South Saskatchewan River

South Saskatchewan River
The University Bridge over the South Saskatchewan River at Saskatoon
Country	Canada
Province	Alberta, Saskatchewan
Source confluence	Oldman and Bow Rivers
- location	Municipal District of Taber, Alberta
- elevation	700 m (2,297 ft)
- coordinates	49°56′00″N 111°41′30″W / 49.93333°N 111.69167°W / 49.93333; -111.69167
Mouth	Saskatchewan River
- location	Saskatchewan River Forks, Saskatchewan
- elevation	380 m (1,247 ft)
- coordinates	53°14′6″N 105°4′58″W / 53.23500°N 105.08278°W / 53.23500; -105.08278Coordinates: 53°14′6″N 105°4′58″W / 53.23500°N 105.08278°W / 53.23500; -105.08278
Length	1,392 km (865 mi)
Basin	146,100 km2 (56,410 sq mi)
Discharge	for Saskatoon, SK
- average	249 m3/s (8,793 cu ft/s)
The Saskatchewan River drainage basin

The South Saskatchewan River is a major river in Canada that flows through the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

For the first half of the 20th century, the South Saskatchewan would completely freeze over during winter, creating spectacular ice breaks and dangerous conditions in Saskatoon, Medicine Hat and elsewhere. At least one bridge in Saskatoon was destroyed by ice carried by the river. The construction of the Gardiner Dam in the 1960s, however, lessened the power of the river by diverting a substantial portion of the South Saskatchewan's natural flow into the Qu'Appelle River. By the 1980s many permanent sandbars had formed due to the lowering of the level of the river.

From the headwaters of the Bow River, the South Saskatchewan flows for 1,392 kilometres (865 mi). At its mouth at Saskatchewan River Forks, it has an average discharge of 280 cubic metres per second (9,900 cu ft/s) and has a watershed of 146,100 square kilometres (56,400 sq mi), 1,800 of which are in Montana in the United States and 144,300 square kilometres (55,700 sq mi) in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

The river originates at the confluence of the Bow and Oldman Rivers near Grassy Lake, Alberta. The waters of these two rivers, in turn, originate from glaciers in the Rocky Mountains near the British Columbia and Montana border. The Red Deer River is a major tributary of the South Saskatchewan merging 16 kilometres (10 mi) east of the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. The Lake Diefenbaker reservoir was created with the construction of the Gardiner and Qu'Appelle River dams in Saskatchewan. Water from the South Saskatchewan flowing through the dams provides approximately 19 percent of the hydro-electricity generated by SaskPower.