TUALATIN RIVER

The 'Tualatin River' is a tributary of the Willamette River located in Oregon, USA. The river is approximately 83 miles (125 km) in length. It drains a fertile farming region called the Tualatin Valley southwest and west of Portland at the northwest corner of the Willamette Valley.

Contents

Description

Tributaries

See also

References

External links

Description

The river originates in the Northern Oregon Coast Range in southwestern Washington County, near the town of Cherry Grove and flows northward, passing south of Forest Grove, then generally eastward, passing south of Hillsboro, then southeastward through the town of Tualatin. Its confluence with the Willamette River is located to the south of West Linn. The drainage area of the Tualatin is approximately 712 square miles. Its watershed is 15% urbanized, 35% agricultural, and 50% forested.^[3]
The valley of the Tualatin was an important early farming region in the settlement of Oregon. The building of a plank road to the Tualatin Valley from Portland in 1860 is considered by historians to be one of the principal reasons for the rise of Portland as the dominant city in the region. The valley contains numerous natural wetlands, some of which have been designated the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge and others are protected at Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve.
The Tualatin River bears the name of a local Native American tribe that lived in the Tualatin river valley. Early settlers called it the 'Quality River'.^[4]

Tributaries

Its largest tributary, Dairy Creek, flows into the river from the north near Hillsboro. It receives Chicken Creek from the south near Sherwood.

Creeks flowing into the river:Tualatin River Watershed Council: Middle Tualatin – Rock Creek^[5]

★ Gales Creek

★ Scoggins Creek

★ Wapato Creek

★ Dairy Creek

★ McFee Creek

★ Rock Creek

★ Christensen Creek

★ Burris Creek

★ Johnson Creek

★ Butternut Creek

★ Fanno Creek

★ Chicken Creek

See also

★ List of Oregon rivers

References

1. USGS Surface-Water Annual Statistics for Oregon: USGS 14207501 TUALATIN R AT WEST LINN,OREG.+ OSWEGO CANAL
2. USGS Surface-Water Annual Statistics for Oregon: USGS 14207500 TUALATIN RIVER AT WEST LINN, OR
3. Tualatin Watershed Council - Tualatin Basin Information
4.
Joel Palmer, ''Palmer's Journal of Travels Over the Rocky Mountains, 1845–1846'' (1847), Library of Congress catalog F592 .T54 vol. 30., pp. 168 (viewable online)

5. Tualatin River Watershed Council: Lower Tualatin

External links

★ The Tualatin Riverkeepers

★ The Tualatin River Watershed Council

★ The Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge

★ NOAA: Advanced Hydrologic Predication of the Tualatin at West Linn.

★ West Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District: Tualatin River Basin

★ USGS: Tualatin River Basin Water Quality Assessment