Sheyenne River

The Sheyenne River is one of the major tributaries of the Red River of the North, meandering 591 miles (951 km) across eastern North Dakota.

The river begins about 15 miles (24 km) north of McClusky, North Dakota, and flows generally eastward before turning south near McVille. The southerly flow of the river continues through Griggs and Barnes counties before it turns in a northeastward direction near Lisbon. The river forms Lake Ashtabula behind the Baldhill Dam north of Valley City.

From Lisbon, the river crosses the Sheyenne National Grassland and enters Cass County near the city of Kindred. From Kindred, the river flows north-northeastward through the fertile plains of the Red River Valley.

The character of the river changes as it leaves the sandy grasslands and picks up the fertile clay soil of the Red River Valley. Previously, the river posed a flooding hazard to cities such as West Fargo and Harwood, where it joins the Red River of the North and flows north to Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba. Thanks to a diversion canal completed near Horace, the major Sheyenne River cities fared well in the 1997 Red River Flood which devastated the cities of Grand Forks, North Dakota and East Grand Forks, Minnesota.