| Horton River | |
| Map Size: | 300 |
| Pushpin Map: | Canada |
| Pushpin Map Size: | 300 |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Horton River mouth location |
| Subdivision Type1: | Country |
| Subdivision Name1: | Canada |
| Subdivision Type2: | Territories |
| Subdivision Name2: | Northwest Territories, Nunavut |
| Subdivision Type3: | Region |
| Subdivision Name3: | Inuvik, Sahtu, Kitikmeot |
| Length: | 618km (384miles) |
| Source1: | Lake |
| Source1 Location: | Kitikmeot Region, Nunavut |
| Source1 Coordinates: | 67.8439°N -120.7506°W |
| Source1 Elevation: | 584m (1,916feet) |
| Mouth: | Franklin Bay |
| Mouth Location: | Inuvik Region, Northwest Territories |
| Mouth Coordinates: | 69.9336°N -126.8028°W |
| Mouth Elevation: | 0m (00feet) |
| River System: | Arctic Ocean drainage basin |
| Extra: | [1] [2] |
The Horton River is a river in Inuvik and Sahtu Regions, Northwest Territories and Kitikmeot Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is a tributary of the Beaufort Sea and hence part of the Arctic Ocean drainage basin. Only the first few kilometres from its source are within Nunavut.
The river begins at a small lake about 100km (100miles) north of the northeast Dease Arm of Great Bear Lake. It passes through the Smoking Hills and reaches its mouth on the east side of Cape Bathurst at Franklin Bay on the Amundsen Gulf of the Beaufort Sea, where it forms a small delta, about 125km (78miles) northwest of the community of Paulatuk. The mouth had been 100km (100miles) further north at Harrowby Bay on the west side of Cape Bathurst until about 1800 when a meander eroded through.[3]
There is an airstrip just north of the mouth.
Located about 8.5km (05.3miles) north northwest of the rivers mouth, at, lies the Horton River Short Range Radar Site (BAR-E), also known as Malloch Hills. Originally opened as a Distant Early Warning Line site it closed in 1963. The site was reopened in 1991 as a North Warning System short range radar.[4]