Salem River

The Salem River is a 34.7-mile-long (55.8 km) tributary of the Delaware River in southwestern New Jersey in the United States.

The course and watershed of the Salem River are entirely within Salem County. The river rises in Upper Pittsgrove Township and flows initially westwardly, through Pilesgrove Township and the borough of Woodstown and along the boundaries of Carneys Point and Mannington Townships. Near Deepwater it approaches to within 2 miles (3 km) of the Delaware River, a distance breached by the Deepwater Canal, which connects the two rivers. From there the Salem River turns to the south, flowing along the boundary of Mannington and Pennsville Townships, where it widens into a meandering shallow estuary and passes the city of Salem, its head of navigability. It flows into the Delaware River from the east near the head of Delaware Bay, on the boundary of Pennsville and Elsinboro townships, approximately 2 miles (3 km) west of Salem and approximately 5 miles (8 km) southeast of Finns Point. Its tributaries include Game Creek, Mannington Creek, and Fenwick Creek.

The area of the river was inhabited by Lenape at the time of European colonization. Fort Elfsborg, a settlement of the New Sweden colony, was constructed along the eastern bank of the river near its mouth in 1642-1643. The fort was later abandoned because of the prevalence of mosquitoes and the construction of Fort Casimir by the New Netherland Dutch across the river. The English later founded the village of Salem in 1675 near the mouth of the river as part of the Fenwick Colony.

According to the Geographic Names Information System, the river has also been known historically as Firkins Creek, Varkens Kill, and Varkins Kill. The Board on Geographic Names settled on "Salem River" as the stream's name in 1940.