Chaplin Lake

Chaplin Lake
Chaplin Lake
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Location	RM of Chaplin No. 164,  Saskatchewan
Coordinates	50°24′06″N 106°36′01″W / 50.4016°N 106.6004°W / 50.4016; -106.6004
Type	Salt lake
Primary outflows	Chaplin Creek
Basin countries	Canada
Max. length	35 km (22 mi)
Max. width	10 km (6.2 mi)
Surface area	17,141 ha (42,360 acres)
Surface elevation	660 m (2,170 ft)

Chaplin Lake is a salt lake in the south-west corner of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The lake is in the Prairie Pothole Region of North America, which extends throughout three Canadian provinces and five U.S. states, and within Palliser's Triangle and the Great Plains ecoregion of Canada.^[1] Along the northern shore is the village of Chaplin, Chaplin Nature Centre,^[2] and a sodium sulphate mine owned and operated by Saskatchewan Mining and Minerals. The lake is divided into four sections by dykes built by the mining company. The Trans-Canada Highway runs along the northern shore and Highway 58 runs through the middle of the lake in a south to north direction.^[3]

Chaplin Lake and neighbouring Reed and Old Wives Lakes are situated in a physiographic region called the Chaplin Plain Landscape Area. These salt lakes make up the second largest saline lake in Canada, after the Quill Lakes, and the fourth largest in North America.^[4] It is a very important region for migratory and nesting birds and it was designated as Western Canada's first hemispheric shorebird reserve when it joined the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN).^[5] At the southern end of the lake, an arroyo creek called Chaplin Creek^[6] flows out of the lake and into Wood River, which leads to Old Wives Lake.