Kickapoo River

Kickapoo River
stream
Beaver pond on Kickapoo River watershed, 2010
Country	United States
State	Wisconsin
Region	Monroe County, Vernon County, Richland County, Crawford County
Tributaries
- left	Billings Creek
- right	Moore Creek, Weister Creek, West Fork of the Kickapoo River, Reads Creek, Tainter Creek
Source	Midway between Wilton and Mill Bluff State Park
- location	Monroe County, Wisconsin, United States
- elevation	1,200 ft (366 m)
- coordinates	43°53′53″N 90°27′27″W / 43.89806°N 90.45750°W / 43.89806; -90.45750
Mouth	Confluence with the Wisconsin River
- location	Wauzeka, Wisconsin, Crawford County, Wisconsin
- elevation	623 ft (190 m)
- coordinates	43°04′36″N 90°52′59″W / 43.07667°N 90.88306°W / 43.07667; -90.88306Coordinates: 43°04′36″N 90°52′59″W / 43.07667°N 90.88306°W / 43.07667; -90.88306

The Kickapoo River is a 126-mile-long (203 km) tributary of the Wisconsin River in the state of Wisconsin, United States. It is named for the Kickapoo Indians who occupied Wisconsin before the influx of white settlers in the early 19th century.

The river begins midway between Wilton, Wisconsin and Mill Bluff State Park and flows south through a deep valley cut into the hilly Driftless Zone of southwest Wisconsin. It empties into the Wisconsin River just south of Wauzeka, Wisconsin. Kickapoo is an Algonquian word meaning “one who goes here, then there”, a fitting name as the river is very crooked, frequently doubling back on itself as it flows through the Wisconsin landscape. Because of the extremely crooked path of the river, its source north of Wilton is just 60 miles (97 km) from its mouth at Wauzeka, although the river is nearly 130 miles (210 km) long. The Kickapoo, the longest tributary of the Wisconsin River, drains over 800 square miles (2,100 km²) of land in Monroe, Vernon, Richland, and Crawford counties. The Kickapoo River watershed encompasses 492,000 acres (1,990 km²) in southwest Wisconsin.

There are many small tributaries with the most significant being Moore Creek, Billings Creek, the West Fork of the Kickapoo, Reads Creek and Tainter Creek.

Wetlands have largely been drained for pasture and comprise a tiny portion of the lands in the Kickapoo River watershed, 0.8%, whereas agriculture accounts for 50.4% of the land use followed closely by forest land at 48%.

Wildcat Mountain State Park and the Kickapoo Valley Reserve form a continuous protected area. Most of the tributary streams and the Kickapoo River itself, upstream of Gays Mills, are good trout habitat due to the baseflow from coldwater springs and watershed and stream projects carried out over the recent decades. The river "contains over 500 miles (800 km) of coldwater streams with populations of Brown trout (Salmo trutta) and Brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis). Half of these streams have naturally reproducing trout populations.