Wascana Creek is a river 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 ...
of
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 ...
. It is a tributary of the
Qu'Appelle River
The Qu'Appelle River is a river in the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba that flows east from Lake Diefenbaker in south-western Saskatchewan to join the Assiniboine River in Manitoba, just south of Lake of the Prairies, near t ...
.
Originating in the fields east of
Regina near
Vibank, Wascana Creek travels south-east for approximately before turning back west at
Tyvan. The creek then travels in a north-westwardly direction following
Highway 33 through Regina, where it was dammed by the
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...
to create
Wascana Lake. The lake was created to supply water for
steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...
s and to create a decorative image in Regina. Below the lake, the creek leaves Regina and ends at the Qu'Appelle River about 1 mile west of
Lumsden.
Sherwood Forest Bridge and
Albert Memorial Bridge are two of the bridges that cross Wascana Creek. Near the mouth of the river in the Wascana Valley, is a
provincial recreation site called
Wascana Trails that were developed for use in the
2005 Canada Summer Games.
A 2011 study by
Environment Canada
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC; french: Environnement et Changement climatique Canada),Environment and Climate Change Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of the Environment ( ...
found the creek to have high levels of
pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...
.
Wascana Creek Sub-basin
Wascana Creek Sub-basin is the name given to Wascana Creek's
drainage basin
A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...
. Along with the
Moose Jaw River Watershed, it is one of four sub-basins that make up the Wascana & Upper Qu’Appelle Watersheds; the other three being the
Last Mountain Lake Sub-basin,
Upper Qu’Appelle Sub-basin, and
Lanigan-Manitou Sub-basin. The four sub-basins plus Moose Jaw River drain a total of 23,443 km² of land.
The
Craven Dam
Craven Dam is at the confluence of the Qu'Appelle River and Last Mountain Creek and immediately east of the village of Craven on the Qu'Appelle River at SW 24-20-21 W2. It is in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan in the RM of Longlaket ...
is located downstream from Wascana Creek's mouth on the Qu'Appelle River at the village of
Craven.
Wascana Creek and its tributaries drain over 2,200 km² of land. Several small tributaries feed the river, three of which are named.
*Manybone Creek
*Kronau Creek
*Cottonwood Creek
Fish species
Brook stickleback and
fathead minnow
Fathead minnow (''Pimephales promelas''), also known as fathead or tuffy, is a species of temperate freshwater fish belonging to the genus ''Pimephales'' of the cyprinid family. The natural geographic range extends throughout much of North Amer ...
can be found in the Wascana Lake portion of the creek.
See also
*
List of rivers of Saskatchewan
This is a list of rivers of Saskatchewan, a province of Canada.
The largest and most notable rivers are listed at the start, followed by rivers listed by drainage basin and then alphabetically.
Principal river statistics
''SourcSt ...
*
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, ce ...
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Rivers of Saskatchewan
Tributaries of Hudson Bay