The Musquash River is a river in
Muskoka District Municipality
The District Municipality of Muskoka, more generally referred to as the District of Muskoka or Muskoka, is a regional municipality in Central Ontario, Canada. Muskoka extends from Georgian Bay in the west, to the northern tip of Lake Couchiching ...
, west Central
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
, Canada, which splits from the
Moon River and flows west into
Georgian Bay
Georgian Bay (french: Baie Georgienne) is a large bay of Lake Huron, in the Laurentia bioregion. It is located entirely within the borders of Ontario, Canada. The main body of the bay lies east of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island. To ...
. Musquash is an
Abenaki
The Abenaki ( Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was pre ...
word meaning "
muskrat".
Hydrology
Up until 1968, the river was considered to be a continuation of the
Muskoka River
The Muskoka River is a river in the Muskoka District of Ontario, Canada.
It rises in the highlands of Algonquin Park and flows southwest through a number of lakes including
*Lake Muskoka
*Lake Joseph
*Lake Rosseau
*Lake of Bays
which empty into ...
. It begins just below Moon Chute on the Moon River at an elevation of where some of that river's water leave south and then pass through the Ragged Rapids Generating Station. It enters
Wahta Mohawk Territory
The Wahta Mohawks are a Mohawk First Nation in Ontario. The Wahta Mohawk Territory is their territory (reserve) in the District Municipality of Muskoka, Ontario, Canada near Bala. It is bounded on the west by Highway 400, a major north–south ...
, then flows past the Big Eddy Generating Station and dam and under
Highway 400, through Gray Lake and enters
Go Home Lake at an elevation of . Some of the lake's waters leaves at the west via the Go Home River, while the rest exits over the Go Home Lake Dam as the Musquash River. The river then takes in the left tributary Gibson River, turns west, passes through Three Rock Chute
[Typo, http://www4.rncan.gc.ca/search-place-names/unique/FCWEB] and exits into the Musquash Channel on Georgian Bay,
Lake Huron at an elevation of .
Settlements
Near the end of the 19th century, a lumber town called Muskoka Mills was located at the mouth of the river.
In popular culture
The Musquash River and Muskoka Mills are the setting for
Slaid Cleaves
Slaid Cleaves is an American singer-songwriter born in Washington, D.C. and raised in South Berwick, Maine and Round Pond, Maine, United States. An alumnus of Tufts University, where he majored in English and philosophy, Cleaves lives in Aus ...
' song
Breakfast in Hell, about a doomed lumberjack who motivates his men to break a logjam in 1899.
See also
*
List of rivers of Ontario
References
*
Rivers of Muskoka District
Tributaries of Georgian Bay
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