The Yellow Medicine River is a tributary of the

Minnesota River The Minnesota River ( dak, Mnísota Wakpá) is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 332 miles (534 km) long, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It drains a watershed of in Minnesota and about in South Dakota and Iowa. It ris ...

, 107 miles (173 km) long, in southwestern Minnesota in the United States. Via the Minnesota River, it is part of the

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

of the Mississippi River, draining an area of 665 square miles (1,722 km²) in an agricultural region. The Yellow Medicine River issues from Lake Shaokatan in Shaokatan Township in western Lincoln County, approximately six miles (10 km) southwest of

Ivanhoe ''Ivanhoe: A Romance'' () by Walter Scott is a historical novel published in three volumes, in 1819, as one of the Waverley novels. Set in England in the Middle Ages, this novel marked a shift away from Scott’s prior practice of setting st ...

, on the Coteau des Prairies, a morainic plateau dividing the Mississippi and Missouri River watersheds. It flows initially northeastwardly as an intermittent stream, past Ivanhoe. The stream flows off the Coteau in northeastern Lincoln County, dropping 250 feet (75 m) in five miles (8 km), and turns east-northeastwardly, following a generally treeless course on till plains through northern Lyon County and eastern Yellow Medicine County, past

Hanley Falls Hanley Falls is a city in Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 304 at the 2010 census. History Hanley Falls was laid out in 1884 when the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway was extended to that point. The city was ...

. It flows into the Minnesota River in Upper Sioux Agency State Park in Sioux Agency Township, approximately eight miles (13 km) southeast of Granite Falls, after dropping 85 feet (30 m) in its final ten miles (15 km) in the Minnesota River valley. The Yellow Medicine River's largest tributaries are the North Branch Yellow Medicine River and the South Branch Yellow Medicine River, both of which flow for most of their lengths on the Coteau. The North Branch, 41 miles (66 km) long, flows northeastwardly through northern Lincoln County, briefly entering Yellow Medicine County and passing through Porter. The South Branch, 62 miles (99 km) long, flows northeastwardly through Lincoln County into northwestern Lyon County, past Minneota. Other tributaries of the Yellow Medicine include Spring Creek, 46 miles (74 km) long, which flows eastwardly through Yellow Medicine County; and Mud Creek, 31 miles (50 km) long, which flows eastwardly through western Yellow Medicine County into northwestern Lyon County. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency statistically combines the watershed of the Yellow Medicine River with that of Hawk Creek on the opposite bank of the Minnesota River, as well as small watersheds of nearby Minnesota River tributaries. According to the agency, 81% of the land in the Yellow Medicine-Hawk Creek watersheds is used for agriculture, with

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

and soybeans being the predominant crops. In May of 2008 19 year-old Brandon Swanson went missing from Porter, Minnesota. Believing that he was near the town of Lynd. It was and still is highly theorized that Brandon may have slipped and fallen into the Yellow medicine river. However, nothing was found when the river was searched for over 30 days.

Flow rate

At the United States Geological Survey's

stream gauge A stream gauge, streamgage or stream gauging station is a location used by hydrologists or environmental scientists to monitor and test terrestrial bodies of water. Hydrometric measurements of water level surface elevation ("stage") and/or volu ...

near Granite Falls, 6 miles (10 km) upstream from the river's mouth, the annual mean flow of the river between 1931 and 2005 was 142 cubic feet per second (4 m³/s). The highest recorded flow during the period was 17,200 ft³/s (487 m³/s) on April 10, 1969. Readings of zero were recorded on numerous days during several years.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Minnesota Tributaries of the Minnesota River Rivers of Lincoln County, Minnesota Rivers of Lyon County, Minnesota Rivers of Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota

Flow rate

See also

References