Ecorse River

Ecorse River
Rivière aux Écorces
The north branch at Council Point Park
Ecorse River is located in Michigan
Ecorse River
Location within the state of Michigan
Physical characteristics
Mouth 
 • location
Detroit River
 • coordinates
42°14′06″N 83°08′50″W / 42.23500°N 83.14722°W / 42.23500; -83.14722
Length18.8 miles (30.3 km)
Discharge 
 • locationmouth
 • average41.7 cu ft/s (1.18 m3/s) (estimate)[1]

The Ecorse River is an 18.8-mile-long (30.3 km)[2] river in southern Michigan. Because of its small size, it is often identified as Ecorse Creek. It flows through the Downriver section of Metro Detroit, and is a tributary of the Detroit River. The early French settlers named it the Rivière aux Écorces ("bark river").[3] They named the river after the custom they observed of the local Native American tribe, who wrapped their dead in birch or elm bark, and buried them at the mouth of the river. The river has two branches, which meet at Council Point Park in the city of Lincoln Park, where chief Pontiac held a council in 1763 before attacking Fort Detroit.

  1. ^ United States Environmental Protection Agency. "Watershed Report: Ecorse River". watersgeo.epa.gov. Archived from the original on 2021-07-02. Retrieved 2021-07-02.
  2. ^ U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map Archived 2012-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, accessed November 7, 2011
  3. ^ Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. Govt. Print. Off. pp. 114.