Cree Lake

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Cree Lake is a lake in Saskatchewan, Canada. The lake is the fourth largest in the province and is located west of Reindeer Lake and south of Lake Athabasca. There is no highway access, but the lake is reachable by float plane.

Cree Lake (Crystal Lodge) Airport (bush strip) and Cree Lake (Crystal Lodge) Water Aerodrome serve Crystal Lodge, a fly-in fishing lodge.

Video Cree Lake

Cree Lake settlement

A Dene winter hunting camp located on the south west shore of the lake (at coordinates 57°21?15.19?N 107°7?41.52?W) eventually developed into the small settlement of Cree Lake. It may have been the location of a Hudson's Bay Company trading post from 1891 to 1902. In the 1960s it had an airport, a small log church and numerous houses. In 1971 there were 36 residents (22 were First Nations).

Although officially named Cree Lake in 1938 the lake lies in the traditional territory of the Dene and the English River Dene Nation based in Patuanak has reserves at three sites on the lake. One site on the south west side of the lake is 1607.40 hectares (3971 acres) another on Cable Bay is 538.30 hectares (1350 acres) and another on Barkwell Bay at the northern end of Cree Lake is 2344 hectares (5792 acres).

Other locations on Cree Lake with populations in the 1970s were the Cree Lake Weather Station in the north east (with 10 people) operated by the Canadian Government, the Cree Lake D.N.S. Radio Station (Department of Northern Saskatchewan) on Turner Island (with 10 people) and a camp at the north end (with 15 people).

Maps Cree Lake

Fish species

Fish species include walleye, yellow perch, northern pike, lake trout, lake whitefish, cisco, burbot, Arctic grayling, white sucker and longnose sucker.

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Islands

The lake has several named and unnamed islands. Some of the named islands include:

Auriat Island
Cowie Island
Dahl Island
Davies Island
Dixon Island (Saskatchewan)
Fleming Island (Saskatchewan)
Ispatinow Island - (containing Cree Lake (Crystal Lodge) Airport and Crystal Lodge) 57°27?43.07?N 106°45?7.09?W
Johns Island (Saskatchewan)
Keeping Island
Laurier Island
Pelletier Island
Prowse Island
Ring Island
Rogers Island (Saskatchewan)
Turner Island (Saskatchewan) 57°23?22.14?N 106°38?19.66?W