The Caloosahatchee River is a river on the southwest Gulf Coast of Florida in the United States, approximately 75 mi (121 long). It drains rural area on the northern edge of the Everglades northwest of waterway system of southern Florida, the river forms a tidal estuary along most of its course and has recently become the subject of efforts to restore and preserve the Everglades.
Description
It issues from Lake Hicpochee, in southeastern Glades County, approximately 10 mi (16 km) WNW of Clewiston. It flows WSW past La Belle, where it becomes tidal, forming an estuary along its lower 25 mi (40 km). It broadens as it nears the ocean, passing Fort Myers and Cape Coral. It enters the Gulf of Mexico 10 mi (16 km) southwest of Fort Myers in San Carlos Bay protected by Sanibel Island.
The 5 mi (8 km) Caloosahatchee Canal connecting Lake Hicpochee to Lake Okeechobee allows continuous navigation from the Caloosahatchee to the Okeechobee Waterway system. Since the late 19th century, dredging and channelization of the river, as well as the artificial connection to Lake Okeechobee and its use as use as a water supply for urban and agricultural uses, have substantially altered the hydrology of the river. As a result, the both the magnitude and timing of water delivery to the estuary has been substantially altered. Recent programs by the state government have attempted to establish minimum flow levels in the river, in part to help restore the water supply to the Everglades. A federal wildlife refuge for manatees has been established at the mouth of the river on San Carlos Bay near Fort Myers, Florida.
External links
South Flordia Water Management District: Caloosahatchee River and Estuary (http://www.sfwmd.gov/org/wsd/mfl/calmfl/)
The hypothesis states that the CaloosahatcheeRiver oxbows have been filling in with sedimentation and increasing in width since the study in 1978.
From the Franklin Lock to the Gulf of Mexico the average depth of the river is twenty-two feet, and after the Edison Bridge, the channels width becomes 100 feet across.
The river is now a channel that is 75 miles in length from its source, Lake Okeechobee, all the way to its mouth, the Gulf of Mexico.
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