The Nooksack River is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

in western

Whatcom County Whatcom County is a county located in the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Washington, bordered by the Canadian Lower Mainland (the Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley Regional Districts of British Columbia) to the north, Okanogan ...

of the northwestern

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 ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, draining extensive valley systems within the

North Cascades The North Cascades are a section of the Cascade Range of western North America. They span the border between the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. state of Washington and are officially named in the U.S. and Canada as the Casca ...

around

Mount Shuksan Mount Shuksan is a glaciated massif in the North Cascades National Park. Shuksan rises in Whatcom County, Washington immediately to the east of Mount Baker, and south of the Canada–US border. The mountain's name ''Shuksan'' is derived from t ...

Mount Baker Mount Baker (Lummi: '; nok, Kw’eq Smaenit or '), also known as Koma Kulshan or simply Kulshan, is a active glacier-covered andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington in the United States. Mount ...

and the Twin Sisters, and a portion of

Fraser Lowland The Fraser Lowland is a landform and physiographic region in the Pacific Northwest of North America, shared between the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. state of Washington. The region includes much of the Lower Mainland region ...

south of the

Canada–United States border The border between Canada and the United States is the longest international border in the world. The terrestrial boundary (including boundaries in the Great Lakes, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts) is long. The land border has two sections: Can ...

. The river ''proper'' begins with the

merging Merge, merging, or merger may refer to: Concepts * Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road * Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program * Merger (politics), the com ...

of three main

tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or 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 drain the surrounding drainag ...

, namely the North Fork, Middle Fork and South Fork, near Deming. All three forks originate in the

Mount Baker Wilderness Mount Baker Wilderness is a wilderness area within the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in the western Cascade Range of northern Washington state. Its eastern border is shared with the boundary of the Stephen Mather Wilderness and North ...

, and the North Fork, the longest of the three, is sometimes considered the main river. The Nooksack is approximately in total length measuring from the North Fork headwaters. The lower Nooksack flows as a northerly loop through the fertile southern Fraser Lowland agricultural area before emptying into

Bellingham Bay Bellingham Bay is a bay of the Salish Sea located in Washington State in the United States. It is separated from the Strait of Georgia on the west by the Lummi Peninsula, Portage Island, and Lummi Island. It is bordered on the east by Bellingha ...

and, via the

Strait of Juan de Fuca The Strait of Juan de Fuca (officially named Juan de Fuca Strait in Canada) is a body of water about long that is the Salish Sea's outlet to the Pacific Ocean. The international boundary between Canada and the United States runs down the centre ...

and the Strait of Georgia, communicating with the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

Course

North Fork

The North Fork Nooksack River rises at the Nooksack Cirque east of

within the western part of

North Cascades National Park North Cascades National Park is an American national park in the state of Washington. At more than , it is the largest of the three National Park Service units that comprise the North Cascades National Park Complex. North Cascades National Par ...

in central

. Gathering meltwater off

East Nooksack Glacier East Nooksack Glacier is in North Cascades National Park in the U.S. state of Washington, on the eastern slopes of Mount Shuksan. East Nooksack Glacier is only , but fills the upper portions of the Nooksack Cirque, spanning more than . East Nooksa ...

, it flows generally west past north of

. For most of its course, this fork is paralleled by State Route 542 (also called the Mount Baker Highway). The river picks up large creeks such as Price Creek, a short creek draining Price Lake; as well as Ruth Creek, before the uppermost highway bridge crosses it. At Nooksack Falls, the river flows through a narrow valley and drops freely into a deep rocky river canyon. The falls are viewable from the forested cover near the cliff edge. A small parking lot nearby contains a kiosk with information about the falls and a hydroelectric project. Continuing west, the North Fork receives several tributaries including Wells Creek, which joins the river at the base of the falls, and Glacier Creek and Canyon Creek, before the river turns briefly south. The Middle Fork and South Fork join the North Fork within a few miles of one another. The Middle Fork joins first, with its confluence opposite

Welcome A welcome is a kind of greeting designed to introduce a person to a new place or situation, and to make them feel at ease. The term can similarly be used to describe the feeling of being accepted on the part of the new person. In some context ...

. The South Fork joins just southeast of Deming and the Nooksack Indian Reservation, creating the Nooksack River ''proper''. The traditional name of the North Fork in the

Nooksack language The Nooksack language (''Lhéchalosem'', or ''Lhéchelesem'') is a Salishan language spoken by the Nooksack people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. It comes from the area now known as northwestern Washington (state) in Whatcom County, United Stat ...

is ''Chuw7álich'' ("the next point").

Middle Fork

The Middle Fork Nooksack River, about long, originates on the southern slopes of Mount Baker near Baker Pass. It flows generally northwest between Mount Baker and Twin Sisters, and drains into the North Fork opposite

, about northeast of the confluence between the North and South Forks. The traditional name of the Middle Fork in the

is ''Nuxwt’íqw’em'' ("always-murky water").

South Fork

The South Fork Nooksack River, about long, rises in southern Whatcom County, east of Twin Sisters Mountain near Bell Pass and Lake Wiseman. It flows briefly south, entering

Skagit County Skagit County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 129,523. The county seat and largest city is Mount Vernon. The county was formed in 1883 from Whatcom County and is named for the Skagit Ind ...

, then northwest to re-enter Whatcom County. It flows past the town of Acme, and due north until merging with the North Fork near the State Route 9 bridge, southeast of Deming and the Nooksack Indian Reservation. The traditional name of the South Fork in the

is ''Nuxw7íyem'' ("always-clear water").

Nooksack ''proper''

Glacier Creek and the North Fork of the Nooksack River

After the Middle and South Forks join, the combined river flows northwest, emerging from the valley south of the

Sumas Mountain Sumas Mountain is a mountain located in Whatcom County, Washington, Whatcom County, Washington (state), Washington, 15 miles northeast of Bellingham, Washington, Bellingham and southwest of Vedder Mountain. Located in the Skagit Range, the moun ...

and flowing past Everson and Lynden. Near Everson, the river is at risk of floods breaching the right bank, allowing flow into lower lands to the north, through

Sumas River The Sumas River is a river in the Fraser Lowland and a tributary of the Fraser River system, coursing across the international border between the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. state of Washington. Course The Sumas River origi ...

and into Canada. At Lynden the river turns southwest and, near Ferndale, south. Its mouth is at the north side of

at the Lummi Indian Reservation, approximately west of Bellingham.

River modifications

The river supplies the nearby town of

Glacier, Washington Glacier is a census-designated place in the North Fork Nooksack River Valley, at an elevation of 906 ft., just 10 miles northwest of the Mount Baker Summit towering nearly 10,000 ft above it, in Whatcom County, Washington, United States. The popu ...

with hydroelectric power from a dam on the North Fork near Nooksack Falls. The Middle Fork was partially blocked with a diversion dam built by the City of Bellingham in the late 1950s for diverting water into

Lake Whatcom Lake Whatcom (from the Lummi word for "loud water") is located in Whatcom County, Washington, United States. It is the drinking water source for approximately 85,000 residents in the city of Bellingham as well as Whatcom County. It is approxima ...

, which supplies the city's drinking water. As of July 2020, this old water diversion system has been modified to remove the dam and restore the river channel for the benefit of critical salmon spawning habitat. In the late 19th century, most of the stream flow of the Nooksack River near its mouth flowed through the present channel of the short Lummi River to Lummi Bay, northwest of Bellingham Bay. Near the start of the 20th century, a log jam plugged the channel to Lummi Bay, forcing the river to change its channel to the present one. The accumulation of the new river delta has been an ongoing field of research regarding the new

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

s it has created. The river only resupplies the previous delta on Lummi Bay during high-flow conditions.

Floods

The river is subject to flooding due to high rainfall amounts in the region and some of the deepest snow packs in the country. The

Pineapple Express Pineapple Express is a non-technical term for a meteorological phenomenon characterized by a strong and persistent large-scale flow of warm moist air, and the associated heavy precipitation both in the waters immediately northeast of the Hawaii ...

, a weather pattern that brings central Pacific wind and rain to the northwest, can sometimes catalyze flooding. For example, flooding in Everson occurred 14 times from to 1936 to 2003. Specific examples of floods are: * In November 1990, flooding caused over $20 million in damage and the closure of the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway ( French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean o ...

for 26 hours. * In November 1995, flooding caused $4 million in damage in Whatcom County. * During a November 2006storm, the river flooded the city of Everson. * In November and December 2021, water from the Nooksack River filled the Sumas Prairie in Canada's

Fraser Valley The Fraser Valley is a geographical region in southwestern British Columbia, Canada and northwestern Washington State. It starts just west of Hope in a narrow valley encompassing the Fraser River and ends at the Pacific Ocean stretching from the ...

. This resulted in evacuations because of a landslide, $1 billion in damage in Abbotsford, British Columbia, and further damage elsewhere. Both the USA and Canada have faced long-term political hurdles to adequate flood prevention. "On the Washington side, there has been a reluctance to spend money to benefit Canada", and on the Canadian side, " B.C. has been reluctant to use the

International Joint Commission The International Joint Commission (french: Commission mixte internationale) is a bi-national organization established by the governments of the United States and Canada under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909. Its responsibilities were expa ...

following a 1988 report that resulted in the cancellation of the Sage Creek coal mine on the

Flathead River The Flathead River ( fla, label= Salish, člq̓etkʷ ntx̣ʷetkʷ, , kut, kananmituk), in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Montana, originates in the Canadian Rockies to the north of Glacier National Park and flows southwest into Fla ...

References

{{authority control Lynden, Washington Nooksack Rivers of Washington (state) Geography of Bellingham, Washington Rivers of Whatcom County, Washington