The Cheboygan River ( )
is a
river
A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...
in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
of
Michigan
Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
. The
[U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data]
The National Map
, accessed November 21, 2011 river flows from
Mullett Lake
Mullett Lake is a lake in Cheboygan County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The lake is named after John Mullett, who, together with William A. Burt, made a federal survey of the area from 1840 to 1843. A neighboring lake was named after Burt. Hi ...
to
Lake Huron
Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is shared on the north and east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the south and west by the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the lake is derived from early French ex ...
, with its mouth in the city of
Cheboygan.
The river forms part of the
Inland Waterway
A waterway is any navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other ways. A first distinction is necessary bet ...
, a series of lakes and rivers that nearly connect
Little Traverse Bay, a bay of
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and depth () after Lake Superior and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the ...
, with Lake Huron. The
Black River is the largest tributary of the Cheboygan River.
Description
The Cheboygan River descends in its length, from above sea level, the level of Mullett Lake, to Lake Huron at above sea level. The river and other sections of the Inland Waterway are made accessible by
locks maintained by the
United States Army Corps of Engineers
The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wo ...
.
The mouth of the Black River, south of Cheboygan, is a noted spot to look for
bald eagle
The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche ...
s and other fish-eating
raptors.
In Cheboygan itself,
U.S. Highway 23 is carried across the Cheboygan River by the
Cheboygan Bascule Bridge, a Scherzer
rolling lift bridge built in 1940 and added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in December 1999. In 2009, Cheboygan city authorities built an elevated
pedestrian bridge across the Cheboygan near its mouth.
The mouth of the Cheboygan River into Lake Huron is marked by the
Cheboygan Crib Light.
The river forms the boundary between
Benton Township and
Inverness Township before flowing into the city of
Cheboygan. The river forms the port of Cheboygan and serves as a dock for the ferry boat to
Bois Blanc Island and the Coast Guard cutter
''Mackinaw''.
History
Cheboygan was founded as a
lumber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...
ing town to cut timbers harvested from the Cheboygan River's drainage and floated down to mills (now mostly vanished) at the mouth of the river. Today, one of the biggest industries of the town and river of Cheboygan is pleasure
boating
Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether powerboats, sailboats, or man-powered vessels (such as rowing and paddle boats), focused on the travel itself, as well as sports activities, suc ...
up and down the river. The river is a key artery of the
Inland Waterway
A waterway is any navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other ways. A first distinction is necessary bet ...
, a pleasure-boat necklace of waterways in the northern section of Michigan's
Lower Peninsula
The Lower Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Lower Michigan – is the larger, southern and less elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; the other being the Upper Peninsula, which is separated by the S ...
.
The river is the namesake for the city and county.
See also
*
References
External links
Map of the Cheboygan River, with marinas and boat ramps marked
{{authority control
Rivers of Michigan
Rivers of Cheboygan County, Michigan
Tributaries of Lake Huron