Page created on : December 27 2002
Last updated : December 30, 2002

Originating in the U.S., only about one quarter of Red River's 877-kilometre length is within Canada. Crossing into Manitoba from North Dakota, the Red meets the Assiniboine River at Winnipeg, and continuing north empties into Lake Winnipeg.

The role that pre-historic Lake Aggassiz and the Red River played in the settlement and growth of Canada are of prime importance. Silt from the bottom of this lake formed the most fertile farmland in western Canada and the river offered the route by which the first settlers arrived to till the soil. They travelled south from Hudson Bay and later, north from the U.S. - but it was always by the Red and when settlers moved westward, it was often via the Red to the Assiniboine and then into the Portage la Prairie and Brandon areas.

Canada Post Corporation's stamp depict the Red River with a church in the vignette - St. Andrews on the Red. It is the oldest stone church west in the Toronto and a monument to its Scottish builders.