The Little Minnesota River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed October 5, 2012

headwaters The headwater of a river or stream is the geographical point of its beginning, specifically where surface runoff water begins to accumulate into a flowing channel of water. A river or stream into which one or many tributary rivers or streams flo ...

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

of the

Minnesota River The Minnesota River () is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 332 miles (534 km) long, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It drains a watershed of in Minnesota and about in South Dakota and Iowa. It rises in southwestern ...

in northeastern

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

and west-central

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

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 ...

. Via the Minnesota River, it is part of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

watershed.

Course

The Little Minnesota rises in

Marshall County, South Dakota Marshall County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of South Dakota. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 4,306. Its county seat is Britton, South Dakota, Britton. The county was created on May ...

from the Coteau des Prairies near the town of Veblen and flows generally southeastward through Roberts County, where it collects two small tributaries, Standfast Creek and the Jorgenson River. Near the Minnesota state line, it passes within a mile of

Lake Traverse Lake Traverse is an lake along the border between the U.S. states of Minnesota and South Dakota, and is the southernmost body of water in the Hudson Bay watershed of North America. Lake Traverse is drained at its north end by the northward-flow ...

, part of the

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay, sometimes called Hudson's Bay (usually historically), is a large body of Saline water, saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of . It is located north of Ontario, west of Quebec, northeast of Manitoba, and southeast o ...

watershed, from which it is separated by a low

continental divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...

. The river enters Minnesota at the town of Browns Valley and shortly enters Big Stone Lake, which is drained by the Minnesota River. The region between Lake Traverse and Big Stone Lake is known as the Traverse Gap; it was formed by Glacial River Warren which drained

Lake Agassiz Lake Agassiz ( ) was a large proglacial lake that existed in central North America during the late Pleistocene, fed by meltwater from the retreating Laurentide Ice Sheet at the end of the last glacial period. At its peak, the lake's area wa ...

(the lakebed of which is now the

Red River Valley The Red River Valley is a region in central North America that is drained by the Red River of the North; it is part of both Canada and the United States. Forming the border between Minnesota and North Dakota when these territories were admitted ...

) toward the end of the last of the

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

s. At Peever, SD, the river measures approximately 63 cubic feet per second.

References

* Waters, Thomas F. (1977). ''The Streams and Rivers of Minnesota''. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. . Rivers of Minnesota Rivers of South Dakota Tributaries of the Minnesota River Rivers of Big Stone County, Minnesota Rivers of Marshall County, South Dakota Rivers of Roberts County, South Dakota Rivers of Traverse County, Minnesota {{SouthDakota-river-stub

Course

See also

References