Oldman River

The Oldman River just upstream of the mouth

The Oldman River is a 363 km long river in the south of the Canadian province of Alberta, which takes its name from Napi or Old Man received, the Supreme Being at the Blackfoot.

It rises in the Rocky Mountains, in the Beehive Natural Area, flows through the Bob Creek Wildland Park and the Black Creek Heritage Rangeland, and flows eastward through Fort Macleod, Lethbridge and Taber on to Grassy Lake, where it joins with the Bow River brings together for the South Saskatchewan River. This flows into Hudson Bay. The drainage area of the Oldman River covers about 26,700 km ². As recreational areas, the Oldman Dam and Oldman River Provincial Recreation Areas were set up on the river.

Although the river itself is not particularly wide, but flows in places up to 100 m deeper than the surrounding plateau. While roads such as the Crowsnest Highway cope with the gradients which occur as easily and therefore cross the Oldman River at comparatively low bridges in the valley, had to be built for the railway line two large viaducts. The larger Lethbridge Viaduct is about 1600 meters long and spans the entire valley in up to 95 m height.

At the Oldman River are also the reserves of two Indian tribes, the Peigan Timber limit B and the Peigan 147 of the Northern Peigan and the Reserve No. 148 of Blood or Kainai. 1990 planned the Alberta government to build a dam, and took it into account that a burial place of the Blackfoot would be flooded. Under the leadership of Milton Born With A Tooth initiated the Blackfoot, more specifically, the Peigan Lonefighters Society, the river itself in order to make the dam in this way worthless. However, the dam at the confluence of the Oldman, Crowsnest and Castle River was completed in 1992. Environmental concerns, which were mainly presented by the Friends of the Oldman River Society, were created with a report after the fact - not eliminated - it would have been lawful to seek the opinion previously.