The Rabbit River is a 62.1-mile-long (99.9 km) tributary of the Kalamazoo River within Allegan County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The river's watershed covers 187,200 acres (758 km2) of land and drains most of north-central and northeast Allegan County as well as small portions of Barry, Kent and Ottawa counties.
The river rises in farmland in the southeast portion of Leighton Township and flows generally westward, traversing the northern portion of Wayland Township, the city of Wayland, the northern portion of Hopkins Township, the extreme southwest corner of Dorr Township, Salem Township, Overisel Township, Heath Township, Hamilton, and Manlius Township, where it merges with the Kalamazoo near New Richmond.
Main tributaries are (from east to west):
- Green Lake Creek
- Buskirk Creek
- Miller Creek (Hopkins Township)
- Bear Creek
- Little Rabbit River
- Black Creek
- Miller Creek (Monterey Township)
- Silver Creek
The Little Rabbit River is an 11.0-mile-long (17.7 km) tributary of the Rabbit River, with a 30,850-acre (124.8 km2) watershed that drains sections of four townships in Allegan and Kent counties: Byron Township in Kent County, and Leighton, Dorr and Salem townships in Allegan County. The upper reaches consist of two small branches: the Red Run Drain, which rises in the extreme western edge of Leighton Township just north of Moline and the Dorr & Byron Drain, which rises in the southern portion of Byron Township. The branches converge west of Dorr and then empty into the Rabbit River in southwest Salem Township.
Famous quotes containing the words rabbit and/or river:
“What is a country without rabbits and partridges? They are among the most simple and indigenous animal products; ancient and venerable families known to antiquity as to modern times; of the very hue and substance of Nature, nearest allied to leaves and to the ground,—and to one another; it is either winged or it is legged. It is hardly as if you had seen a wild creature when a rabbit or a partridge bursts away, only a natural one, as much to be expected as rustling leaves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Nature seemed to have adorned herself for our departure with a profusion of fringes and curls, mingled with the bright tints of flowers, reflected in the water. But we missed the white water-lily, which is the queen of river flowers, its reign being over for this season.... Many of this species inhabit our Concord water.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)