The Désert River () is a river in the

Outaouais Outaouais (, ; also commonly called The Outaouais) is a region of western Quebec, Canada. It includes the city of Gatineau, the municipality of Val-des-Monts, the municipality of Cantley, Quebec, Cantley and the Papineau Regional County Municipal ...

region of

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada. The river starts at Lake Désert and flows in a northeasterly direction. It turns south near the northern boundary of the municipality of Montcerf-Lytton, meandering for more than . It then straightens and from the confluence with the Aigle River, the river forms the boundary between Egan-Sud and

Kitigan Zibi Kitigan Zibi (also known as River Desert, and designated as Maniwaki 18 until 1994) is a First Nations reserve of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation, an Algonquin band. It is situated near the confluence of the Désert and Gatineau Ri ...

Reserve. Finally it turns east before draining into the Gatineau River at Maniwaki. It was named "Désert" (French for "

desert A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...

") due to a natural clearing or man-made vacant land along its banks near its mouth at the

Gatineau River The Gatineau River (, ) is a river in western Quebec, Canada, which rises in lakes north of the Baskatong Reservoir and flows south to join the Ottawa River at the city of Gatineau, Quebec. The river is long and drains an area of . Toponomy Ac ...

. "Desert" in the sense of cleared terrain comes from the dialects of northwestern France. The

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

built a trading post on this spot in 1838, followed by an Oblate mission in the 1840s, which formed into a settlement called Notre-Dame-du-Désert in 1849 (now known as

Maniwaki Maniwaki is a town in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is situated north of Ottawa, Ontario, on the Gatineau River, at the crossroads of Route 105 and Route 107, near Route 117 (Trans-Canada Highway). The town is the administrative centre fo ...

). The Désert River overflowed its banks and caused flooding in 1974, mid 1990's, and 2017, requiring evacuations in Maniwaki.

References

Tributaries of the Gatineau River Rivers of Outaouais {{Quebec-river-stub