The
Saint Lawrence River (in
French:
fleuve Saint-Laurent;
Kahnawáˀkye in
Tuscarora,
Kaniatarowanenneh meaning
big waterway in
Mohawk) is a large
river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of
North America, connecting the
Great Lakes with the
Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage of the
Great Lakes Basin. It traverses the
Canadian provinces of
Quebec and
Ontario and forms part of the
international boundary between Ontario and
New York State, U.S.A.
Geography
The Saint Lawrence River originates at the outflow of
Lake Ontario between
Kingston, Ontario on the north bank,
Wolfe Island in mid-stream, and
Cape Vincent, New York.
Saint Lawrence River seen from Spot satellite
From there, it passes
Gananoque,
Brockville,
Ogdensburg,
Massena,
Cornwall,
Montreal,
Trois-Rivières, and
Quebec City before draining into the
Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the largest
estuary in the world. It runs from the furthest headwater to the mouth ( from the outflow of Lake Ontario). The furthest headwater is the
North River in the
Mesabi Range at
Hibbing,
Minnesota. Its drainage area, which includes the Great Lakes and hence the world's largest system of fresh water lakes, has a size of . The average discharge at the mouth is . The river includes
Lake Saint-Louis south of Montreal,
Lac Saint-François at
Salaberry-de-Valleyfield and
Lac Saint-Pierre east of Montreal. It encompasses three
archipelagoes: the
Thousand Islands chain near
Kingston, Ontario; the
Hochelaga Archipelago, including the
Island of Montreal and
Île Jésus (
Laval); and the smaller
Mingan Archipelago. Other islands include
Île d'Orléans near Quebec City, and
Anticosti Island north of the
Gaspé.
Lake Champlain and the
Ottawa,
Richelieu, and
Saguenay rivers drain into the St. Lawrence.
The Saint Lawrence River is in a seismically active zone where
fault reactivation is believed to occur along late
Proterozoic to early
Paleozoic normal faults related to the opening of
Iapetus Ocean. The faults in the area are
rift related, which is called the
Saint Lawrence rift system.
The Saint Lawrence Valley is a
physiographic province of the larger
Appalachian division, containing the
Champlain and Northern physiographic section.
History
The St. Lawrence estuary was visited by many navigators (such as
John Cabot and
Jacques Cartier) and Basque fishermen soon after the discovery of America (or perhaps even before, see
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact#Late contact claims). But the first known European explorer to sail the inland part of the St. Lawrence was
Jacques Cartier, during his second trip to Canada in 1535, with the help of Iroquoian chief Donnacona's two sons. As he arrived in the estuary on
St. Lawrence's feast day, Cartier accordingly named it the
Gulf of St. Lawrence. The land along the river was inhabited at the time by the
St. Lawrence Iroquoians. The
St. Lawrence River is partly within the U.S. and as such is that country's sixth oldest surviving European place-name.
Map of 1543 showing Cartier's discoveries.
Until the early 1600s, the French used the name
Rivière du Canada to designate the Saint Lawrence upstream to Montreal and the Ottawa River after Montreal. The Saint Lawrence River served as the main route for European exploration of the North American interior, first pioneered by French explorer
Samuel de Champlain.
Because of the virtually impassable
Lachine Rapids, the St. Lawrence was once continuously navigable only as far as Montreal. Opened in 1825, the
Lachine Canal was the first to allow ships to pass the rapids. An extensive system of canals and locks, known as the
Saint Lawrence Seaway, was officially opened on 26 June 1959 by
Queen Elizabeth II (representing Canada) and President
Dwight D. Eisenhower (representing the United States of America). The Seaway now permits ocean-going vessels to pass all the way to
Lake Superior.
During
World War II, the
Battle of the St. Lawrence involved a number of submarine and anti-submarine actions throughout the lower St. Lawrence River and the entire
Gulf of Saint Lawrence,
Strait of Belle Isle and
Cabot Strait from May to October 1942, September 1943, and again in October and November 1944. During this time, German
U-boats sank a number of merchant marine ships and three Canadian warships.
In the late 1970s, the river was the subject of a successful ecological campaign (called "Save the River"), originally responding to planned development by the
United States Army Corps of Engineers. The campaign was organized, among others, by
Abbie Hoffman, then on the run under the pseudonym of Barry Freed.
Names
Saint Lawrence River
Saint Lawrence River along the New York-Ontario border
The source of the North River in the Mesabi Range in Minnesota (Seven Beaver Lake) is considered to be the source of the Saint Lawrence River. Because it crosses so many lakes, the water system frequently changes its name. From source to mouth, the names are:
Works
The St. Lawrence River is at the heart of many Quebec novels (
Anne Hébert's
Kamouraska,
Réjean Ducharme's
L'avalée des avalés), poems (in works of
Pierre Morency,
Bernard Pozier), and songs (
Leonard Cohen's
Suzanne, Michel Rivard's
L'oubli). The river has also been portrayed in paintings, notably by the
Group of Seven. In addition, the river is the namesake of
Saint-Laurent Herald at the
Canadian Heraldic Authority.
In 1980,
Jacques Cousteau traveled to Canada to make two films on the Saint Lawrence River and the Great Lakes,
Cries from the Deep and
St. Lawrence: Stairway to the Sea.
See also
