Saint Louis River

The Saint Louis River is a river in the U.S. states of Minnesota and Wisconsin that flows into Lake Superior. The largest U.S. river to flow into the lake, it is 192 miles in length and starts 13 miles east of Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota. The river's watershed covers 3,634 square miles . Near the Twin Ports of Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin, the river becomes a freshwater estuary. The lower St. Louis is the only river in the state with whitewater rafting opportunities.

According to Warren Upham, the Ojibwe name of the river is Gichigami-ziibi . He notes:
"The river was probably so named by Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye , who was a very active explorer, in the years 1731 and onward. Shortly before his death the king of France in 1749 conferred on him the cross of Saint Louis as a recognition of the importance of his discoveries, and thence the name of the Saint Louis River appears to have come. On Jean-Baptiste-Louis Franquelin's map and Philippe Buache's map , it is called the Rivière du Fond du Lac, and the map by Gilles Robert de Vaugondy and Jonathan Carver's map are the earliest to give the present name."

More information

Comments Statistics

| | Public | French • German • Spanish