The river is provincially significant recreational river[4] with some 65 sets of rapids, mostly rated CI and CII that can be run all season.[5]
Ontario Power Generation operates a hydroelectric plant on the river at Crystal Falls. From 1848 to 1879, the Hudson's Bay Company operated a fur trading post called Sturgeon River House at the mouth of this river (now turned into a local museum).[6] Up until the middle of the 20th century, the river was used to transport logs to sawmills on Lake Nipissing. The lower part of the river is prone to flooding. In 1979 the area around the community of Field experienced a disastrous flood that prompted all residential homes to be relocated.[3]
The upper (northerly) part of the Sturgeon River is protected in the Sturgeon River Provincial Park. This park consists of 79.85 square kilometres (30.83 sq mi) of protected wilderness stretched out along the river banks without any visitors facilities present. It is managed by Ontario Parks.[7]
Geography
Upper Goose Falls, Sturgeon River Provincial Park
The river features a continually changing landscape, from the Temagami highlands, with bedrock outcrops and long slender lakes to narrow river channels, rapids and shallows, eventually turning to sandy shores.[7]
