Oswego River (New York)

Oswego River
River
The Oswego River as it passes through the city of Oswego.
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 43°12′5″N 76°16′50″W / 43.20139°N 76.28056°W [2]
Mouth Lake Ontario
 - location Oswego
 - elevation 245 ft (75 m) [1]
 - coordinates 43°27′54″N 76°30′50″W / 43.46500°N 76.51389°WCoordinates: 43°27′54″N 76°30′50″W / 43.46500°N 76.51389°W [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)
The Oswego drainage basin, with the Oswego River highlighted

The Oswego River /ɒsˈwiːɡoʊ/ is a river in upstate New York in the United States. It 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 name that literally means, "place of the flowing out," or more familiarly, "the mouth of the stream."

Description

James Fenimore Cooper described the Oswego in these words:

The Oswego is formed by the junction of the Oneida and the Onondaga,A 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.[5]

River course

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 (13,266 km2), as large as the states of Rhode Island and Delaware together.

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.

Oswego Canal

"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 (4.3 m) deep and has an overhead clearance of 20 feet (6.1 m).

Pollution

The Oswego River was listed as a Great Lakes Areas of Concern in The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between the United States and Canada until it was formally delisted on July 21, 2006.[6]

Sportfishing

The river is known for its steelhead run in the early spring, followed by a salmon run in early autumn. The river is stocked annually by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation with 140,000 Chinook salmon and 20,000 steelhead.[7]

See also

Notes

A.^ The river downstream of Onondaga Lake is now considered to be the Oswego.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Google Earth elevation for GNIS coordinates.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Oswego River
  3. ↑ Water Resources Data New York Water Year 2003, Volume 3: Western New York, USGS
  4. ↑ "Oswego." The Columbia Gazetteer of the World Online. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. http://www.columbiagazetteer.org/ . Accessed: February 14, 2008
  5. ↑ James Fenimore Cooper, The Pathfinder, Chapter 3
  6. ↑ "Oswego River AOC, US EPA". Retrieved March 28, 2013.
  7. ↑ NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. "Oswego River". Dec.ny.gov. Retrieved February 20, 2015.

External links