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South Saskatchewan River

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river in Alberta and Saskatchewan

Key facts

Country
Canada
Provinces
Alberta Saskatchewan
Source confluence
Oldman and Bow Rivers
Location
Municipal District of Taber , Alberta
Coordinates
49°56′00″N 111°41′30″W / 49.93333°N 111.69167°W / 49.93333; -111.69167
Elevation
700 m (2,300 ft)
Mouth
Saskatchewan River
Length
1,392 km (865 mi)
Basin size
146,100 km (56,400 sq mi)
Average
249 m /s (8,800 cu ft/s)
Left
Bow River Red Deer River
Right
Oldman River

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of
river
Country
Canada
Located in
Alberta
Shares border with
Laird
Image
South Saskatchewan River.jpg
Length
1004
Show 5 more facts
Commons category
South Saskatchewan River
mouth of the watercourse
Saskatchewan River
watershed area
146100
discharge
249
origin of the watercourse
Oldman River
Sources (2)

via Wikidata · CC0

~7 min read

Encyclopedic overview

The South Saskatchewan River is a major river in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The river begins at the confluence of the Bow and Oldman Rivers in southern Alberta and ends at the Saskatchewan River Forks in central Saskatchewan. The Saskatchewan River Forks is the confluence of the South and North Saskatchewan Rivers and is the beginning of the Saskatchewan River.

For the first half of the 20th century, the South Saskatchewan would completely freeze over during winter, creating spectacular ice breaks and dangerous conditions in Saskatoon, Medicine Hat, and elsewhere. At least one bridge in Saskatoon was destroyed by ice carried by the river. The construction of the Gardiner Dam in the 1960s, however, lessened the power of the river by diverting a substantial portion of the South Saskatchewan's natural flow into the Qu'Appelle River. By the 1980s many permanent sandbars had formed due to the lowering of the level of the river.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “South Saskatchewan River” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

On the map

4 mapped locations