Kickapoo River - Watershed

Watershed

The river begins midway between Wilton, Wisconsin and Mill Bluff State Park and flows south through a deep valley cut into the hilly Driftless Zone of southwest Wisconsin. It empties into the Wisconsin River just south of Wauzeka, Wisconsin. Kickapoo is an Algonquian word meaning “one who goes here, then there”, a fitting name as the river is very crooked, frequently doubling back on itself as it flows through the Wisconsin landscape. Because of the extremely crooked path of the river, its source north of Wilton is just 60 miles (97 km) from its mouth at Wauzeka, although the river is nearly 130 miles (210 km) long. The Kickapoo, the longest tributary of the Wisconsin River, drains over 800 square miles (2,100 km2) of land in Monroe, Vernon, Richland, and Crawford counties. The Kickapoo River watershed encompasses 492,000 acres (1,990 km2) in southwest Wisconsin.

There are many small tributaries with the most significant being Moore Creek, Billings Creek, the West Fork of the Kickapoo, Reads Creek and Tainter Creek.

Wetlands have largely been drained for pasture and comprise a tiny portion of the lands in the Kickapoo River watershed, 0.8%, whereas agriculture accounts for 50.4% of the land use followed closely by forest land at 48%.