Clinton River (Michigan)

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The Clinton River is a stream in the southeast of the U.S. state of Michigan.

The main branch of the river rises from wetlands in Springfield Township, Oakland County, northwest of Pontiac. A series of dams create a number of small lakes west of Pontiac, the last of which is Dawson's Millpond. The river is piped under downtown Pontiac, re-emerging on the city's near eastside. The north branch and the middle branch rise in northern Macomb County and join the main branch in Charter Township of Clinton, which was named after the river. The main branch flows 80 miles (128 km) from its headwaters to Lake St. Clair in Harrison Township, Michigan.

The Clinton River watershed drains 760 square miles (1,968 km²) including most of Macomb County, a large portion of Oakland County and small portions of Lapeer County and St. Clair County. More than 1.4 million people in over 60 municipalities live in the watershed.

Under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement in 1972, along with 42 other areas, the lower segment of the river was designated as an Area of Concern, based on the heavy presence of pollutant contamination. In 1995, the designation was expanded to include the entire watershed of the river and the lower nearshore of Lake St. Clair.

The Clinton-Kalamazoo Canal was a failed attempt to built a waterway connecting Lake St. Clair with Lake Michigan.

The river was renamed in honor of DeWitt Clinton, the governor of New York from 1817 to 1823. Previously, the river had been known as the "Nottawasippee" by the French and Native Americans. The English referred to it as the Huron River of St. Clair. It was referred to as "The River Huron" in the 1784 home eulogy of the area's first white settler, William Tucker, who built his home along the river about 3 miles upstream. The name was changed on July 17, 1824 by the Michigan Territorial Council to avoid confusion caused by the many other places known as "Huron" in eastern Michigan, including the Huron River which rises in adjacent Oakland County. The same legislative act also changed the name of Huron Township in Macomb County Clinton Township.^[1]

The Huron-Clinton Metroparks system preserves land in the watershed as public parks.

A river in the Southland region of the South Island of New Zealand shares the same name.

[edit] References

^ Leeson, Michael A. [1882] (2005). "Organization", History of Macomb County. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Library, p. 297. Retrieved on 2006-10-01.