The Pigeon River is a small river 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 depth () after Lake Superior and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the ...

on the

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

Lower Peninsula The Lower Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Lower Michigan – is the larger, southern and less elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; the other being the Upper Peninsula, which is separated by the S ...

of the U.S. state of

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. The river is approximately longU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data fro
The National Map
accessed 2016-10-16 and viewed in

ArcMap ArcMap is the former main component of Esri's ArcGIS suite of geospatial processing programs. Used primarily to view, edit, create, and analyze geospatial data. ArcMap allows the user to explore data within a data set, symbolize features accordi ...

. and drains an area of U.S. Geological Survey.

National Hydrography Dataset The National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) is a digital database of surface water features used to make maps. It contains features such as lakes, ponds, streams, rivers, canals, dams, and stream gauges for the United States. Description Cartogra ...

, area data covering Pigeon River watershed (12-digit

Hydrologic Unit Code A hydrological code or hydrologic unit code is a sequence of numbers or letters (a ''geocode'') that identify a hydrological unit or feature, such as a river, river reach, lake, or area like a drainage basin (also called watershed in North Americ ...

s 040500020302 and 040500020303), viewed i
The National Map
accessed 2016-10-13. in a generally rural area situated between the cities of

Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former provinces of the Netherlands, province on the western coast of the Netherland ...

and

Grand Haven Grand Haven is a city within the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Ottawa County. Grand Haven is located on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Grand River, for which it is named. As of the 2020 census, Grand Ha ...

. Via Lake Michigan and the larger

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

system, it is part of the

watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...

of the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawren ...

Course

The Pigeon River's watershed and course are located entirely in western Ottawa County. The river is formed by a confluence of agricultural drainage ditches in Olive Township and flows generally west-southwestward into

Port Sheldon Township Port Sheldon Township is a civil township of Ottawa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the township population was 5,206. History Port Sheldon Township was established in 1924 by the division off the west end of what ...

. After flowing through Pigeon Lake, which is the only lake in the river's watershed, it flows into Lake Michigan in Port Sheldon Township, approximately northwest of Holland and south of Grand Haven.The National Map
accessed 2016-10-16. Two county-operated public parks, Pigeon Creek Park and Hemlock Crossing, are located along the lower course of the river. The river has been stocked annually with

brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a species of salmonid ray-finned fish and the most widely distributed species of the genus ''Salmo'', endemic to most of Europe, West Asia and parts of North Africa, and has been widely introduced globally ...

by the

Michigan Department of Natural Resources The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is the agency of the state of Michigan founded in 1921, charged with maintaining natural resources such as state parks, state forests, and recreation areas. It is governed by a director appoint ...

since 2003.

Watershed characteristics

The Pigeon River watershed is located in portions of seven townships of Ottawa County: Formerly covered by forests and wetlands including a

black ash Black ash is a common name for several plants and may refer to: * ''Acer negundo'', native to North America * ''Fraxinus nigra ''Fraxinus nigra'', or the black ash, is a species of ash native to much of eastern Canada and the northeastern United ...

swamp that covered 75% of the watershed, by the 1920s most of the watershed had been cleared and

drained ''Drained'', ( Portuguese: ''O Cheiro do Ralo'') is a 2006 Brazilian dark comedy film based on a novel by Lourenço Mutarelli. It was directed by Heitor Dhalia, and stars Selton Mello. The film was produced by Geração Conteúdo, Primo Filmes ...

for agriculture. Portions of the watershed were reforested in the 1940s to control wind erosion. A 1997 watershed management plan found that approximately half of the land in the Pigeon River watershed was used for agriculture, with most of this area in Blendon, Olive, and Robinson townships. Agricultural production in the watershed included ornamental nursery crops, Christmas tree, blueberries, upland vegetables, field crops, turkeys, poultry eggs, beef and dairy cattle, and hogs. Land use in the watershed as of 1992 was as follows:

Tributaries

This is a list of named streams in the Pigeon River watershed (aside from the Pigeon River itself), as identified by the

. The list's default order is from the mouth of the river to its source.

Notes

References

{{authority control Rivers of Michigan Rivers of Ottawa County, Michigan Tributaries of Lake Michigan

Course

Watershed characteristics

Tributaries

See also

Notes

References