Rouge River Where it Meets Lake Ontario
This is the present boundary between Toronto and Pickering.
The French named the river, Riviere Rouge because of the reddish colour of its banks.
Historically (12,500 years ago) it was part of Lake Iroquois, the ancestor of Lake Ontario, a much larger lake whose water level was about 60 meters higher than the present shore of Lake Ontario.
The name given to the river by the Iroquois Nation was Katabokokonk, meaning "river of easy entrance". The Mississauga Nation called it Che Sippi, which means "large creek".
The area around this river has been minimally "developed", the preservation of its wild lands having been an issue in municipal politics in the city of Scarborough for some time, and is a continuing concern for many people who live in its environs. It is one of the largest remnants of the Carolinian forest in southern Ontario and is of great interest to naturalists and geologists.
"According to the Rouge Park Ecological Survey (1990, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources), the lower Rouge Park ecosystem is home to:
at least 762 plant species (25% of Ontario's native flora species);
225 bird species (123 breeding species);
55 fish species;
27 mammal species;
19 reptile and amphibian species."
(Friends of the Rouge Watershed)
There is a 450 million year old formation of shale on the lower reaches of the river bank called the Whitby Formation. It contains fossils of creatures who lived in the shallow inland sea which covered much of east central North America in that period. Most of the bedrock, however, is covered by sediments from the melting of the Wisconsin glacier (Lake Iroquois) 12,000 to 13,000 years ago. This sediment consists of limestone, sand, and large granite boulders carried down from the Canadian Shield.
References:
Wikipedia
Welcome to Rivernen
Friends of the Rouge Watershed
