Clearwater River is the name of a river in the Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 provinces of Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

 and Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

.

Course

The Clearwater River totals 295 kilometres in length and rises in northwestern Saskatchewan in the northern forest region of the Precambrian Shield. From its headwaters at Broach Lake it flows southeast through Saskatchewan before it turns southwest at Careen Lake. It continues 108 km beyond the Alberta border before it joins the Athabasca River

Athabasca River

The Athabasca River originates from the Columbia Glacier of the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada...

 at Fort McMurray

Fort McMurray, Alberta

Fort McMurray is an urban service area in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in Alberta, Canada. It was previously incorporated as a city on September 1, 1980. It became an urban service area when it amalgamated with Improvement District No. 143 on April 1, 1995 to create the Municipality...

. This section of the river in Fort McMurray is also more affectionately referred to as The Chant. From there the Clearwater’s waters reach the Mackenzie River

Mackenzie River

The Mackenzie River is the largest river system in Canada. It flows through a vast, isolated region of forest and tundra entirely within the country's Northwest Territories, although its many tributaries reach into four other Canadian provinces and territories...

 and later the Arctic Ocean

Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...

.
From its headwaters in Broach Lake at 460 m above sea level, the Clearwater drops circa 150 m to its junction with the Athabasca River. The upper part of the river flows over the Precambrian Shield, through rapids, over small waterfalls and through one gorge. More downstream, the river valley enters the Interior Plains

Interior Plains

The Interior Plains is a vast physiographic region that spreads across the Laurentian craton of central North America.-Geography:The Interior Plains are an extensive physiographic division encompassing 8 distinct physiographic provinces, the Interior Low Plateaus, Great Plains, Central Lowland,...

 and its channels are meandering along sandbars and small islands. The lower Clearwater in Alberta is characterized by high valley walls of limestone and dolomite gorges.

Tributaries of the Clearwater River include Descharme River and McLean River in Saskatchewan and Christina River in Alberta.

Conservation

As the name implies, the Clearwater River is an unspoiled river in a breathtaking wilderness setting.
To conserve the river’s value, the province of Saskatchewan has established the Clearwater River Provincial Park (865 mi²; or 2240 km²). The Saskatchewan section was granted Canadian Heritage River

Canadian Heritage Rivers System

The Canadian Heritage Rivers System was established in 1984 by the federal, provincial and territorial governments to conserve and protect the best examples of Canada's river heritage, to give them national recognition, and to encourage the public to enjoy and appreciate them. It is a cooperative...

 status in 1986, and the Alberta section of the Clearwater was designated in 2004. Highway 955

Saskatchewan Highway 955

Highway 955 is a highway in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It runs from Highway 155 near La Loche to Cluff Lake Mine. The highway is approximately 245 km long and is entirely unpaved. The highway carries the name Semchuk Trail...

 crosses the river in the park.

Fish Species

The river's fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

 species include: walleye

Walleye

Walleye is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the northern United States. It is a North American close relative of the European pikeperch...

, yellow perch

Yellow perch

The yellow perch is a species of perch found in the United States and Canada, where it is often referred to by the shortform perch. Yellow perch look similar to the European perch, but are paler and more yellowish, with less red in the fins. They have six to eight dark, vertical bars on their sides...

, northern pike

Northern Pike

The northern pike , is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus Esox...

, lake trout

Lake trout

Lake trout is a freshwater char living mainly in lakes in northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, lake char , touladi, togue, and grey trout. In Lake Superior, they can also be variously known as siscowet, paperbellies and leans...

, arctic grayling

Arctic grayling

Arctic grayling is a species of freshwater fish in the salmon family of order Salmoniformes. It comprises five subspecies native to the Nearctic and Palearctic ecozones. T. a. arcticus is widespread throughout the Arctic and Pacific drainages in Canada, Alaska, and Siberia, as well as the upper...

, lake whitefish

Lake whitefish

The lake whitefish , also called the Sault whitefish or gizzard fish, is a species of freshwater whitefish from North America. Lake whitefish are found throughout much of Canada and parts of the northern United States, including all of the Great Lakes. A valuable commercial fish, they are also...

, cisco

Cisco (fish)

The ciscoes are salmonid fish of the genus Coregonus that differ from other members of the genus in having upper and lower jaws of approximately equal length and high gillraker counts...

, white sucker

White Sucker

The White Sucker is a bottom-feeding freshwater fish inhabiting North America from Labrador in the north to Georgia and New Mexico in the south. It is a long, round-bodied fish with a dark green, grey, copper, brown, or black back and sides and a light underbelly. When fullgrown, it is between 12...

, longnose sucker

Longnose sucker

The longnose sucker, Catostomus catostomus, is a freshwater species of fish inhabiting cold, clear waters in North America from northern USA to the top of the continent. In addition, it is one of two species of sucker to inhabit Asia, specifically the rivers of eastern Siberia...

 and burbot

Burbot

The burbot is the only gadiform fish inhabiting freshwaters. It is also known as mariah, the lawyer, and eelpout. It is closely related to the marine common ling and the cusk...

.

History

Rock-paintings along the upper portion of the river, shapes and symbols on rock surfaces, suggest that this area was already inhabited 5,000 years ago. Before the European colonisation, it was native groups of Beaver

Dunneza

The Dane-zaa are a First Nation of the large Athapaskan language group; their traditional territory is around the Peace River of the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, Canada...

, Cree

Cree

The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...

 and Chipewyan

Chipewyan

The Chipewyan are a Dene Aboriginal people in Canada, whose ancestors were the Taltheilei...

 people who were located here.

During the European exploration and the fur

Fur

Fur is a synonym for hair, used more in reference to non-human animals, usually mammals; particularly those with extensives body hair coverage. The term is sometimes used to refer to the body hair of an animal as a complete coat, also known as the "pelage". Fur is also used to refer to animal...

 trade of the 18th century, the downstream area of the Clearwater River was an important transportation route between Hudson Bay

Hudson Bay

Hudson Bay , sometimes called Hudson's Bay, is a large body of saltwater in northeastern Canada. It drains a very large area, about , that includes parts of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, most of Manitoba, southeastern Nunavut, as well as parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota,...

 and Montreal in the east and the District of Athabasca

District of Athabasca

The District of Athabasca is a former district of Canada. Its northern boundary was the current southern boundary of the Northwest Territories and extended south to 55° north latitude. The westernmost part is now part of Alberta and most of the eastern part is now in Saskatchewan. The very...

 in the west. Farther upstream, the Precambrian upper section was a barrier difficult to overcome by the traders. It was as far back as 1778 that explorer Peter Pond

Peter Pond

Peter Pond was born in Milford, Connecticut. He was a soldier with a Connecticut regiment, a fur trader, a founding member of the North West Company, an explorer and a cartographer.-Biography:...

 was the first to cross the Methye Portage

Methye Portage

The Methye Portage or Portage La Loche in northwestern Saskatchewan was one of the most important portages in the old fur-trade route across Canada. It connected the Mackenzie River basin to rivers that ran east to the Atlantic. It was reached by Peter Pond in 1778 and abandoned in 1883 when...

 between Lac La Loche and upper Clearwater River, a 19 km overland link on the route from Churchill

Churchill, Manitoba

Churchill is a town on the shore of Hudson Bay in Manitoba, Canada. It is most famous for the many polar bears that move toward the shore from inland in the autumn, leading to the nickname "Polar Bear Capital of the World" that has helped its growing tourism industry.-History:A variety of nomadic...

 to Athabasca

Athabasca, Alberta

Athabasca is a town in northern Alberta, Canada. It lies north of Edmonton on Highway 2, on the banks of the Athabasca River. It is the centre of Athabasca County. Until 1913 it was known as Athabasca Landing.- History :...

. For almost forty years, this was the only overland connection for the fur trade in this area, and continued to be in use for most of the 19th century as well. See Canadian Canoe Routes (early)

Canadian canoe routes (early)

This article covers the water routes used by early explorers of Canada with special emphasis on the fur trade.-Canada and Siberia:Both Canada and Siberia were explored mainly by river. Both countries have many navigable rivers with short portages between them. There are no serious barriers to canoe...

.