The Red Lake River is a river located in northwestern Minnesota. The river begins on the western side of the Lower Red Lake and flows westward. After passing through Thief River Falls, Red Lake Falls, and Crookston, the river merges with the Red River of the North in East Grand Forks. The total length of the river is 193 miles (310.6 km). The term "Forks" in Grand Forks comes from this forking (confluence) of the Red and Red Lake rivers near downtown Grand Forks.
As a tributary of the Red River, the Red Lake River contributed to the heavy flooding of Greater Grand Forks in 1997. The river also caused damage in its own right, albeit less severe, in Crookston.
The Red Lake River is a popular source of recreation for area residents, and many enjoy the tubing and canoeing the river makes possible.
Famous quotes containing the words red, lake and/or river:
“If the red slayer think he slays,
Or if the slain think he is slain,
They know not well the subtle ways
I keep, and pass, and turn again.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“What a wilderness walk for a man to take alone! None of your half-mile swamps, none of your mile-wide woods merely, as on the skirts of our towns, without hotels, only a dark mountain or a lake for guide-board and station, over ground much of it impassable in summer!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I journeyed to London, to the timekept City,
Where the River flows, with foreign flotations.
There I was told: we have too many churches,
And too few chop-houses.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)