Skootamatta River


The Skootamatta River is a river in the Lake Ontario drainage basin in Hastings and Lennox and Addington Counties in Ontario, Canada. It flows from Joeperry Lake to join the Moira River in Tweed. The river's name is thought to come from Ojibwa words meaning "burnt shoreline".

Course

The river begins at Joeperry Lake in Bon Echo Provincial Park in Addington Highlands, Lennox and Addington County, northwest of Cloyne, at an elevation of. It flows south, taking in the right tributary Rainy Creek, and reaches Pearson Lake. The river continues south and empties into Skootamatta Lake at an elevation of. The right tributary Killer Creek joins at the lake. It flows south over Skootamatta Dam, continues south and reaches Slave Lake at an elevation of. It continues south over a small dam, takes in the right tributary Partridge Creek, and arrives in the community of Flinton. The Skootamatta River then flows over Flinton Dam, heads southwest, passes into Hastings County and takes in the left tributary Flinton Creek at an elevation of. The river continues south, takes in the left tributary Little Skootamatta Creek at an elevation of, and turns west just north of Highway 7. The river takes in the right tributary Elzevir Creek, heads southwest under the highway at Actinolite and runs parallel to Highway 37. It reaches its mouth at the Moira River, at an elevation of, which flows into the Bay of Quinte on Lake Ontario.

History

Until 1908, the river was used to transport logs to sawmills in the Belleville area. At one time, there was a small hydroelectric station on the river near Slave Lake which generated power for a nearby gold mine.

Tributaries

The river is mentioned several times in Michael Ondaatje's novel The English Patient as a place where Hana, one of the novel's main characters, once lived.
Name of a song sung by the Cobourg, Ontario band Summerhouse on their CD "Summerhouse... In Black"