| Saint-Jean River | |
| Pushpin Map: | Quebec |
| Subdivision Type1: | Country |
| Subdivision Name1: | Canada |
| Subdivision Type2: | Province |
| Subdivision Name2: | Quebec |
| Subdivision Type3: | Region |
| Subdivision Name3: | Capitale-Nationale and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean |
| Subdivision Type4: | Regional County Municipality |
| Subdivision Name4: | Le Fjord-du-Saguenay Regional County Municipality |
| Subdivision Type5: | Municipalities |
| Subdivision Name5: | L'Anse-Saint-Jean |
| Length: | 38.8km (24.1miles)[1] |
| Discharge1 Location: | L'Anse-Saint-Jean |
| Source1: | Brébeuf Lake |
| Source1 Location: | Rivière-Éternité |
| Source1 Coordinates: | 48.1853°N -70.5981°W |
| Source1 Elevation: | 226m (741feet) |
| Mouth: | Saguenay River |
| Mouth Location: | L'Anse-Saint-Jean |
| Mouth Coordinates: | 48.2414°N -70.1981°W |
| Mouth Elevation: | 3m (10feet) |
| Tributaries Left: | (from the mouth) Ruisseau Girard, ruisseau à Denis, outlet of two lakes, outlet of lac Étienne. |
| Tributaries Right: | (from the mouth) Ruisseau Patrice-Fortin, Bras à Pierre, outlet of few lakes, Cami River. |
The Saint-Jean River (St. John River) is a river crossing the municipalities of Rivière-Éternité and L'Anse-Saint-Jean in the Le Fjord-du-Saguenay Regional County Municipality, in the administrative region of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec, Canada.
The upper portion of the Saint John River is integrated into Zec du Lac-Brébeuf, a controlled harvesting zone (ZEC).
The Saint-Jean River is served primarily by route 170 (east-west), which passes through the hamlets "Le Ruisseau-du-Portage" and "La Chute-à-Salum". Some other secondary forest roads serve the lake area mainly for forestry and recreational tourism purposes.
Forestry is the main economic activity of the sector; recreational tourism activities, second.
The surface of the Saint John River is usually frozen from late November to early April (except in rapids areas), however, safe ice movement is generally from mid-December to late March.
Three watersheds drain the territory of Zec du Lac-Brebeuf, which are the Saint-Jean rivers and its tributaries, Cami and Catin.
The Saint John River rises at the mouth of Brébeuf Lake. This lake has a length of 12.5km (07.8miles) divided into three parts, a maximum width of 1.4km (00.9miles), an altitude of 226m (741feet) and an area of NaNkm (-2,147,483,648miles).
The mouth of the lake is located in a small bay on the east side of the lake, at:
The course of the Saint John River flows over 38.8km (24.1miles) generally to the northeast, according to the following segments:
The mouth of the Saint John River flows to the bottom of Anse Saint-Jean in the village of L'Anse-Saint-Jean on the south shore of the Saguenay River . This mouth is located at:
From the mouth of the Saint John River, the current flows through Anse Saint-Jean to 2.9km (01.8miles) northerly, then down the Saguenay River on 42.8km (26.6miles) to the east where flows into the St. Lawrence River at Tadoussac.
The toponym "Rivière Saint-Jean" appears as early as 1731 in Louis Aubert's Journal de Lachesnaye (transcript of Serge Goudreau). His writing appears in the form of "Riviere de l'anse S[ain]t Jean" and "Riviere S[ain]t Jean": "I entered the river of the ance S[ain]t Jean ["St jean" in the manuscript] in the favor of the high pond /.../ When entering the river S[ain]t Jean ["St jean" in the manuscript], I made /.../" [25 August 1731]. The toponym "Rivière St-Jean" appears in the 1893 report of land surveyor William Tremblay.
The toponym "Saint-Jean River" (Saguenay) was formalized on December 5, 1968, at the Place Names Bank of the Commission de toponymie du Québec.[3]