Deep River is a river that flows northeastly to the

Little Calumet River The Calumet River is a system of heavily industrialized rivers and canals in the region between the south side of Chicago, Illinois, and the city of Gary, Indiana. Historically, the Little Calumet River and the Grand Calumet River were one, the ...

in Lake County in northern

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed September 4, 2017 It is part of a fluvial system that drains about 10% of northern Indiana to

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 the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

at Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor.

History

In the summer of 1834, the first Lake County settler and homesteader, William Ross, settled near the confluence of Turkey Creek with Deep River. Two years later in 1836, land was purchased from the

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

at the confluence of Deep River with the Little Calumet River, and the town of

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

was platted, and later purchased by George Earle. Next, Earle moved two miles southeast and platted

Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...

in 1848. Liverpool was briefly the county seat, soon displaced by Crown Point. John Wood laid a mill claim in 1835 which he expanded in 1837 to a saw-mill and a grist mill. This site was originally called Woodvale, but is now known as Deep River, Indiana, and is now the site of the Deep River County Park, where the original grist mill has been rebuilt. The local vintage Baseball team are known as "the Grinders".

Watershed

The Deep River sources at the confluence of Main Beaver Dam Ditch and Smith Ditch near

Interstate 65 Interstate 65 (I-65) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the central United States. As with most primary Interstates ending in 5, it is a major crosscountry, north–south route, connecting between the Great Lakes and the Gulf ...

on the east side of Crown Point and flows east and northeast to man-made Lake George in

, formed by a dam initially constructed in 1840 by George Earle. This narrow, sinuous reservoir is approximately long and wide. It meanders north and northeast to join the

(LCR) ½ mile east of Interstate 65 and just north of Interstate 80/94 in Lake Station. From this confluence, the LCR flows east in a man-made channel known as “Burns Ditch”, a channelized section of the LCR that connects with the

East Arm Little Calumet River The East Arm Little Calumet River, also known as the Little Calumet River East Branch, is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 19, 2011 portion of the Little Calumet ...

and then exits north to Lake Michigan via a man-made outlet known as Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor in

Portage, Indiana Portage ( ) is a city in Portage Township, Porter County, in the U.S. state of Indiana, on the border with Lake County. The population was 37,926 as of the 2020 census. It is the largest city in Porter County, and third largest in Northwest Ind ...

. Deep River's main tributaries are Deep Creek, Turkey Creek, and Duck Creek.

Ecology

Adjacent wetlands are found on over 10% of the Deep River watershed. Save the Dunes has been awarded funding from the Chi-Cal Rivers Fund to restore 18 acres of farmland to marshland in Hobart Marsh, adjacent to Lake George and Deep River. When completed in 2018 it will be donated to the

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Indiana Dunes National Park is a United States national park located in northwestern Indiana managed by the National Park Service. It was authorized by Congress in 1966 as the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and was redesignated as the nation ...

. Riparian trees of Deep River reflect typical bottomland species of elm, ash and maple. Other species associated are sycamore, box elder, river birch, and willow. Burns Waterway is designated by the DNR as a

salmonid Salmonidae is a family of ray-finned fish that constitutes the only currently extant family in the order Salmoniformes . It includes salmon (both Atlantic and Pacific species), trout (both ocean-going and landlocked), chars, freshwater whitefis ...

(trout and salmon) stream. These fish are known to migrate up Deep River as far as the Lake George dam.

Recreation

Deep River is quite muddy and moves very slowly, usually less than one mile per hour. Some of the river is choked with a series of log jams making navigation difficult. Best canoeing levels occur in the spring. Summer may make water levels too low for canoeing.

Gallery

File:Deep river.jpg, Deep river between Hobart and Lake Station File:Wood's Grist Mill at Deep River County Park.jpg, Wood's Grist Mill Built in 1837-1838 by John Wood, re-built in 1876 and recently restored by Lake County Parks. It was the first industry in the county.

References

External links

Deep River County Park Wood's Historic Grist Mill area in Hobart

Deep River County Park Indiana Dune website

Save the Dunes
{{authority control Rivers of Lake County, Indiana Rivers of Indiana