Old Wives Lake
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Old Wives Lake is a shallow endorheic salt lake in south central Saskatchewan, Canada, about Template:Convert south-west of Moose Jaw. The lake is fed by the Wood River but seasonal water relatively flattened the terrain, and as such results in significant mudflats. A Migratory Bird Sanctuary was established at the lake on March 9, 1925. This lake, in conjunction with Reed Lake and Chaplin Lake, forms a site of hemispheric importance in the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network. It was designated in April 1997, and is "one of the most important inland sites for migratory birds in North America".<ref name="envCanada">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="WHSRN">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> At the north-eastern part of the lake is the Isle of Bays Wildlife Refuge (Template:Coord).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The wildlife refuge encompasses the entirety of Isle of Bays.
At various times during the lake's human history, it has attracted interest from several First Nations tribes, duck hunters, military trainers, sodium sulfate producers, conservationists, and birdwatchers.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Nearby communities include Old Wives and Mossbank. Access to the lake is from Highway 363. The Old Wives Lake is a popular destination for birdwatchers; a Template:Convert walking trail has been constructed along the lake's south shore, along with viewing and picnic areas.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
NameEdit
A variety of First Nations oral traditions explain the origin of the lake's name. According to a Cree tradition,<ref name=EncycSask/> recounted by Métis guides accompanying the North-West Mounted Police in 1874, sometime around 1840 a band of Cree hunters followed a herd of bison into Blackfoot territory and made camp near the lake. Blackfoot scouts discovered this band and attacked. Although the Cree were able to defend themselves, they anticipated an attack by a larger Blackfoot war party the next morning. The older women volunteered to stay behind to tend the fires through the night in the hope of fooling the Blackfoot into believing that they were not abandoning their camp to escape. Using this diversion as cover, the rest of the Cree successfully fled back to their home territory in the Qu'Appelle valley. When the Blackfoot arrived that morning they found only the old women, whom the Blackfoot killed in vengeance.<ref name=Nov1953>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name = SaskTourism/> This commonly recited version of the lake's naming has been commemorated by a historical marker situated beside Highway 2 near the lake.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A variant telling of this narrative states that the Blackfoot warriors were so impressed by the women's courage that they left them alone and allowed them to rejoin their own people.<ref name=MacEwan>Template:Cite news</ref> Another First Nations oral tradition describes how a band of Assiniboine fleeing from pursuing Blackfoot warriors abandoned the old women in their band who could not keep pace with everyone else. The women continued their effort to escape by wading across the lake. However, they misjudged the water's depth and drowned.<ref name=MacEwan/> An Assiniboine tradition associates the name with a battle which occurred at the lake around the beginning of the 19th century in which Assiniboines vanquished their Blackfoot enemies.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> According to some First Nations traditions, the spirits of the dead women continue to haunt a small island in the lake from which their voices can be heard at night.<ref name = SaskTourism/><ref name=MacEwan/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Some early accounts describing the region state that the name "Old Wives Lake" was originally applied to both the lake that currently bears that name and to nearby Chaplin Lake.<ref>Template:Cite book Isaac Cowie writes, "There are two Old Wives' Lakes, connected by a creek. These were named on maps, respectively, after the Rt. Hon. Henry Chaplin and Sir Frederick Johnstone, who hunted buffalo near them in 1861."</ref><ref>Template:Cite book "[Old Wives Lake] is divided into two parts, each of which is about twenty miles long. The two divisions are united by a sluggish stream, about ten miles in length, into which Old Wives' Creek empties."</ref> In 1861, the British politicians Sir Frederick Johnstone and Henry Chaplin visited the area to hunt bison, antelope, and elk for sport. Explorer John Rae, who accompanied the expedition, named area lakes in honour of its members: The lake now called Old Wives Lake became Johnstone Lake and Chaplin Lake received the name by which it is still known.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Although the Canadian government officially adopted the designation "Johnstone Lake" in 1886,<ref name = SaskTourism/> the First Nations peoples along with early ranchers and homesteaders in the area continued to refer to it as Old Wives Lake. In response to a petition by area residents to restore its traditional name, the Canadian board on geographical names formally renamed it Old Wives Lake in 1953.<ref name=Nov1953/>
HistoryEdit
Teepee rings and other artifacts discovered near Old Wives Lake attest to a First Nations presence in the area long predating their contact with Europeans.<ref name = SaskTourism>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> With the arrival of European settlers, ranchers and homesteaders occupied the area surrounding the lake.<ref name=Nov1953/> Until hunting was prohibited in the Old Wives Lake bird sanctuary, duck hunters gathered at the lake in the autumn to hunt the plentiful wild ducks and geese.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> During World War II a bombing and gunnery air training school established under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan operated near the lake's shoreline, three miles east of Mossbank. Throughout the war, part of the lake and its surroundings were incorporated into a 23-mile bombing range used by trainee pilots.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> For some decades in the 20th century, especially during the 1950s and 1960s, sodium sulfate was harvested from the lake by diverting water into nearby Frederick Lake for evaporation.<ref name=EncycSask>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> The sodium sulfate plant operated until 1977.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1975, two Canadian Forces military training aircraft were involved in a mid-air collision over the lake which caused one of the aircraft to crash into it. The two pilots in this aircraft were able to parachute out and inflate emergency rubber dinghies enabling them to remain afloat until their rescue by a helicopter based out of CFB Moose Jaw.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Drought conditions caused the lake to dry up completely in 1937, and 1988.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In certain years, including 1951,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 1959,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 1980<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and 1997,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> large numbers of ducks were found dead at the lake due to outbreaks of botulism.
Old Wives-Frederick Lakes IBAEdit
The Old Wives-Frederick Lakes (SK 031) Important Bird Area (IBA) of Canada<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> is a protected area for birds that encompasses Old Wives and Frederick Lakes. The total area covered by the IBA is Template:Cvt. Frederick Lake is a shallow basin adjacent to the south-western shore of Old Wives Lake.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The site is home to numerous different bird species, including the endangered piping plover. The most commonly found birds include sanderlings and Baird's sandpipers. Other species include American white pelicans, Semipalmated sandpipers, stilt sandpipers, American avocets, double-crested cormorants, Franklin's gulls, ring-billed gulls, California gulls, common terns, mallards, and canvasbacks.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>