Cosumnes River
| Cosumnes River | |
 View of the lower Cosumnes River
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| Country | United States |
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| State | California |
| Tributaries | |
| - left | Middle Fork Cosumnes River |
| - right | North Fork Cosumnes River |
| Cities | Plymouth, Rancho Murieta, Sloughhouse, Wilton, Elk Grove, Galt. |
| Source | Sierra Nevada |
| - location | Confluence of North and Middle Forks, El Dorado County |
| - elevation | 787 ft (240 m) |
| - coordinates | 38°33′13″N 120°50′50″W / 38.55361°N 120.84722°W |
| Mouth | Mokelumne River |
| - location | Near Galt, Sacramento County |
| - elevation | 13 ft (4 m) |
| - coordinates | 38°15′20″N 121°26′21″W / 38.25556°N 121.43917°WCoordinates: 38°15′20″N 121°26′21″W / 38.25556°N 121.43917°W |
| Length | 52.5 mi (84 km) |
| Basin | 724 sq mi (1,875 km2) |
| Discharge | for Michigan Bar |
| - average | 492 cu ft/s (14 m3/s) |
| - max | 93,000 cu ft/s (2,633 m3/s) |
| - min | 0 cu ft/s (0 m3/s) |
 Map of the Mokelumne River watershed, with the Cosumnes River highlighted
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The Cosumnes River is a river in northern California in the United States. It rises on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada and flows approximately 52.5 miles (84.5 km) into the Central Valley, emptying into the Mokelumne River in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The Cosumnes is one of very few rivers in the western Sierra without major dams. The Nature Conservancy's Cosumnes River Preserve is located just upstream from the Delta. Towns and cities along the Cosumnes River include Plymouth, Rancho Murieta, Sloughhouse, Wilton, Elk Grove, and Galt.
The Cosumnes River is thought to have been named as the Mokelumne and Tuolumne rivers were, using the "-umne" suffix meaning "people of". The prefix is derived from the Miwok word "kosum" meaning "salmon". Chinook Salmon runs are rarely, if ever, seen above Rancho Murieta as a result of diversions in the area.
Many locals pronounce the river's name /kənˈsuːmnəs/, inserting an "n" where there is none in the first syllable. Given the etymological similarity between "Cosumnes," on the one hand, and "Tuolumne" and "Mokelumne" on the other (see next paragraph), a case can be made that the most accurate historical pronunciation is "kasumme," since the "n" is essentially silent in the pronunciation of both "Tuolumne" and Mokelumne," and there is no "s" or "z" sound at the end of those names. An older pronunciation common among Central Valley locals is /kənˈsuːməs/), which includes the epenthetic [n] in the first syllable, omits the initial [n] of the final syllable (as in "Molelumne" and "Tuolumne"), has the expected value for the letter in an open syllable (created by the omission of the last [n]), and uses a final [s] rather than a [z].
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