Cottonwood River

When Joseph N. Nicolett first came upon the Cottonwood River near New Ulm in June of 1838, he was struck by its clarity. "The river is 120 feet wide and 4 to 6 feet deep at the camp. The water is so transparent that one can see many little objects at the bottom," Nicollet wrote in his journal. "It seems to be 10 feet deeper during floods. Left bank steep; boulders, clay, primitive sand, etc."

Today, the Cottonwood River, a ribbon of weaving water flowing swiftly in some stretches, slowly in others, slices through deep "drift" deposited by glaciers that covered Minnesota more than 10,000 years ago. By the time the river reaches Flandrau State Park at New Ulm, it has created a valley some 100 feet deep.

The canoeable portion of the river begins at Springfield and ends when it empties into the Minnesota River near New Ulm, a distance of about 58 river miles. The steep slopes, carved out some 10,000 years ago, are today saturated with maple, basswood, and hackberry trees while the sunny slopes are dotted with oak and red cedar.

The best place to begin the trip is at the Highway 4 access south of Sleepy Eye or several miles downstream at the County Road 11 access. The take-out point is either at the Cottonwood Street bridge near Highway 15 or you can continue on down to the confluence of the Minnesota River and then several miles downstream to the Courtland access.

The Cottonwood River is included on map section three of the Minnesota River series:

Minnesota 3 Map (Click here for instructions on printing large PDF maps.)