The Pistol River is a coastal stream that meanders for through the

Southern Oregon Coast Range The Southern Oregon Coast Range is the southernmost section of the Oregon Coast Range, in the Pacific Coast Ranges, located in the southwest portion of the state of Oregon, United States, roughly between the Umpqua River and the Middle Fork Coquill ...

to 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 ...

near the unincorporated community of

Pistol River The Pistol River is a coastal stream that meanders for through the Southern Oregon Coast Range to the Pacific Ocean near the unincorporated community of Pistol River in the U.S. state of Oregon. Flowing generally southwest from its origin near ...

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 sover ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. Flowing generally southwest from its origin near Sugarloaf Mountain in the

Siskiyou National Forest Siskiyou may refer to: *Siskiyou Mountains, a mountain range in northern California and southern Oregon *Siskiyou National Forest, in Oregon and California *Siskiyou County, California *Siskiyou Trail, an old Native American and pioneer trail connec ...

, the river enters the sea at

Pistol River State Scenic Viewpoint Pistol River State Scenic Viewpoint is a state park in the U.S. state of Oregon, administered by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD), officially known (in state law) as the State Parks and ...

, south of

Gold Beach Gold, commonly known as Gold Beach, was the code name for one of the five areas of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during the Second World War. Gold, the central of the five areas, was lo ...

. The river received its name after

pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and dev ...

James Mace lost his pistol in it in 1853. The Pistol River supports populations of

chinook salmon The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Pacific salmon in North America, as well as the largest in the genus ''Oncorhynchus''. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other ve ...

threatened Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensat ...

coho salmon The coho salmon (''Oncorhynchus kisutch;'' Karuk: achvuun) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family and one of the five Pacific salmon species. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon or "silvers". The scientific species name i ...

steelhead Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or redband trout (O. m. gairdneri). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and N ...

, and

coastal cutthroat trout The coastal cutthroat trout (''Oncorhynchus clarkii clarkii''), also known as the sea-run cutthroat trout, blue-back trout or harvest trout, is one of the several subspecies of cutthroat trout found in Western North America. The coastal cutthroa ...

. The river flows generally through forests where logging has damaged the fish habitat. Work to restore the habitat is ongoing.

Course

From its headwaters in the forest, the river flows south at first, receiving Meadow Creek from the

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...

and then the East Fork Pistol River, also from the left. Turning southwest, it receives the North Fork Pistol River from the

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of Liberty, freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convent ...

and Sunrise Creek from the left about from the

mouth In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...

before turning west toward the ocean. South Fork Pistol River enters from the left, then Deep Creek and Glade Creek, both from the right about from the mouth. Crook Creek enters from the right at the community of Pistol River, where the river passes under Pistol River Loop Highway and then

U.S. Route 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal Roa ...

before entering the Pacific Ocean at Pistol River State Scenic Viewpoint. The maps include

river mile A river mile is a measure of distance in miles along a river from its mouth. River mile numbers begin at zero and increase further upstream. The corresponding metric unit using kilometers is the river kilometer. They are analogous to vehicle road ...

(RM) markers for the stream's lowermost . Relevant quadrangles from mouth to source include Cape Sebastian, Sundown Mountain, Collier Butte, and Quosantana Butte.

Watershed

The Pistol River's watershed encompasses approximately of Curry County. As of 2001, about 57 percent of the basin was public land managed by the

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

(52 percent) and the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...

(5 percent). About 43 percent of the basin was privately owned. Forestry, whether public or private, was the dominant land use, involving 97 percent of the watershed. The remaining 3 percent was used for farming, livestock grazing, and rural homes.

References

Works cited

* * *

External links

Pistol River Watershed
{{authority control Rivers of Curry County, Oregon Rivers of Oregon

Course

Watershed

See also

References

Works cited

External links