Tenmile Creek is the outlet for a chain of lakes ending at Tenmile Lake near Lakeside in Coos County in the

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. The creek flows generally west for about from the lake to the

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. The stream's name stems from its approximate distance from

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, the earliest

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village along this part of the coast.

Course

Tenmile Creek meanders generally west from its source at Lakeside, which is on the creek's

right bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrain alongsid ...

. Slightly west of town, the creek enters the

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, then passes under

U.S. Route 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a major north–south highway that traverses the states of California, Oregon, and Washington on the West Coast of the United States. It is part of the United States Numbered Highway Syst ...

. Just beyond the highway, Eel Creek, the outlet from Eel Lake, enters from the right. Turning south parallel to the highway, which is on its

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, Tenmile Creek arrives at Spinreel Campground, where Saunders Creek enters from the left. Turning northwest, Tenmile Creek enters

Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area The Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area is located on the Oregon Coast, stretching approximately north of the Coos River in North Bend to the Siuslaw River in Florence, and adjoining Honeyman State Park on the west. It is part of Siuslaw Na ...

, through which it meanders until reaching the ocean. The relevant quadrangle is Lakeside.

Geology and geography

Tenmile Lake is the largest and southernmost of a chain of lakes that formed behind a ridge of

dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

s along the

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south of the

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. The lakes developed after rising sea levels, driven by post-glacial warming, drowned the lower reaches of ancestral Tenmile Creek and its tributaries. Sand dunes later blocked the streams and helped produce lakes at varied elevations within the Tenmile

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

. Other large lakes in the chain are, from north to south, Clear, Eel, and North Tenmile. All drain toward Lakeside, about south of Reedsport and east of

Recreation

The

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manages Spinreel Campground, near the confluence of Tenmile and Saunders Creek and the edge of the dunes. Spinreel has a boat ramp for non-motorized boats and a staging area for dune buggies. Activities at the campground include fishing for steelhead (sea-run

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...

), picnicking, and

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(RV) camping.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Coos County, Oregon Rivers of Oregon

Course

Geology and geography

Recreation

See also

References