Mirond Lake is a lake in Northern Saskatchewan, Canada. The lake lies in low-relief forested terrain of the Canadian Shield about 68 kilometres (42mi) north-west of Creighton. It is accessible by road from Highway135, which branches off the Hanson Lake Road. The climate is sub-arctic.
Mirond Lake Indian reserve is near the northern end of Mirond Lake where Wunehikun Bay joins to the lake. There are also lodges with cabins and campgrounds for fishing and hunting at the lake.
Description
Mirond Lake is a large, deep lake. It covers an area of 10,940 hectares (27,000 acres), has a shoreline measuring 489 kilometres (304mi), and is 45.5 metres (149ft) deep. It is also about 39 kilometres (24mi) long and 8 kilometres (5mi) wide at its widest point.
Mirond Lake is joined to Pelican Lake to the west by Opawikusehikan Narrows. Attitti Lake to the east drains through Waskwei Lake and Wunehikun Bay into Mirond Lake. Pelican and Mirond lakes are near the 400 metres (1,300ft) high point of the Flin Flon Plain, which slopes gently to the south down to about 330 metres (1,080ft) at Deschambault Lake and Amisk Lake.
Mirond Lake is the headwaters of the Sturgeon-Weir River, a tributary to Cumberland Lake. This in turn drains into the Saskatchewan River System. The river leaves the south end of Mirond Lake into Corneille Lake through a rock-walled channel containing the Corneille Rapids. It then flows more slowly through a series of long, narrow lakes.
Environment
The landscape has areas of glaciolacustrine silts and clays or sandy glacial till, with many outcrops of Precambrian rocks that have been scoured by glacial ice. There are large areas of peatland in the poorly drained areas, and elsewhere the land is forested. Black spruce (picea mariana) is common but not dominant, and other trees include white spruce (picea glauca), trembling aspen (populus tremuloides), jack pine (pinus banksiana), and balsam fir (abies balsamea).
Etymology
The name "mi-rond" is French and means "half round", or "half moon" according to Sir John Richardson.
It describes the shape of the lake.
Peter Pond, a poor speller, showed the lake as "Mineront" in his maps drawn around 1785. Other variants were used later, such as Merion. Sir John Franklin on his overland expedition of 1819–22 wrote "Miron" as "Heron", and this was copied by several other map makers. The name Mirond is standard now. The Cree give the twin lakes of Pelican and Mirond the name Opawikoschikun Sakuhikuna, or "fear lakes", referring to a massacre that took place there around 1730.
Recreation
There are three lodges at Mirond Lake that have services such as outfitting, lodging, and guided fishing and hunting. They include Bayview Lodge, Newmart Fishing Resort, and Silence of the North. All three are at the lake's south-western end with access from Highway 135.
Silence of the North has log cabins, a boat launch, and boat rentals. It also has guided bear hunting and fishing. Newmart Fishing Resort has lake access a convenience store, cabins, and a campground. Bayview Lodge has cabins, a campground, and boat rentals.
Climate
Mirond Lake is in the subarctic climate zone. The annual average temperature is −1°C (30°F). The warmest month is July, when the average temperature is 16°C (61°F) and the coldest is January, with −24°C (−11°F).
Peel, M C; Finlayson, B L; McMahon, T A (2007), "Updated world map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification", Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 11, doi:10.5194/hess-11-1633-2007
