Northern Eel Watershed

Watersheds: Northern Eel


Northern Eel Watershed map

Northern Eel Watershed
Click to enlarge

Apparently there is a name shortage, so Indiana has two Eel Rivers. They are not directly connected to each other, yet many sources refer to the northern Eel River as the "Upper Eel River" and the southern Eel River as the "Lower Eel River". This seems inconsistent with the typical usage of "upper" and "lower" as referring to the upstream and downstream reaches of the same watercourse and so, in defiance of the authorities, EcoIndiana uses the terms northern and southern to differentiate between the two Eel Rivers. Now that that's over with...

The Northern Eel Watershed drains about 520,000 acres in north central Indiana, including most of Whitley County, large portions of Miami County and Wabash County, and smaller parts of six other counties.

County

Acreage

Allen
Cass
Fulton
Huntington
Kosciusko
Miami
Noble
Wabash
Whitley
TOTAL

32,903
55,215
6,790
6,159
41,894
85,579
12,124
119,093
162,075
521,832

Source: USDA

The northern Eel River has many tributaries, including Twelve Mile Creek, Squirrel Creek, Spring Creek, and Sugar Creek. The northern Eel River joins the Wabash River at Logansport. The Wabash River joins the Ohio River, which flows into the Mississippi River and from there into the Gulf of Mexico.

The United States Geological Survey has assigned the Northern Eel Watershed an 8-Digit Hydrologic Unit Code of 05120104.