Knife River (Lake Superior) | |
---|---|
Location | |
Country | United States |
State | Minnesota |
County | St. Louis, Lake County |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | |
• location | King Lake |
• coordinates | 47°09′12″N 91°45′17″W / 47.1532623°N 91.7546197°W |
Mouth | |
• location | Knife River, Minnesota, Lake Superior |
• coordinates | 46°56′59″N 91°46′44″W / 46.9496578°N 91.7787897°W |
Length | 23.9-mile-long (38.5 km) |
Discharge | |
• average | 90.3 cu ft/s (2.56 m3/s) [1] |
The Knife River is a 23.9-mile-long (38.5 km) [2] river of northern Minnesota which drains a portion of Lake and Saint Louis counties into Lake Superior between Duluth and Two Harbors. [3]
The Knife River's name is an accurate preservation of its native Ojibwe name, Mookomani-Ziibi. [4] [5] Its original name was probably given on account of the long, sharp stones near the mouth of the river. [6]
The main branch of the Knife River flows 23.9 miles (38.5 km) from source to mouth, [2] flowing parallel to the shoreline from the direction of Two Harbors. [1] It has four or five major tributaries. [1] Its watershed is 84.3 square miles (218 km2), and contains 181.1 miles (291.5 km) of streams. [7] Since data began being collected in 1974, its mean annual daily discharge of water has been calculated as 90.3 cubic feet per second (2.56 m3/s). [1] There is concern over the river's water quality due to suspended sediment, and it was placed on the state's impaired waters list in 1998. [8] A 2008 study found that about sixty percent of the sediment was coming from erosion of the streambanks, and about thirty from erosion of the river's bluffs. [1]
The Knife River's watershed is largely undeveloped, being 72% forest, 16% wetland, and 6% grassland. [7] 5% is used for agricultural purposes, and the remaining 1% is the unincorporated community of Knife River, Minnesota, located at the river's mouth. [7]