Trinity River (Texas)

Trinity River Río de La Santísima Trinidad Río de La Trinidad
Trinity River, Dallas, Texas (postcard, c. 1901–1907)
Location
Country	United States
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	North Texas, near the Red River
Mouth
• location	Trinity Bay, at Chambers County, Texas
• coordinates	29°44′35″N 94°42′12″W / 29.74306°N 94.70333°W / 29.74306; -94.70333
• elevation	0 ft (0 m)
Length	710 miles (1,140 km)
Basin size	15,589 sq mi (40,380 km2)
Discharge
• average	6,368 cu ft/s (180.3 m3/s)[1]

The Trinity River is a 710-mile (1,140 km)^[2] river, the longest with a watershed entirely within the U.S. state of Texas. It rises in extreme northern Texas, a few miles south of the Red River. The headwaters are separated by the high bluffs on the southern side of the Red River.

The Trinity River was previously identified as the stream that the Caddo called Arkikosa in Central Texas and Daycoa nearer the coast.^[2] However, in 2022, language preservationists from the Caddo Nation determined their ancestral language lacked the letter “R” sound. Arkikosa was likely a corruption or misspelling of the word Akokisa. In the vernacular of another tribe, the Atakapa who settled in the Gulf Coast woodlands, Akokisa means “river people.”^[3] French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, in 1687, named the river, Riviere des canoës ("River of Canoes"). In 1690 Spanish explorer Alonso de León named it, "La Santísima Trinidad" ("the Most Holy Trinity").^[4]