The McLeod River is a river in west-central Alberta, Canada. It forms in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, and is a major tributary of the Athabasca River.

Course

The river begins in the southern arm of Whitehorse Wildland Provincial Park, about 5 kilometers east of the eastern boundary of Jasper National Park. The McLeod River originates from a northward basin between Tripoli Ridge and the Cardinal Divide, a watershed divide that separates water that eventually drains north into the Arctic Ocean and east into Hudson Bay. Headwater tributaries of the McLeod River flowing from the eastern slope of the Rockies include Thornton, Prospect, Whitehorse, Cadomin, and Luscar Creeks. The river snakes through the foothills and is soon joined by four major tributaries, the Gregg, Erith, Embarrass, and Edson rivers before meeting the Athabasca River near the town of Whitecourt, Alberta.

Planned dam

Throughout the 1950s and the 1960s the Alberta Government undertook a number of planning studies that discussed diverting water from the Athabasca-Mackenzie watershed to the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers. In 1970, a preliminary engineering report on the McLeod Valley Dam was released by the provincial Department of Agriculture. The dam was to be located 20 mi northeast of Edson, Alberta, near the hamlet of Peers, Alberta. The diverted water would have been sent via a canal to Chip Lake. The report read: The McLeod Valley Dam, as well as the larger Athabasca-to-Saskatchewan diversion scheme, was shelved in the 1970s due to rising construction costs and environmental concerns.

Tributaries

Tributaries of the McLeod River, from headwaters to the Athabasca River, include: