The Yellow Medicine River is a tributary of the Minnesota River, 107 miles long, in southwestern Minnesota in the United States. Via the Minnesota River, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of 665 square miles in an agricultural region. Its name is a translation of the Dakota name for the river, pajutazee,, The Yellow Medicine River issues from Lake Shaokatan in Shaokatan Township in western Lincoln County, approximately six miles southwest of Ivanhoe, on the Coteau des Prairies, a morainicplateau dividing the Mississippi and Missouri River watersheds. It flows initially northeastwardly as an intermittent stream, past Ivanhoe. The stream flows off the Coteau in northeastern Lincoln County, dropping 250 feet in five miles, and turns east-northeastwardly, following a generally treeless course on till plains through northern Lyon County and eastern Yellow Medicine County, past Hanley Falls. It flows into the Minnesota River in Upper Sioux Agency State Park in Sioux Agency Township, approximately eight miles southeast of Granite Falls, after dropping 85 feet in its final ten miles in the Minnesota River valley. The Yellow Medicine River's largest tributaries are the North Branch Yellow Medicine River and the South Branch Yellow Medicine River, both of which flow for most of their lengths on the Coteau. The North Branch, 41 miles long, flows northeastwardly through northern Lincoln County, briefly entering Yellow Medicine County and passing through Porter. The South Branch, 62 miles long, flows northeastwardly through Lincoln County into northwestern Lyon County, past Minneota. Other tributaries of the Yellow Medicine include Spring Creek, 46 miles long, which flows eastwardly through Yellow Medicine County; and Mud Creek, 31 miles long, which flows eastwardly through western Yellow Medicine County into northwestern Lyon County. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency statistically combines the watershed of the Yellow Medicine River with that of Hawk Creek on the opposite bank of the Minnesota River, as well as small watersheds of nearby Minnesota River tributaries. According to the agency, 81% of the land in the Yellow Medicine-Hawk Creek watersheds is used for agriculture, with corn and soybeans being the predominant crops. Species of fish in the Yellow Medicine River include catfish, carp, northern pike, walleye, and bullhead.
Flow rate
At the United States Geological Survey's stream gauge near Granite Falls, 6 miles upstream from the river's mouth, the annual mean flow of the river between 1931 and 2005 was 142 cubic feet per second. The highest recorded flow during the period was 17,200 ft³/s on April 10, 1969. Readings of zero were recorded on numerous days during several years.
