Abitibi River
The Abitibi River is a river in northeastern Ontario, Canada, which flows northwest from Lake Abitibi to join the Moose River which empties into James Bay. This river is long, and descends . Abitibi is an Algonquin word meaning "halfway water", derived from "abitah", which may be translated as "middle" or "halfway", and "nipi", "water". Originally used by the French to designate a band of Algonquin Indians who lived near the lake, the name was descriptive of their location halfway between the trading posts on the Hudson Bay and those on the Ottawa River. The river was an important  fur trading route for the Hudson's Bay Company. Formerly, pulp and paper, centered on the town of Iroquois Falls, was an important industry in the heavily forested region through which it flows. The region also supports tourism and gold mining. The Abitibi Canyon Generating Station is located on the river at Abitibi Canyon. The experience of surveying the river for the purposes of building this plant was the inspiration for folk singer Wade Hemsworth's "The Black Fly Song". Geography. Description of river course (in downstream order): Protected areas. A small portion of the river (from the outlet of  Lake Abitibi to Couchching Falls) is protected in the Abitibi-De-Troyes Provincial Park. Until April 2005, this park included all the public lands stretching along the Abitibi River to Iroquois Falls, but most of these were deregulated because the significant amount of private land within the area that made the management of the waterway class provincial park difficult. Power generation. The Abitibi River is used extensively for the hydro-electric power generation. Power stations on the river are in downstream order: