Owyhee River
| Owyhee River | |
|---|---|
The Owyhee River | |
Map of the Owyhee River watershed | |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Nevada, Idaho, Oregon |
| City | Rome, Oregon |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | Near Wild Horse |
| • location | Elko County, Nevada |
| • coordinates | 41°30′17″N 115°44′30″W / 41.50472°N 115.74167°W |
| • elevation | 6,860 ft (2,090 m) |
| Mouth | Snake River |
• location | Canyon County, Idaho/Malheur County, Oregon |
• coordinates | 43°48′46″N 117°01′32″W / 43.81278°N 117.02556°W |
• elevation | 2,185 ft (666 m) |
| Length | 280 mi (450 km) |
| Basin size | 11,049 sq mi (28,620 km2) |
| Discharge | |
| • location | Owyhee, OR, 1 mi (1.6 km) from the mouth |
| • average | 1,146 cu ft/s (32.5 m3/s) |
| • minimum | 3.2 cu ft/s (0.091 m3/s) |
| • maximum | 29,000 cu ft/s (820 m3/s) |
| Type | Wild |
| Designated | March 30, 2009 |
The Owyhee River is a tributary of the Snake River located in northern Nevada, southwestern Idaho and southeastern Oregon in the Western United States and its Pacific Northwest region. It is 280 miles (450 km) long. The river's drainage basin is 11,049 square miles (28,620 km2) in area, one of the largest subbasins of the Columbia River Basin with its major waterways of the Columbia River and Snake River. The mean annual discharge is 995 cubic feet per second (28.2 m3/s), with a maximum of 50,000 cu ft/s (1,400 m3/s) recorded in 1993 and a minimum of 42 cu ft/s (1.2 m3/s) in 1954.
The Owyhee drains a remote area of the arid plateau region immediately north of the Great Basin of Central Nevada, rising in northeastern Nevada and flowing generally northward near the north-south Oregon / Idaho border to the Snake River. Its watershed is very sparsely populated. The Owyhee River and its tributaries flow through the Owyhee Plateau, cutting deep canyons, often with vertical walls and in some places over 1,000 feet (300 m) deep.