Mississagi River, Ontario

2,273 miles

May 9 – Here, a little ways past the town of Iron Bridge,  my highway route runs right next to the Mississagi River.  There’s nothing else in sight for miles, so I decided to contemplate the river itself.

A Snowy Owl in Flight,
by David Hemmings

  

The Mississagi River meanders from lake to lake in soggy Ontario.  It begins in a small unnamed lake in Sudbury District and flows into White Owl Lake, from which it flows into Mississagi Lake.  This must involve a lot of meltwater in the springtime.

The river then turns south and heads to Kettle Lake, the furthest point east it reaches, before continuing south and entering Mississagi River Provincial Park at Upper Bark Lake.

zigzag route to Hellgate Rapids

The river continues south, enters the large "L"-shaped Bark Lake, then heads west through Hellgate Rapids.

Hellgate Rapids

The Mississagi takes in a tributary, the Abinette River, then splits into two channels to form an island, recombines, and enters the large Rocky Island Lake, where another tributary, the Cypress River, enters.  It then flows into Aubrey Lake, where the Wenebegon Rivers join it.

Aubrey Falls - spectacular beauty!

Even though much of the water is funneled into a power station, some continues to flow over Aubrey Falls.

The Mississagi turns south and a right tributary Aubinadong River enters, followed by two left tributaries, the Sharpsand River and the Rapid River in quick succession, and further on, another left tributary, Snowshoe Creek from Wakomata Lake.

Red Rock Generating Station

Then it reaches Tunnel Lake, created by dams for two generating stations.  The river flows southeast where the left tributary Little White River enters, and continues to Red Rock Lake, another reservoir lake created for a generating station, over the Shino Rapids, takes in the right tributary Bolton River, then reaches Lake Huron.

bird's foot delta of the Mississagi River

The river's delta is a "bird's foot" delta, a type not commonly found on the Great Lakes.  (The Mississippi River in Louisiana has a bird's foot delta.)

The Ojibwa people used the river to travel between the forests of the interior and Lake Huron.  In 1799, the North West Company built a fur trading post at the mouth of the river. This post was closed in 1900.

logs ready to float to the sawmill

During the second half of the 19th century, the river was used to transport logs to sawmills at Blind River.  Nowadays, the back country has become more generally accessible by the use of float planes to fly hunters & campers to the mountain lakes.

This is a relatively short river with a lot of variety within its meandering course.

info: Wikipedia.com

maps: Google Maps

Aubrey Falls: http://waterfallsofontario.com/aubrey-falls.php

Red Rock Station:  https://brianlangis.wordpress.com/