Reindeer Lake

Where is Reindeer Lake?

Countries on its shores: Canada.

Middle of the lake: 57.30° N, 102.37° W

The story behind it

Reindeer Lake is about 230 kilometres long, and its shore is full of bays, points and small islands. Almost all of it, 92 per cent, lies in Saskatchewan; the rest belongs to Manitoba. Its name seems to be a translation of an old name in an Algonquian language. Near the south-western end lies Deep Bay, a strikingly round bay about 220 metres deep. Scientists think it formed in a 13-kilometre crater left by a rock from space that hit the Earth about 99 million years ago. The water leaves the lake through the Reindeer River and flows via the Churchill River to Hudson Bay. Since 1942 the Whitesand Dam has controlled the outflow and raised the water by about two metres. Small communities such as Southend, Kinoosao and Brochet lie on the shore, and anglers come to catch northern pike, walleye and lake trout.

Find it on the globe

Reindeer Lake is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.