The Laurentian Divide (also known as the Northern Divide) marks
the boundary between the Atlantic Watershed and the Arctic
Watershed.
South and east of this location, all rivers drain into the Great
Lakes and then into the Atlantic Ocean via the St Lawrence River.
North and west of this location, the rivers drain into Lake
Winnipeg and ultimately Hudson Bay.
On the north and east, the divide starts at Cape Chidley on the
Labrador Sea. The height of land forms part of the border between
Quebec and Labrador, then turns west across Quebec and Ontario; it
marks the original northern boundary that both provinces held at
the time of Confederation in 1867.
The divide crosses into the United States in northeast Minnesota
at the Height of Land Portage. Near Hibbing it forms a three-way
divide at the Hill of Three Waters where the watersheds of the St.
Lawrence and the Mississippi River systems meet with the Hudson Bay
basin. The U.S. sections of the divide separate the watersheds of
the Rainy River and Red River from the basins of the Mississippi
and Missouri Rivers. The divide formed the northern boundary of the
United States' Louisiana Purchase.
The divide then crosses back into Canada in Saskatchewan and
Alberta before dropping back into the United States where it meets
the Great Divide at Triple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park in
Montana. The Northern Divide there joins the Great Divide.
Image source: Wikipedia
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