Cree Lake

Cree Lake spreads across the Canadian Shield of northern Saskatchewan, west of Reindeer Lake and south of Lake Athabasca. Its 81-kilometre length includes deeply indented shores, numerous islands and a coastline that would be long even for a sea. The lake occupies a basin fed by several rivers, among them the Brustad, Karras and Routledge. Its outlet, the Cree River, begins at the northern end and passes through Black Lake before the waters continue through Lake Athabasca into the Mackenzie drainage.

South of the lake, a portage to the Mudjatik River still joins this northern system to the Churchill basin, which reaches Hudson Bay. That dual link records a changed landscape. Cree Lake is the remnant of a much larger proglacial lake formed by meltwater as continental glaciers retreated.

Its old waters escaped south through glacial spillways, and the later northward outflow emerged after the land rose following the removal of ice. The lake then supports walleye, lake trout, whitefish, pike and other species. In this country, water routes unite dispersed communities and fishing grounds; the southern portage and the northern river remain more useful landmarks than a continuous land road through Shield rock and boreal forest.