Found in the flat, swampy landscape of central Manitoba, Canada, the source of the Echimamish River is an unusual one. Instead of some remote babbling brook or fresh mountain spring, its headwaters are believed to be a pond formed by beaver dams in the middle of the river’s path. From there, the Echimamish, a Cree name meaning “water flowing both ways,” runs east and west, from the middle out.
The OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager-2) on Landsat 9 captured this image of a portion of the Echimamish River on May 23, 2025. Based on firsthand accounts, the river’s flow splits from a beaver-flooded area west of Painted Stone Portage. At either end of its 67-kilometer (42-mile) length, the Echimamish connects with the Nelson River to the west and the Hayes River to the east, which both empty into Hudson Bay about 500 kilometers (300 miles) northeast of this scene.
Fur traders found this unconventional hydrology convenient in getting their wares to trading posts on the bay, as the Hayes offers a navigable alternative to the more turbulent Nelson. Scientists trying to parse the river’s dynamics, however, have described it as “baffling.”
The diverging flow pattern is subtle due to the flat terrain, according to a study of this and other unusual river systems led by civil engineer Rob Sowby of Brigham Young University. Canoers traveling the waterway may not always notice the change in current. What’s more, the point at which the flow splits may shift several kilometers depending on the location of beaver-flooded segments. (The exact location cannot be discerned at the resolution of this image and without ground-based observations of a beaver dam.)
“The conditions have resulted in conflicting historical records, if not mythical musings, some of which are still not resolved,” the researchers wrote.
A possible explanation for the ambiguity, according to Sowby’s analysis, is that the Echimamish is a river in limbo and its formation is still in progress. Perhaps it will eventually capture the upper Hayes, or it will separate completely into the Hayes and Nelson basins.
Although it may puzzle scientists today, the Echimamish River and its connected waterways have been culturally and economically important to people for thousands of years. Archaeological sites along the riverbanks demonstrate longstanding significance to Indigenous people, and Painted Stone Portage has remained a sacred site.
In more recent history, the Echimamish gave fur traders access to the navigable Hayes and the key trade hub at its mouth. York Factory was established there in the late 17th century and operated as a fur-trading post for the Hudson’s Bay Company for nearly 300 years. Because of this history, the Hayes, Echimamish, and a portion of the Nelson are designated as part of the Canadian Heritage Rivers System.
References & Resources
- Canadian Heritage Rivers System Hayes | Kisipikamawi River. Accessed July 28, 2025.
- Eos (2025, April 1) The Rivers That Science Says Shouldn’t Exist. Accessed July 28, 2025.
- Morse, E. W. (1969) Fur Trade Canoe Routes of Canada/Then and Now. The Queen’s Printer.
- NASA Earth Observatory (2025, June 9) When Rivers Take a Weird Turn. Accessed July 28, 2025.
- Parks Canada (2025, June 5) York Factory National Historic Site. Accessed July 28, 2025.
- Sowby, R. B., & Siegel, A. C. (2025) Unusual drainages of the Americas. Water Resources Research, 61, e2024WR039824.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Wanmei Liang , using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey . Story by Lindsey Doermann .
