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The Ugashik River is a stream, long, on the Alaska Peninsula of the 
The river has two major
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. ...
. It flows from headwaters near Lower Ugashik Lake and empties into Ugashik Bay, an estuary of the Bering Sea's Bristol Bay.
The origin of the name Ugashik is somewhat obscure, although early spelling variants such as Oogashik and Ougashick suggest the name pertains to the source of the river: two waters (lakes) and its muddy character.
The river has two major 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 ...
and one minor: the King Salmon River and the Dog Salmon River both have confluences near the river mouth at Ugashik Bay, while the smaller Dago Creek joins just four miles (6 km) from Smoky Point
Smoky Point is a point of land in the U.S. state of Alaska, located at , where Ugashik Bay joins the much larger Bristol Bay. The most easily distinguishable landmark is the United States Coast Guard lighthouse which is visible to mariners on ...
, where Ugashik Bay and Bristol Bay meet.
The river is navigable to a small lagoon
A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') ...
located just outside the outlet from Lower Ugashik Lake. A small rapids between the lake and the lagoon serves as the location of a seasonally staffed salmon
Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus ''Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Oncorhy ...
-counting weir
A weir or low head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the river level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...
operated by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) is a department within the government of Alaska. ADF&G's mission is to protect, maintain, and improve the fish, game, and aquatic plant resources of the state, and manage their use and development in ...
.
The river hosts several seasonal salmon runs including, during the peak summer season, part of the largest sockeye salmon migration in the world.
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
{{authority control Rivers of Lake and Peninsula Borough, Alaska Rivers of Alaska