The Bad River is a 44.3-mile-long (71.3 km)[3] river in Michigan. It rises in Newark Township near the city of Ithaca in Gratiot County and flows in a north-easterly direction into Saginaw County, and through the village of St. Charles, before emptying into the Shiawassee River within the bounds of the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge.[4]
The river and its tributaries have a total combined length of 175 miles (282 km); most of it channelized.[4] Land use within the surrounding watershed is 86.5 percent agricultural; as a result, the river system has been adversely impacted by sedimentation.[5]
The name "Bad River" comes from the Chippewa Indians who called the river "maw-tchi-sebe" or quite literally, "bad river," because of how difficult it was for them to navigate it.[6]
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