The Knik River (
Dena'ina: ''Skitnu'';
Ahtna: ''Scitna’'') is a 25-mile-long (40 km) river in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...
. Its source is at
Knik Glacier
The Knik Glacier ( Dena'ina: ''Skitnu Łi'a'') is an ice field located east of Anchorage, Alaska on the northern end of the Chugach Mountains. The ice field averages over long and over across, making it one of the largest glaciers in south ...
, from which it flows northwest and west and empties into the head of
Cook Inlet's Knik Arm
Knik Arm ( Dena'ina: ''Nuti'') is a waterway into the northwestern part of the Gulf of Alaska. It is one of two narrow branches of Cook Inlet, the other being Turnagain Arm. Knik Glacier empties into the Knik Arm. The Port of Anchorage is loc ...
, near the mouth of the
Matanuska River
The Matanuska River ( Dena'ina: ''Ch'atanhtnu''; Ahtna: ''Ts'itonhna’'') is a 75-mile (121 km) long river in Southcentral Alaska, United States. The river drains a broad valley south of the Alaska Range eponymously known as the Matanusk ...
. It is bridged twice (old and new bridges) where the Old Glenn Highway crosses it near the Butte,
and also bridged on the Hayflats.
It is characterized by a broad flat plain with a bed of finely ground gravel and sand and silt. During windstorms, large quantities of fine material is blown from the riverbed and deposited in locations generally downstream or west. The river itself is relatively shallow and wide and considered a class I float. It drops about from the glacier to the salt water, or roughly per mile. The above the hayflats bridge is unusual in that it remains unfrozen most winters because the eklutna project discharges warmer water into the tailrace. Discharge normally is about 5000 to 6000 ft3/s in the summer (140 to 170 m3/s), with floods of 60,000cfs or more not uncommon.
The term "knik," present in the names of the river, the arm of Cook Inlet, and the glacier, as well as the communities of
Knik-Fairview and
Knik River, derives from the
Inupiaq word ''igniq'' ("fire"). The Denaina term for the Knik river was "Skitnu", (meaning Brush River).
The river runs near the border between the
Matanuska-Susitna Borough
Matanuska-Susitna Borough (often referred to as the Mat-Su Borough) is a borough located in the U.S. state of Alaska. Its county seat is Palmer, and the largest community is the census-designated place of Knik-Fairview.
The borough is part of ...
and the
Municipality of Anchorage
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
. Much of its length is paralleled by the paved Old Glenn Highway and the paved (as of 2000) Knik River Road, along which can be found the community of
Knik River.
See also
*
List of rivers of Alaska
This is a List of rivers in Alaska, which are at least fifth-order according to the Strahler method of stream classification, and an incomplete list of otherwise-notable rivers and streams. Alaska has more than 12,000 rivers, and thousands more st ...
References
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Rivers of Anchorage, Alaska
Rivers of Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska
Rivers of Alaska
Denaʼina