Hornaday River (variants: Big River, Homaday River, Hornaaa River;[2] or Rivière La Roncière-le Noury[3]) is a waterway located above the Arctic Circle on the mainland of Northern Canada.
The upper reach of a river first discovered in 1868 was named Rivière La Roncière-le Noury in honour of Admiral Baron Adalbert Camille Marie Clément de La Roncière-Le Noury, commander of the Mediterranean Squadron, and president of the Société de Géographie. The lower reach of a river discovered in 1899 was named Hornaday after American zoologistWilliam Temple Hornaday. Decades later, the Roncière and the Hornaday were ascertained to be the same river.
The area is part of the Arctic, Interior and Hudson Platforms. Deposit characteristics are coal seam.
The river's drainage basin includes the area between Great Bear Lake and the Arctic Ocean.[10] Its middle course supports a wide channel for 65 kilometres (40 mi).[3] The river's stretches include a broad bedrock valley, bedrock canyons, and a delta into the Arctic Ocean. Its tundra has a permafrost layer 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) below the surface which minimizes groundwater flow and storage, forcing rainstorm flow directly into the river.
Flora along the river is characterized by typical tundra vegetation such as sedge and lupine meadows, and some willow patches along the lower Hornaday.[6] While a dense cover of spruce is found along the nearby Horton River, there are no spruce along the Hornaday.[9]
The bluenose barren-ground caribou herd's calving grounds are west of the Hornaday River, south to the Little Hornaday River.[11]
History
Mapping controversy
The Rivière La Roncière-le Noury was discovered in 1868 by Émile Petitot, a French Missionary Oblate and a notable Canadian northwest cartographer, ethnologist, and geographer. He traveled most of the course of the river, mapping it in 1875. He admitted that he did not explore its lower reaches because of heavy fogs. In error, he charted its mouth to be in Franklin Bay instead of Darnley Bay.[3] Petitot made the mistake based on hearsay, possibly from the Dene (Hare Indians) that traveled with him.[12] However, in the same year, his accounts and maps were published in Paris, where he was awarded a silver medal by the Société de Géographie.
Because the river's mouth was mapped incorrectly, later explorers believed the Roncière did not exist.[13]
In 1899, naturalist Andrew J. Stone of the American Museum of Natural History investigated the shores of Franklin Bay and Darnley Bay, discovering the mouth of a large river entering Darnley Bay, but he did not travel up the river. Stone named it Hornaday River in honour of William T. Hornaday, director of the New York Zoological Society.[10]
Between 1909 and 1912, Arctic explorers Vilhjalmur Stefansson and Rudolph Anderson explored Franklin and Darnley Bays. In the 1913 The Stefánsson-Anderson Arctic expedition of the American museum : preliminary ethnological report, Stefansson concluded that "...River la Ronciere is represented to be on the chart, and that the
River la Ronciere is in fact non-existent".[14] Stefansson did not mention the river Stone found in 1899.[3]
In 1915, the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913-18 finally delineated the southern shore of Darnley Bay, including the mouth of the Hornaday, but again, the expedition did not travel up the Hornaday. The subsequent map still showed the Hornaday to be a short stream drained a few miles inland by a large lake.[3]
After studying maps and aerial photographs, and investigating the area in 1951 with geomorphologistJ. Ross Mackay.[16]J. Keith Fraser of the Geographical Branch, Department of Mines and Technical Surveys ascertained that the Roncière did in fact exist; it was now known as the Hornaday.[17]
Archaeology
Hundreds of archaeological sites have been found along the Hornaday within Tuktut Nogait from Thule culture times or earlier. Most of the campsites are temporary, seasonal, or multi-generational. They include markers, rock alignments, hearths, hunting blinds, meat-drying areas, and artifacts, such as komatik parts.[18]
^ abcdeHornaday River Arctic Charr(PDF). DFO Science Stock Status Report D5-68 (1999) (Report). Winnipeg, Canada: Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Government of Canada. February 2000. ISSN1480-4913. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2022-01-06. Retrieved 2009-03-06.
^Fraser (January 1952), p. 228, Figure 3, "Portions of Anderson River Sheet... showing latest published mapping of the Horton, Hornaday and Brock Rivers."
^Savauge, Stephen; Cockney, Cathy (2001). "Tuktut Nogait Cultural Resource Inventory". Annual Report of Research and Monitoring in National Parks of the Western Arctic 2001. Parks Canada. Archived from the original on 2013-02-09. Retrieved 2009-03-09.