Townsend Lake is a lake in the
Canadian province of
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 Dak ...
. It is located in the east-central part of the province in the
Porcupine Hills
The Porcupine Hills refer to various groups of hills and uplands located in the prairie provinces of Canada, specifically the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. They are part of the Manitoba Escarpment, which was the shoreline of the anci ...
and
Porcupine Provincial Forest
The Porcupine Provincial Forest is a protected boreal forest in Canada which covers the Porcupine Hills on the border of Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
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History
By the end of the 19th century, Eastern Canada had essentially run out of marke ...
. The lake is in the Woody River Block of
Porcupine Hills Provincial Park.
Highway 980 provides access to the east side of the lake and its amenities. Several small creeks feed into the lake from the surrounding hills, lakes, and
muskeg. The outflow is a short river at the eastern end of the lake that flows into the western end of
Woody Lake.
The lake is named in memory of Flight Sergeant Robert Wilfred Ernest Townsend who died fighting in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
on 29 July 1944. Since 1947 Saskatchewan started naming lakes after fallen soldiers and now there are more than 4,000 such lakes in the province.
Parks and recreation
Prior to the formation of
Porcupine Hills Provincial Park in 2018, the parkland around Townsend Lake was a
provincial recreation site called Woody River Recreation Site. The recreation site has a campground with 33 campsites, a boat launch, two fish cleaning stations, and a picnic area.
Moose Range Lodge, located on the northern shore of the lake, is an outfitters with modern cabins, boat rentals, fuel, and a restaurant. In the winter, the lodge is the centre for snowmobiling in the park.
Fish species
Fish commonly found in the lake 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 ...
,
perch
Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Per ...
, and
northern pike
The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus ''Esox'' (the pikes). They are typical of brackish and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). They are known simply as a p ...
.
See also
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List of lakes of Saskatchewan
This is a list of lakes of Saskatchewan, a province of Canada. The largest and most notable lakes are listed at the start, followed by an alphabetical listing of other lakes of the province.
Larger lake statistics
"The total area of a lak ...
*
Tourism in Saskatchewan There are numerous heritages and cultural attractions in the province of Saskatchewan. Museums, dinosaur digs, aboriginal cultural and heritage sites, art galleries, professional sport venues, spas, handcraft, antique and tea shops, agricultural t ...
*
Hudson Bay drainage basin
The Hudson Bay drainage basin is the drainage basin in northern North America where surface water empties into Hudson Bay and adjoining waters. Spanning an area of about , the basin is almost totally in Canada (spanning parts of the Prairies, cen ...
References
{{Authority control
Lakes of Saskatchewan
Hudson Bay No. 394, Saskatchewan