The Raccoon River is a 30.8mi tributary of the Des Moines River in central Iowa in the United States. As measured using the longest of its three forks, its length increases to. Via the Des Moines River, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River. The river runs through an intensely cultivated area of croplands and livestock farming, receiving Tile drainage from slow-draining rich natural bottomlands.The Des Moines metropolitan area has been obtaining its drinking water from the Raccoon River just before it empties into the Des Moines River through water utilities since the 19th century. During the Great Flood of 1993, the Raccoon River flooded the water treatment facility of Des Moines, shutting off the city's supply of drinking water.HistoryThe Racoon River was first documented on the 1814 map by Lewis and Clark, though the USGS references the name to a later map from 1843 named Hydrological Basin of the Upper Mississippi River based on field measurements by Joseph N. Nicollet during his Midwestern expeditions in the 1830´s.CourseThe Raccoon River is a 30.8mi tributary of the Des Moines River in central Iowa in the United States. It flows for much of its length as three streams and when measured using the longest of its three forks, its length increases to. The river runs through an intensely cultivated area of croplands mostly of corn and soy and livestock farming, where slow-draining rich natural bottomlands have been tiled to drain them for agricultural cultivation.
