The Coos River flows for about into
Coos Bay
Coos Bay (Hanis language, Coos language: Atsixiis or Hanisich) is an estuary where the Coos River enters the Pacific Ocean, the estuary is approximately 12 miles long and up to two miles wide. It is the largest estuary completely within Oregon sta ...
along the Pacific coast of southwest
Oregon
Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
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 ...
.
Formed by the confluence of its major tributaries, the
South Fork Coos River and the
Millicoma River, it drains an important timber-producing region of the
Southern Oregon Coast Range.
The course of the main stem and the major tributaries is generally westward from the coastal forests to the eastern end of Coos Bay near the city of
Coos Bay
Coos Bay (Hanis language, Coos language: Atsixiis or Hanisich) is an estuary where the Coos River enters the Pacific Ocean, the estuary is approximately 12 miles long and up to two miles wide. It is the largest estuary completely within Oregon sta ...
.
The river is the largest tributary of Coos Bay, which at about is the largest
estuary
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...
that lies entirely within Oregon.
The river enters the bay about
from where the bay—curving east, north, and west of the cities of Coos Bay and
North Bend and passing by the communities of
Barview and
Charleston—meets the ocean.
About 30 other tributaries also enter the bay directly.
Most of the Coos River watershed of is in
Coos County, but are in eastern
Douglas County.
Commercial forests cover about 85 percent of the basin.
The river supports populations of
chinook and
coho COHO, short for Coherent Oscillator, is a technique used with radar systems based on the cavity magnetron to allow them to implement a moving target indicator display. Because the signals are only coherent when received, not transmitted, the concept ...
salmon,
Pacific lamprey,
[Larsen, Erik. Lamprey in the Coos Estuary. Partnership for Coastal Watersheds, 23 Apr. 2014, www.partnershipforcoastalwatersheds.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/FINAL-Lamprey-Data-Summary-03122014.pdf. Pamphlet. ] western brook lamprey,
shad
The Alosidae, or the shads, are a family (biology), family of clupeiform fishes. The family currently comprises four genera worldwide, and about 32 species.
The shads are Pelagic fish, pelagic (open water) schooling fish, of which many are anadr ...
,
steelhead
Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the Fish migration#Classification, anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or Columbia River redband trout (''O. m. gairdneri'', also called redband steelhead). Steelhead are native to cold-wa ...
, and
coastal cutthroat trout
The coastal cutthroat trout (''Oncorhynchus clarkii'', sometimes referred as ''Oncorhynchus clarkii clarkii''), also known as the sea-run cutthroat trout, blue-back trout or harvest trout, is one of the four speciesTrotter, Patrick; Bisson, Pete ...
. Since public river-bank access is limited, fishing is often done by boat.
[Sheehan, pp. 66–67]
Course
Flowing west from the confluence of the South Fork Coos River and the Millicoma River, the Coos River is bordered by
Oregon Route 241 (Coos River Highway) on the
right
Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...
and Coos River Road on the
left
Left may refer to:
Music
* ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006
* ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016
* ''Left'' (Helmet album), 2023
* "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996
Direction
* Left (direction), the relativ ...
. Downstream from its source, the river receives Noah Creek from the right from the river
mouth
A mouth also referred to as the oral is the body orifice through which many animals ingest food and animal communication#Auditory, vocalize. The body cavity immediately behind the mouth opening, known as the oral cavity (or in Latin), is also t ...
. Curving south, the river receives Vogel Creek and then Lillian Creek, both from the left, before passing under Chandler Bridge, which carries Route 241 from the right bank to the left bank about from the mouth. The river then turns west and north as it enters the bay and splits into two
distributaries
A distributary, or a distributary channel is a stream channel that branches off and flows a main stream channel. It is the opposite of a ''tributary'', a stream that flows another stream or river. Distributaries are a result of river bifurca ...
separated by a marsh. The Cooston Channel, which is on the right, continues north around the west side of the marsh for about to the mouth. The left-hand channel almost immediately merges with Catching Slough, which enters from the left and continues around the east side of the marsh to meet the Marshfield Channel of the bay.
Discharge
Estimates of the average discharge of the Coos River varies from in late summer to in February. Estimated extremes vary from a low of to a high of .
See also
*
List of rivers of Oregon
This is a partial listing of rivers in the state of Oregon, United States. This list of Oregon rivers is organized alphabetically and by tributary structure. The list may also include streams known as creeks, brooks, forks, branches and prongs, as ...
References
Works cited
*McArthur, Lewis A., and McArthur, Lewis L. (2003)
928 ''Oregon Geographic Names'', 7th ed. Portland: Oregon Historical Society Press. .
*Sheehan, Madelynne Diness (2005). ''Fishing in Oregon: The Complete Oregon Fishing Guide'', 10th ed. Scappoose, Oregon: Flying Pencil Publications. .
*Larsen, Erik. Lamprey in the Coos Estuary. Partnership for Coastal Watersheds, 23 Apr. 2014
www.partnershipforcoastalwatersheds.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/FINAL-Lamprey-Data-Summary-03122014.pdf Pamphlet.
External links
Lamprey in the Coos Estuary
{{authority control
Rivers of Oregon
Rivers of Douglas County, Oregon
Rivers of Coos County, Oregon
Oregon placenames of Native American origin