| Oswego River | |
| River | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | New York |
| Counties | Onondaga, Oswego |
| Tributaries | |
| - left | Seneca River |
| - right | Oneida River |
| City | Oswego |
| Source | |
| - elevation | 357 ft (109 m) [1] |
| - coordinates | [2] |
| Mouth | Lake Ontario |
| - location | Oswego |
| - elevation | 245 ft (75 m) [1] |
| - coordinates | [2] |
| Basin | 5,122 sq mi (13,266 km2) |
| Discharge | for Oswego |
| - average | 6,742 cu ft/s (191 m3/s) [3] |
| - max | 37,000 cu ft/s (1,048 m3/s) |
| - min | 261 cu ft/s (7 m3/s) |
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The Oswego drainage basin, with the Oswego River highlighted
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The Oswego River is a river in upstate New York in the United States. This river is the second-largest river (after the Niagara River) flowing into Lake Ontario. James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Pathfinder, or The Inland Sea is set in the Oswego River valley.[4] The name Oswego is a Mohawk Indian name that literally means, "place of the flowing out," or more familiarly, "the mouth of the stream."
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James Fenimore Cooper described the Oswego in these words:
The Oswego is formed by the junction of the Oneida and the Onondaga,[5] both of which flow from lakes; and it pursues its way, through a gently undulating country, some eight or ten miles, until it reaches the margin of a sort of natural terrace, down which it tumbles some ten or fifteen feet, to another level, across which it glides with the silent, stealthy progress of deep water, until it throws its tribute into the broad receptacle of the Ontario.[6]
"Canalized" for part of its length as the Oswego Canal, the Oswego River also serves as an integral part of the New York State Canal System, providing a route from the Erie Canal to Lake Ontario. This section of the canal was completed in 1827, two years after completion of the Erie Canal. In 1917, as part of a general overhaul of the canal system, the Oswego Canal was deepened and refurbished. The canal is now 14 feet (4 m) deep and has an overhead clearance of 20 feet (6 m).
The Oswego River starts at the confluence of the Oneida River (flowing from Oneida Lake) and the Seneca River (flowing from Seneca Lake, Cayuga Lake, and Montezuma Marsh). The river drains an area of 5,122 square miles (13,265 km²), as large as the states of Rhode Island and Delaware.
At its mouth at Lake Ontario, the river divides the City of Oswego just as it divides the City of Fulton a few miles upstream.
The Oswego River is listed as a Great Lakes Areas of Concern in The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between the United States and Canada.
The river is famous for its steelhead run in the early spring, followed by a salmon run in early autumn.