Townsend Lake

52°28′58″N 101°44′19″W / 52.4828°N 101.7385°W / 52.4828; -101.7385Catchment areaWoody RiverBasin countries CanadaSurface area173.5 ha (429 acres)Max. depth10.4 m (34 ft)Shore length¹7.2 km (4.5 mi)Surface elevation691 m (2,267 ft)¹ Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

Townsend Lake^[1] is a lake in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It is located in the east-central part of the province in the Porcupine Hills and Porcupine Provincial Forest. The lake is in the Woody River Block of Porcupine Hills Provincial Park.^[2] Highway 980 provides access to the east side of the lake and its amenities.^[3][4] Several small creeks feed into the lake from the surrounding hills, lakes, and muskeg. The outflow is a short river at the eastern end of the lake that flows into the western end of Woody Lake.^[5]

The lake is named in memory of Flight Sergeant Robert Wilfred Ernest Townsend who died fighting in World War II on 29 July 1944.^[6] Since 1947 Saskatchewan started naming lakes after fallen soldiers and now there are more than 4,000 such lakes in the province.^[7][8]

Prior to the formation of Porcupine Hills Provincial Park in 2018, the parkland around Townsend Lake was a provincial recreation site called Woody River Recreation Site. The recreation site has a campground with 33 campsites, a boat launch, two fish cleaning stations, and a picnic area.^[9][10]

Moose Range Lodge, located on the northern shore of the lake, is an outfitters with modern cabins, boat rentals, fuel, and a restaurant. In the winter, the lodge is the centre for snowmobiling in the park.^[11][12]

Fish commonly found in the lake include walleye, perch, and northern pike.^[13][14]

• List of lakes of Saskatchewan
• Tourism in Saskatchewan
• Hudson Bay drainage basin