Malheur River
| Malheur River | |
 Malheur River flowing through Harney County
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| Name origin: From the French malheur (bad fortune), applied by French Canadian hunters whose cache of furs near the river were stolen | |
| Country | United States |
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| State | Oregon |
| County | Malheur, Harney, Grant |
| Tributaries | |
| - left | North Fork Malheur River, Bully Creek, Willow Creek |
| - right | South Fork Malheur River |
| Source | Blue Mountains |
| - coordinates | 44°8′5″N 118°37′14″W / 44.13472°N 118.62056°W |
| Mouth | Snake River |
| - elevation | 2,133 ft (650 m) |
| - coordinates | 44°3′33″N 116°58′31″W / 44.05917°N 116.97528°WCoordinates: 44°3′33″N 116°58′31″W / 44.05917°N 116.97528°W |
| Length | 190 mi (306 km) |
| Basin | 4,700 sq mi (12,173 km2) |
| Discharge | for near Vale, Oregon |
| - average | 203 cu ft/s (6 m3/s) |
| - max | 20,800 cu ft/s (589 m3/s) |
| - min | 0 cu ft/s (0 m3/s) |
  Location of the mouth of the Malheur River in Oregon
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The Malheur River (local pronunciation: "MAL-hyure") is a 190-mile-long (306 km) tributary of the Snake River in eastern Oregon in the United States. It drains a high desert area, between the Harney Basin and the Blue Mountains and the Snake.
Despite the similarity of name, the river does not flow into nearby Malheur Lake, which is located in the enclosed Harney Basin southwest of the watershed of the river. When water levels were higher, Malheur Lake would drain into the Malheur River.
The Malheur River rises in the southern Blue Mountains of southern Grant County, south of Strawberry Mountain in the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness. It flows south through Malheur National Forest, then southeast past Drewsey and through Warm Springs Reservoir. At Riverside in eastern Malheur County it receives the South Fork Malheur River from the south, then turns sharply back northward to Juntura, where it receives the North Fork Malheur River from the north. From Juntura it flows generally east past Vale, joining the Snake from the west approximately two miles (3 km) north of Ontario, Oregon. The mouth of the Malheur River is approximately at Snake river mile (RM) 370 or river kilometer (RK) 600.
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Wikipedia