The Paddle River is a short

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

in northern

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

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 ...

. Known as Pimiskāw sīpiy (Paddle River) by the Cree, the

was named because of its slow speed. During the fur trade era, a canoe could be easily ''paddled'' up the river, in contrast to the more arduous task of ascending a swifter river like the Pembina River that required poling or tracking.

Course

The river generally flows in an eastward direction from its headwaters, although there are significant

meanders 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 bank ...

and a large number of

oxbow lakes An oxbow lake is a U-shaped lake or pool that forms when a wide meander of a river is cut off, creating a free-standing body of water. In South Texas, oxbows left by the Rio Grande are called '' resacas''. In Australia, oxbow lakes are calle ...

along its course. It passes near the hamlet of

Rochfort Bridge Rochfort Bridge is a hamlet in Alberta, Canada within Lac Ste. Anne County. It is located approximately northwest of Edmonton and east of Mayerthorpe. Rochfort Bridge is named for Cooper (Cowper) Rochfort, who with his associate, Percy Mich ...

, and brushes the municipality of

Barrhead Barrhead ( sco, Baurheid, gd, Ceann a' Bharra) is a town in East Renfrewshire, Scotland, southwest of Glasgow city centre on the edge of the Gleniffer Braes. At the 2011 census its population was 17,268. History Barrhead was formed when ...

before joining the Pembina River near Manola, Alberta. It is bridged by many secondary highways, as well as

Alberta Highway 43 Alberta Provincial Highway No. 43, commonly referred to as Highway 43, is a major highway in northern and central Alberta, Canada that connects Edmonton to the British Columbia border via the Peace Country, forming the northernmost p ...

and Alberta Highway 33.

Flooding

Throughout the history of European settlement along the Paddle River,

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

ing has been a constant issue. Both farmers and

ranchers A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most often ...

were attracted to the

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

of the

due to the high quality of its

soils Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former ter ...

. As human settlement increased, the economic costs associated with flooding became much more pronounced. Residents of the area eventually formed the 'Paddle River Drainage Association' to

petition A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some offi ...

the provincial government for flood control.''The Edmonton Journal,'' 20 April 1965. The

Alberta Government The Executive Council of Alberta (the Cabinet) is a body of ministers of the Crown in right of Alberta, who along with the lieutenant governor, exercises the powers of the Government of Alberta. Ministers are selected by the premier and typica ...

eventually constructed a

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

on the river near Rochfort Bridge to mitigate some of the worst effects of the flooding.

Tributaries

*Little Paddle River *Romeo Creek *Connor Creek *Maxwell Lake *Kipp Lake *Neville Lake

References

{{authority control Rivers of Alberta

Course

Flooding

Tributaries

See also

References