Des Plaines River

Des Plaines River
Typical section of Des Plaines River in Lake County, Illinois.
Location
Country	United States
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	West of Kenosha, Kenosha County, Wisconsin
• coordinates	42°40′25″N 88°01′35″W / 42.6736°N 88.0265°W / 42.6736; -88.0265 (Des Plaines River (source))
Mouth
• location	Illinois River
• coordinates	41°23′23″N 88°15′18″W / 41.3898°N 88.2549°W / 41.3898; -88.2549 (Des Plaines River (mouth))
Length	133 miles (214 km)
Basin size	630 square miles (1,600 km2)
Discharge
• location	Joliet, Illinois
• average	3,799 cu/ft. per sec.[1]
Basin features
Progression	Des Plaines River → Illinois → Mississippi → Gulf of Mexico

The Des Plaines River (/dɛsˈpleɪnz/) is a river that flows southward for 133 miles (214 km)^[2] through southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois^[3] in the United States Midwest, eventually meeting the Kankakee River west of Channahon to form the Illinois River, a tributary of the Mississippi River.

Native Americans used the river as transportation route and portage. When French explorers and missionaries arrived in the 1600s, in what was then the Illinois Country of New France, they named the waterway La Rivière des Plaines (River of the Plane Tree) as they felt that trees on the river resembled the European plane tree.^{[citation needed]} The local Native Americans showed these early European explorers how to traverse waterways of the Des Plaines watershed to travel from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River and its valley.

Parts of the river are now part of the Illinois Waterway and the Chicago Area Waterway System.