The Sheboygan 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 ...

flowing 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 ...

in eastern

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

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 ...

. It is about longU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
accessed December 19, 2011 and enters the lake at the city of Sheboygan. The name of the river is Chippewa in origin, ''Shawb-wa-way-gun'', meaning 'hollow bone', 'noise underground' or 'river disappearing underground'.

Course

The Sheboygan River rises in eastern Fond du Lac County and initially flows northeastwardly through northwestern

Sheboygan County Sheboygan County is a county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is named after the Sheboygan River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 118,034. Its county seat is Sheboygan. The county was created in 1836 and organized in 1846. At th ...

, southeastern Calumet County and southwestern

Manitowoc County Manitowoc County is a county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 81,359. Its county seat is Manitowoc. The county was created in 1836 prior to Wisconsin's statehood and organized in 1848. Manitowoc County ...

before turning southeastwardly back into Sheboygan County. Along its course the river flows past the village of St. Cloud, the cities of

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...

and Sheboygan Falls, the village of

Kohler Kohler is a surname of German origin. The name was first found in Saxony. It means, "charcoal burner" so the first "Kohlers" were most likely of that occupation. Notable people with the surname include: *Alan Kohler, Australian journalist *Anton ...

and the city of Sheboygan, where it enters Lake Michigan. At Sheboygan Falls it collects its two largest

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 drainage b ...

, the

Mullet River The Mullet River is a tributary of the Sheboygan River, 40 miles (64 km) long, in eastern Wisconsin in the United States. Via the Sheboygan, it is part of the watershed of Lake Michigan, draining an area of 88 square miles (228 km²) ...

and the Onion River.

Water quality

Because of past heavy manufacturing on the eastern portion of the river from companies such as

Tecumseh Products Tecumseh Products Company is an American manufacturer of hermetic compressors for air conditioning and refrigeration products. Tecumseh Products Company has subsidiaries that sell externally and internally to Tecumseh. The Tecumseh corporate off ...

in Sheboygan Falls, Kohler Company, and the predecessor companies of Wisconsin Public Service near Sheboygan's downtown, the riverbed has a high concentration of

PCB PCB may refer to: Science and technology * Polychlorinated biphenyl, an organic chlorine compound, now recognized as an environmental toxin and classified as a persistent organic pollutant * Printed circuit board, a board used in electronics * ...

s and other chemicals which make any form of swimming in the river east of Sheboygan Falls' western limits impossible, thus it has been a working

Superfund Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the United States Environmental Pro ...

site from the Sheboygan Falls Dam (approximately at Monroe Street in that city eastward) since June 1986. Dredging along the section most affected by Tecumseh was completed in 2005, while dredging of the former Camp Marina/WPS site in Sheboygan was completed by the summer of 2012. Cautions on

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

and warnings about consumption of fish in the Sheboygan River east of the Falls Dam are also enforced by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and posted at all boat launches along Sheboygan's river frontage.

References

Columbia Gazetteer of North America entry
*

DeLorme DeLorme is the producer of personal satellite tracking, messaging, and navigation technology. The company’s main product, ''inReach'', integrates GPS and satellite technologies. ''inReach'' provides the ability to send and receive text messages ...

(1992). ''Wisconsin Atlas & Gazetteer''. Freeport, Maine: DeLorme. . *

External links

Environmental Protection Agency report on pollutants in the lower Sheboygan RiverWisconsin Department of Natural Resources Sheboygan River Basin pageSheboygan River Basin Partnership website
{{authority control Rivers of Wisconsin Rivers of Calumet County, Wisconsin Rivers of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin Rivers of Manitowoc County, Wisconsin Rivers of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin Tributaries of Lake Michigan Superfund sites in Wisconsin

Course

Water quality

See also

References

External links