| Jordan Creek | |
| Name Etymology: | For Michael M. Jordan, whose party discovered gold along the creek in 1863 |
| Map Size: | 300 |
| Pushpin Map: | USA Oregon#USA |
| Pushpin Map Size: | 300 |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of the mouth of Jordan Creek in Oregon |
| Subdivision Type1: | Country |
| Subdivision Name1: | United States |
| Subdivision Type2: | State |
| Subdivision Name2: | Idaho, Oregon |
| Subdivision Type4: | County |
| Length: | 99miles[1] |
| Discharge1 Location: | near Oregon - Idaho border |
| Discharge1 Min: | 1.2cuft/s |
| Discharge1 Avg: | 183cuft/s |
| Discharge1 Max: | 7530cuft/s |
| Source1: | Owyhee Mountains |
| Source1 Location: | near Silver City, Owyhee County, Idaho |
| Source1 Coordinates: | 42.9725°N -116.7442°W[2] |
| Source1 Elevation: | 7551feet[3] |
| Mouth: | Owyhee River |
| Mouth Location: | near Rome, Malheur County, Oregon |
| Mouth Coordinates: | 42.8625°N -117.6414°W |
| Mouth Elevation: | 3363feet |
| Basin Size: | 1305sqmi[4] |
Jordan Creek is a 99miles tributary of the Owyhee River in the northwestern United States.[1] It generally flows west from near Silver City, Idaho, in the Owyhee Mountains to near Rome in the Oregon High Desert.[5] [6] Major tributaries are Big Boulder, Soda, Louse, Spring, Rock, Meadow, Combination, and Louisa creeks in Idaho and Cow Creek in Oregon.[7] The creek is named for Michael M. Jordan, who led a party that discovered gold along the creek in 1863.[8] [9]
Jordan Creek's watershed of 1305mi2 is almost evenly divided between the two states, 46 percent in Idaho and 54 percent in Oregon.[4] Although the upper parts of the basin in the Silver City Mountain Range supported mining camps and towns in the late 19th century through the early 20th century, they were generally abandoned when the gold and silver played out.[10] Much of the population in the 21st century lives on small homesteads, ranches, and farms scattered throughout the watershed. Jordan Valley, Oregon, is the basin's only population center that has permanent, year-round residents, while Silver City has mostly part-time or weekend residents.[11]
Land use in the watershed is divided among irrigated agriculture, range land, forests, mining, and riparian zones.[11] The primary uses are cow-calf grazing in the uplands and hay production in the irrigated lowlands.[10] Average precipitation varies from about 21inches a year in the mountains of Idaho to about 11inches in the plateaus of eastern Oregon.[12] To control water flow for irrigation, most of the watershed's hydrology has been modified to some degree by large reservoirs in Oregon and in-stream diversions in Idaho.[12]
Based on 28 years of record-keeping from 1946 to 1971 and from 2003 to 2004, the average discharge of Jordan Creek, measured about 4miles upstream of the Oregon - Idaho border, is 183cuft/s.[7] The lowest recorded discharge was 1.2cuft/s in September 1962, and the highest was 7530cuft/s on December 31, 1965.[7] This flow came from slightly less than 46 percent of the total watershed.[4]