The river and other sections of the Inland Waterway are made accessible by locks maintained by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

The mouth of the Black River, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) south of Cheboygan, is a noted spot to look for bald eagles and other fish-eating raptors.

The river forms the port of Cheboygan and serves as a dock for the ferry boat to Bois Blanc Island and the Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw.

[6] Cheboygan was founded as a lumbering town to cut timbers harvested from the Cheboygan River's drainage and floated down to mills (now mostly vanished) at the mouth of the river.

The river is a key artery of the Inland Waterway, a pleasure-boat necklace of waterways in the northern section of Michigan's Lower Peninsula.