Wild Rice River (North Dakota)

Wild Rice River
Wild Rice River
	The Wild Rice River near Abercrombie in 2007
	The Red River drainage basin, with the Wild Rice Rivers of North Dakota and Minnesota highlighted
Location
Country	United States
State	North Dakota
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	Brampton Township, Sargent County
• coordinates	46°00′56″N 97°47′08″W / 46.01556°N 97.78556°W
• elevation	1,283 ft (391 m)
Mouth	Red River of the North
• location	near Frontier, Cass County
• coordinates	46°45′24″N 96°47′24″W / 46.75667°N 96.79000°W
• elevation	879 ft (268 m)
Length	251 mi (404 km)
Basin size	2,233 sq mi (5,780 km2)
Discharge
• location	near Abercrombie
• average	104 cu ft/s (2.9 m3/s)
• minimum	0 cu ft/s (0 m3/s)
• maximum	9,540 cu ft/s (270 m3/s)
Discharge
• location	near Rutland
• average	8.36 cu ft/s (0.237 m3/s)

The Wild Rice River is a tributary of the Red River of the North, approximately 251 miles (404 km) long,^[3] in southeastern North Dakota in the United States. Via the Red River, Lake Winnipeg, and the Nelson River, it is part of the watershed of Hudson Bay. The Wild Rice River drains an area of 2,233 square miles (5,780 km²) in the Red River Valley region. Its tributaries also drain a small part of northeastern South Dakota. Despite its length, it is a fairly small stream, flowing at an average rate of approximately 100 cubic feet per second (3 m³/s).

The river was so named for the former abundance of wild rice along its course.^[7]

^ ^a ^b Geographic Names Information System.
^ ^a ^b Google Earth.
^ ^a ^b U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map Archived 2012-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, accessed June 8, 2011
^ Red River of the North, Reconnaissance Report.
^ ^a ^b Robinson, pp. 44-45
^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference USGS2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Federal Writers' Project (1938). North Dakota, a Guide to the Northern Prairie State. WPA. p. 194. ISBN 978-1-62376-033-5.