Red River of the North
The Red River of the North ( French Rivière Rouge ) is a North American river with a length of 877 km (including the tributary Sheyenne River ).
The Red River of the North arises in the twin cities of Wahpeton , North Dakota and Breckenridge , Minnesota from the confluence of the Otter Tail River and Bois de Sioux River and belongs to the Hudson Bay catchment area . The catchment area of the river covers a total of 297,000 km² and below Winnipeg the average flow rate is 240 m³ / s. The river is navigable in the middle and lower reaches.
In Canada the river is known as the Red River ; the long name Red River of the North is mainly used in the United States to him from the Red River to distinguish which is a tributary of the Mississippi and part of the border between Texas and Oklahoma forms. Approximately 628 km of the river is in the United States and around 150 km is in Canada . In Canada, the river is classified as the Canadian Heritage River .
The difference in altitude between its origin and the mouth is only 70 m. The river heads north and touches the cities of Fargo, North Dakota, Moorhead, Minnesota , Grand Forks (North Dakota) and East Grand Forks (Minnesota) in the United States . It forms a large part of the border between the US states of Minnesota and North Dakota. It flows through the flat, fertile ground of the former Ice Age Agassizsee . The river then continues north into Canada in the province of Manitoba . It then flows into the Winnipeg Sea in the Netley Marsh .
The course of the river originally belonged to Ruperts Land and was a key to the early colonization of Canada and an important center for the fur trade in North America and the Métis . The Red River Colony then developed into today's provincial capital Winnipeg , where the Assiniboine River meets the Red River. The Red River gave its name to the Red River Trails , a former important trade route between the Red River Colony and the United States.
The tributaries of the Red River of the North on the left are Sheyenne River, Wild Rice River (North Dakota), Park River, Pembina River, and Assiniboine River; from the right flow into the Wild Rice River (Minnesota), Red Lake River and Roseau River.
Floods
The river floods every year at the time of snowmelt . Since the arrival of the European settlers, three major flood disasters have been known, which occurred in 1826, 1950 and 1997. Other years that the Red River was plagued by severe flooding are in 1826 and 2006, but there are other severe floods of similar and larger magnitude in the river basin that affected landform. Such historical floods have been the subject of scientific research.
On May 8, 1950, during the Red River Flood in 1950, the Red River reached its highest level since 1861. Eight levees that were supposed to protect Winnipeg gave way and much of the city was flooded. Over 230 km² of farmland turned into an extensive lake. The Armed Forces of Canada and the Red Cross helped evacuate nearly 70,000 residents. Four of the eleven bridges in the city were destroyed and the damage was then estimated at 600 to 1000 million Canadian dollars .
In response to these floods, a flood protection project was launched to prevent a similar disaster in the future. The Red River Floodway was initially the cause of some controversy as it appeared oversized. At the time, this channel for draining off flood water was the largest earthmoving project in the world. In the 37 years from its completion in 1969 and 2006, part of the Red River flood was diverted about twenty times through the Red River Floodway. It is estimated that approximately 10 billion Canadian dollars in flood damage was prevented during this period.
The severe Red River Flood in April 1997 resulted in extensive evacuations , according to some sources, it was the largest evacuation in the United States at the time since the Civil War in Atlanta, and damage in the city of Grand Forks was more than two Billion dollars . In Winnipeg, the Red River Floodway has kept much of the flooding out of the city; the damage there nevertheless reached the 500 million Canadian dollar mark .
In the spring of 2009 another pronounced flood event occurred: on March 27, 2009, the water level of the Red River reached its highest level since 1897 as a result of heavy precipitation and snowmelt in Fargo .
The forks
The place where the Assiniboine River meets the Red River is known as The Forks and was declared a National Historic Site of Canada on May 18, 1974 . The confluence and the surrounding cultural landscape bear witness to six thousand years of human activity as a meeting point, trading center and settlement.
Web links
- Canadian Council for Geographic Education website with a series of articles on the history of the Red River ( Memento December 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c The Atlas of Canada - Rivers ( Memento from January 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ^ Red River Map 3 , Minnesota DNR; PDF map showing the international border at river mile 155. (English, accessed January 12, 2008)
- ↑ Historical Floods in the Red River Basin ( Memento of October 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ↑ Paleofloods in the Red River Basin ( Memento from March 31, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Information about 1997 evacuation of Grand Forks ( Memento of December 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Knight Foundation (English)
- ↑ Report minnesota.publicradio.org (accessed March 28, 2009)
- ^ The Forks National Historic Site of Canada. In: Canadian Register of Historic Places. Retrieved on August 4, 2020 .