The Horn River is a river in the Northwest Territories of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It is a major tributary of the Mackenzie River. The river gives the name to the Horn River Formation, a shale deposit of the

Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin The Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) underlies of Western Canada including southwestern Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan, Alberta, northeastern British Columbia and the southwest corner of the Northwest Territories. This vast sedimentary ...

. The Horn River Basin refers to the extent of the Horn River Formation in the subsurface, and is not defined by the Horn River watershed.

Course

The river originates south of the

Great Bear Lake Great Bear Lake ( den, Sahtú; french: Grand lac de l'Ours) is a lake in the boreal forest of Canada. It is the largest lake entirely in Canada (Lake Superior and Lake Huron are larger but straddle the Canada–US border), the fourth-largest ...

. It flows south-east through a series of rapids north of the Horn Plateau, then has a

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex ba ...

ed flow. ''Fawn Lake'' is a complex wetland formed along the middle course of the Horn River, and is followed downstream by the ''Second Lake''. The river turns south-west, where the ''Mink Lake'' is formed along its course. The Laferte River also flows into the Mink Lake. Horn River then flows south, and it receives the waters of the Bluefish River before it empties into the Mackenzie River, downstream from the

Great Slave Lake Great Slave Lake (french: Grand lac des Esclaves), known traditionally as Tıdeè in Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì (Dogrib), Tinde’e in Wıìlıìdeh Yatii / Tetsǫ́t’ıné Yatıé (Dogrib / Chipewyan), Tu Nedhé in Dëne Sųłıné Yatıé (Chi ...

), immediately upstream from Mills Lake, at an elevation of . The arch made by the river defines the ''Horn Plateau'', a flat elevated area that rises up to ) to the north and east, while the south is defined by the Mackenzie River east of

Fort Simpson Fort Simpson (Slavey language: ''Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́'' "place where rivers come together") is a village, the only one in the entire territory, in the Dehcho Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. The community is located on an ...

Tributaries

From origin to mouth, the Horn River receives:

Course

Tributaries

See also