek (North Dakota) The Cut Bank Creek is a tributary of the Marias River in the Missouri river basin watershed, approximately 75 mi (123 km) long, in northwestern Montana in the United States, which having deeply eroded steep cliff banks eponymously gives ...

***North Lake ****

Egg Creek An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

***** Hay Coulee **** Buffalo Lodge Lake *****

South Egg Creek South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...

* Willow Creek **

Snake Creek (North Dakota) Snake Creek may refer to: * Snake Creek, Oklahoma, a census-designated place in Mayes County * Snake Creek (Cadosia Creek tributary), a river in New York *Snake Creek (Susquehanna River), a tributary of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania and New ...

** Oak Creek **Ox Creek ***

Wolf Creek Wolf Creek may refer to: Bodies of water Missouri * Wolf Creek (Beaver Creek tributary) * Wolf Creek (Cane Creek tributary) * Wolf Creek (Cave Creek tributary) * Wolf Creek (Elkhorn Creek tributary) * Wolf Creek (South Grand River tributary) * W ...

Plum Creek (Manitoba) Plum Creek is the primary outflow for the Plum Lakes (49°37′51″N, 100°43′39″W) and travels in an easterly direction for about 28 kilometres until it meets up with the Souris River, which is part of the Hudson Bay drainage basin, at t ...

, a river that drains Plum Lakes and Oak Lake (Manitoba) into the Souris River **Stony Creek, flows into Maple Lake, which drains into Plum Lakes ** Pipestone Creek (Saskatchewan), flows into Oak Lake ***Little Pipestone Creek ***Montgomery Creek *Jackson Creek *Graham Creek *

Boundary Creek (North Dakota) Boundary Creek may refer to: In Australia * Boundary Creek (Glen Fernaigh River, Clarence Valley), a tributary of the Glen Fernaigh River in the Clarence Valley of New South Wales, Australia * Boundary Creek (Homebush Bay, New South Wales), a trib ...

* Antler River *

Gainsborough Creek Gainsborough Creek is a tributary of the Souris River in south-eastern Saskatchewan and south-western Manitoba. It is in a region called the Prairie Pothole Region of North America, which extends throughout three Canadian provinces and five ...

Cities along the river

* Weyburn, Saskatchewan * Estevan, Saskatchewan *

Roche Percee, Saskatchewan F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, commonly known as Roche, is a Swiss multinational healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, Roche Holding AG, has shares listed on the SIX S ...

Oxbow, Saskatchewan Oxbow is a town in the southeast of the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. It is located on the Canadian Pacific Railway and on Provincial Highway 18. It is approximately 58 kilometers west of Saskatchewan's border with Manitoba and approximatel ...

* Burlington, North Dakota *

Minot, North Dakota Minot ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Ward County, North Dakota, United States, in the state's north-central region. It is most widely known for the Air Force base approximately north of the city. With a population of 48,377 at the 2 ...

* Velva, North Dakota * Towner, North Dakota *

Westhope, North Dakota Westhope is a city in Bottineau County, North Dakota, United States. The population was 374 at the 2020 census. Westhope was founded in 1903 along a Great Northern Railway branch line that began in Rugby. The name was based on the slogan "H ...

* Melita, Manitoba * Souris, Manitoba * Wawanesa, Manitoba

Rural Municipalities along the river

Souris Valley No. 7, Saskatchewan The Rural Municipality of Souris Valley No. 7 ( 2016 population: ) is a rural municipality (RM) in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan within Census Division No. 2 and Division No. 1. Located in the southeast portion of the province, it ...

* Municipality of Grassland * Municipality of Oakland-Wawanesa

Bridges across the river

Eastwood Park Bridge The Eastwood Park Bridge in Minot, North Dakota is a false arch structure that was built in 1927. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. It spans an oxbow of the Souris River. and See also *Elliott Bridge T ...

: NRHP-listed crossing in Minot, North Dakota *

Elliott Bridge The Elliott Bridge, in North Dakota, United States, also known as Souris River Bridge, was built by Fargo Bridge & Iron Co. in 1902. and The bridge "was designed to replace a county-owned ferry boat that had been operating across the Souris R ...

: NRHP-listed crossing in McHenry County, North Dakota *

Westgaard Bridge The Westgaard Bridge, also known as Souris River Bridge, near Voltaire, North Dakota is a Pratt pony truss through structure that was built in 1902 to cross the Souris River. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. I ...

: NRHP listed crossing in McHenry County, North Dakota

Fish species

Fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% ...

species include

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the yellow pike or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relat ...

, yellow perch,

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus ''Esox'' (the pikes). They are typical of brackish water, brackish and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). They are kno ...

, white sucker, black bullhead, goldeye, brown bullhead, smallmouth bass, and

burbot The burbot (''Lota lota'') is the only gadiformes, gadiform (cod-like) freshwater fish. It is also known as bubbot, mariah, loche, cusk, freshwater cod, freshwater ling, freshwater cusk, the lawyer, coney-fish, lingcod, and eelpout. The species ...

References

External links

*
USGS Canoeing Information

Rafferty and Alameda Dams

West Souris River Conservation District

Fish Species of Saskatchewan

{{authority control * Rivers of Manitoba Rivers of North Dakota Rivers of Saskatchewan International rivers of North America Bodies of water of Ward County, North Dakota Bodies of water of McHenry County, North Dakota Bodies of water of Bottineau County, North Dakota Tributaries of the Assiniboine River Tributaries of Hudson Bay