Lower Souris Map

The village of Fairlight is located along the Canadian National Railway with a population of 40. A new water treatment plant and reservoir were constructed in October of 99, which continues to supply the town today.

Redvers is the location of the Lower Souris Watershed Committee office, and is the first town along the “Red Coat Trail” (Highway 13) when coming from Manitoba. The town was named after General Sir Redvers Buller in 1897 and incorporated in 1904. Like most towns in the area, its economy is based on farming, oil drilling and various other services. Redvers gets its water from a deep water reservoir, and is processed through reverse osmosis. It is stored in a 100 000 gallon water reservoir, with another 60 000 able to be stored in the water tower making for a total reserve of 160 000 gallons.

Storthoaks is a small village with a population of 93 people as of the 2011 census. Water for the village is sourced from an out of town well and then piped throughout.

The Moosomin Reservoir is one of 33 projects owned and operated by the PFRA, and was originally built as a way to provide water conservation. Since then, it has expanded to include irrigation, water supply, recreation and to provide supplementary riparian flows. It is about 10 km long and at its widest point it is approximately half a kilometer wide. The reservoir has average and maximum depths of 4.7 and 7.9 meters respectively. Moosomin Reservoir is supplied by three main waterways; Pipestone Creek, Little Pipestone Creek, and Montgomery Creek. Pipestone Creek rises south of Grenfell, while the other two tributaries begin at the northern facing slope of the Moose Mountain Hills. The dam is located on the Pipestone Creek just downstream of the confluence of the Pipestone and Little Pipestone Creeks, about 28 kilometers upstream of the Saskatchewan – Manitoba border. Moosomin Reservoir has a storage capacity of about 11,155 dam3 at its full supply level and a dead storage volume of about 311 dam3

Kipling Marsh is a wetland located north west of the town of Kipling. Originally only covering 2500 acres, the marsh has been found to cover near 10 000 acres when the water table is high. In 2011, a seven mile long drainage ditch was installed, allowing overflow to flow onto Pipestone Creek. As well, a pump house has been installed that elevates and drains an area of land that the ditch itself would not drain.

Stony, Jackson, Graham and Gainsborough Creek, referred to as “The Four Creeks”, are classified as intermittent water courses, which means there is typically flow during spring snow melt followed by zero or near-zero flows through the late spring, summer, fall and winter, interrupted occasionally by runoff in the event of a very high rainfall event. The average overflow for Jackson, Graham, and Gainsborough Creeks is 4.4 mm, 6.4 mm, and 6.5 mm respectively. This compares with average annual precipitation of 460 mm to 490 mm.

Antler River has an average annual precipitation of around 430 mm at Carlyle to about 525 mm at Carnduff. Only a small percentage of the received precipitation may recharge groundwater systems; the vast majority of the water is returned to the atmosphere either through evaporation from wetlands and the ground surface, or through transpiration from plants. The largest single water demand on the Antler River is the obligation under the 1969 Master Agreement on Apportionment for Saskatchewan to provide to Manitoba 50 percent of the natural flow of the creek at the Saskatchewan-Manitoba boundary. Currently, Environment Canada has one hydrometric station operating on Lightning creek, a tributary, and two stations on the Antler River in Saskatchewan.

Cannington Manor Provincial Park recreates the exciting period of history on the original village site, which was established in 1882 by Captain Edward Michell Pierce. A failed Englishman who had moved to Canada in an attempt to regain his fortune. Pierce created an agriculture college in the hopes of teaching other English men how to farm. By 1900, the village of Cannington Manor had been abandoned. Today, original artifacts and reconstructed buildings allow costumed staff to bring Cannington Manor to life and show a glimpse of what ifs was like during this unique lifestyle.