| White River | |
| Pushpin Map: | Ontario |
| Subdivision Type1: | Country |
| Subdivision Name1: | Canada |
| Subdivision Type2: | Province |
| Subdivision Name2: | Ontario |
| Subdivision Type3: | Districts |
| Subdivision Name3: | Algoma, Thunder Bay |
| Source1: | Negwazu Lake |
| Source1 Location: | Unorg. North Algoma |
| Source1 Elevation: | 1363feet[1] |
| Mouth: | Lake Superior |
| Mouth Location: | Pukaskwa National Park, Thunder Bay District |
| Mouth Coordinates: | 48.5469°N -86.2683°W |
| Mouth Elevation: | 183m (600feet) |
The White River (French: rivière White) is a tributary of Lake Superior in Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It starts at Negwazu Lake and flows in a predominantly western direction to Lake Superior, passing through the Township of White River.
The White River has many stretches of whitewater and four waterfalls with some difficult portages, making the river suitable for advanced canoeists. The lower part of the river has occasional oxbows and meanders. Among its tributaries are the Bremner, Depew, and Oskabukuta Rivers. The river contains a diversity of fish species, including healthy walleye populations.[2]
Several sections of the river are protected in parks and reserves. The Pokei Lake/White River Wetlands Provincial Park is about southeast of the town of White River. This non-operating park includes a very large inland riparian wetland system of various types, that form flood plains along roughly of the White River.[3]
Directly south of the White Lake outlet, the river flows briefly through the White Lake Forest Reserve. Then follows the White Lake Provincial Park Addition, which protects a long stretch of the lower White River, from Brothers geographic township to the boundary of Pukaskwa National Park. This wide natural corridor on both sides of the river was added to the pre-existing provincial park in 2006 to protect a notable canoe route, used by Aboriginal people and recorded in 1827 as the "Wabista or White River– navigable for small canoes". The White River in this section flows through 16 landform vegetation combinations, and drops or about four metres per kilometre.[2]
The remaining of the river is protected in the Pukaskwa National Park.[2] There the river is crossed by the White River Suspension Bridge, set above the Chigamiwinigum Falls.[4]
The White River system has 3 hydroelectric generating stations (all located within the White Lake Provincial Park):
Gitchi Animki Bezhig (Big Thunder One) and Gitchi Animki Niizh (Big Thunder Two) are 2 installations about apart, with a combined generating capacity of 18.9 MW. Completed in 2016 and owned by a joint venture of the Pic Mobert First Nation and Regional Power, the facilities replace an old dam that regulated lake levels and flood flows on White Lake.[5] [6]
Umbata Falls hydroelectric generation station is approximately southeast of Marathon, just east of the Pukaskwa Park boundary. It is a run-of-the-river type facility with a head of and capacity of 23 MW. It was commissioned in 2008 and co-owned by the Pic River First Nation and Innergex Group.[7]