Lehigh River

Lehigh River
The Lehigh River near Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania in June 2002
The Lehigh River watershed highlighted in yellow
Location
Country	United States
State	Pennsylvania
Counties	On the river: Wayne, Lackawanna, Monroe, Luzerne, Carbon, Lehigh, Northampton, Watershed: Wayne, Lackawanna, Monroe, Luzerne, Carbon, Lehigh, Northampton, Schuylkill, Berks, Bucks
Cities	Lehighton, Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton
Physical characteristics
Source	Pocono Peak Lake
• location	Lehigh Township, Wayne County, Pennsylvania, U.S.
• coordinates	41°16′42″N 75°24′22″W / 41.27833°N 75.40611°W / 41.27833; -75.40611
• elevation	2,056 ft (627 m)
Mouth	Delaware River
• location	Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, U.S.
• coordinates	40°41′20″N 75°12′17″W / 40.68889°N 75.20472°W / 40.68889; -75.20472
• elevation	160 ft (49 m)
Length	109 mi (175 km)
Basin size	1,345 sq mi (3,480 km2)
Discharge
• location	Glendon
• average	3,740 cu ft/s (106 m3/s)
• minimum	1,160 cu ft/s (33 m3/s)
• maximum	11,700 cu ft/s (330 m3/s)
Discharge
• location	Stoddartsville
• average	280 cu ft/s (7.9 m3/s)
Basin features
Tributaries
• left	Tobyhanna Creek, Drakes Creek, Bear Creek (Lehigh River), Pohopoco Creek, Aquashicola Creek, Hokendauqua Creek, Monocacy Creek, and Catasauqua Creek
• right	Black Creek, Nesquehoning Creek, Mauch Chunk Creek, Mahoning Creek, Lizard Creek, Little Lehigh Creek, and Saucon Creek

The Lehigh River is a 109-mile-long (175 km)^[1] tributary of the Delaware River in eastern Pennsylvania. The river flows in a generally southward pattern from the Pocono Mountains in Northeastern Pennsylvania through Allentown and much of the Lehigh Valley before joining the Delaware River in Easton.

Part of the Lehigh River and a number of its tributaries are designated Pennsylvania Scenic Rivers by the state's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

The river's name is an anglicisation of the Lenape name for the river, Lechewuekink, which means "where there are forks". Both Lehigh County and Lehigh Valley are named for the river.

Between 1821 and 1966, the Lehigh River was owned by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, making it the only privately owned river in the United States. This private ownership continued until a local representative, Samuel Frank, promoted a bill to return control of the river to the state in 1967.

According to an environmental report from a Pennsylvania nonprofit research center, the Lehigh River watershed is ranked second nationally in the volume of toxic substances released into it in 2020. The study mirrored a previous report by the state's Department of Environmental Protection that found most of the county's waterways unsafe for swimming or aquatic life.^[2]