The Clinton 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 southeastern

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, ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It is named in honor of

DeWitt Clinton DeWitt Clinton (March 2, 1769February 11, 1828) was an American politician and Naturalism (philosophy), naturalist. He served as a United States Senate, United States senator, as the mayor of New York City, and as the sixth governor of New York. ...

, who was governor of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

from 1817 to 1823. The main branch of the river rises from wetlands and coldwater tributaries from within Independence, Brandon and Springfield townships in Oakland County. A series of dams create a number of small lakes west of Pontiac, the last of which is Crystal Lake. The river is piped under downtown Pontiac, re-emerging to the east of downtown. The north branch and the middle branch rise in northern Macomb County and join the main branch in Clinton Township (which was named after the river in 1824). The main branch flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed November 7, 2011 from its headwaters to

Lake St. Clair Lake St. Clair () is a freshwater lake that lies between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Michigan. It was named in 1679 by French Catholic explorers after Saint Clare of Assisi, on whose feast day they first saw the lake. ...

in Harrison Township. The Clinton River

watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...

drains , including most of Macomb County, a large portion of Oakland County, as well as small portions of Lapeer and St. Clair counties. More than 1.4 million people in over 60 municipalities live in the watershed. For the most part, only the waters located downstream of the city of Mount Clemens are navigable by water vessels. Under the

Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" * Artel Great (bo ...

in 1972, along with 42 other areas, the lower segment of the river was designated as an Area of Concern, based on the heavy presence of pollutant contamination. In 1995, the designation was expanded to include the entire watershed of the river and the lower nearshore of Lake St. Clair. The Clinton-Kalamazoo Canal was a failed attempt to build a waterway connecting

with

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 ...

. It was originally planned to stretch 216 miles, but was abandoned after only 13 miles had been completed. Clinton River 1

The French

explorers Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some expectation of discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organisms capable of directed locomotion and the abilit ...

of the late 17th century knew the river as the ''Nottawasippee'', an

Ojibwe The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...

term that means "like rattlesnakes." This was also the name given to the

Huron people The Wyandot people (also Wyandotte, Wendat, Waⁿdát, or Huron) are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands of the present-day United States and Canada. Their Wyandot language belongs to the Iroquoian language family. In Canada, ...

by the region's

Anishinaabe The Anishinaabe (alternatively spelled Anishinabe, Anicinape, Nishnaabe, Neshnabé, Anishinaabeg, Anishinabek, Aanishnaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region of C ...

(

Odawa The Odawa (also Ottawa or Odaawaa ) are an Indigenous North American people who primarily inhabit land in the Eastern Woodlands region, now in jurisdictions of the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. Their territory long prec ...

, and

Potawatomi The Potawatomi (), also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains, upper Mississippi River, and western Great Lakes region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, ...

) inhabitants.Genot Picor-Storyteller

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

fur traders referred to it as the Huron River of St. Clair. It was referred to as "the River Huron" in the 1784 home eulogy of the area's first American settler, William Tucker, who built his home along the river about upstream from its mouth. It received its current name on July 17, 1824. The

Michigan Territorial Council The Michigan Territorial Council, known formally as the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan, was the legislative body of the Territory of Michigan from 1824 to 1835, when it was succeeded by the Michigan Legislature in anticipation o ...

made the change in order to end the confusion between this river and the

Huron River The Huron River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed November 7, 2011 river in southeast Michigan, southeastern Michigan, rising out of the Huron Swamp in Springfie ...

of Lake Erie, which also rises in Oakland County's Springfield Township. The Huron-Clinton Metroparks system preserves land in the watershed as public parks; Wolcott Mill Metropark is on the north branch of the river.

References

External links

Clinton River Watershed Council
{{Authority control Rivers of Michigan Lake St. Clair Rivers of Lapeer County, Michigan Rivers of Macomb County, Michigan Rivers of Oakland County, Michigan Rivers of St. Clair County, Michigan Tributaries of Lake Erie