This stretch of stream has an average width of 50 feet (15 m) but it becomes wider and deeper near the Boone County line.

[6] The Kishwaukee River drainage area includes McHenry, Boone, Kane, DeKalb, Ogle, and Winnebago Counties.

Native Americans first used it to transport goods for trade and travel between villages, and also drew water from it for domestic uses.

The Potawatomi harvested larger sycamore trees in the river valley to make dugout canoes.

The life of the river and its overall ecology have been affected by industrial development and the increase in the number of large hog farms in the region.

The berm wall gave way, allowing two million gallons of hog waste to spill into the Kishwaukee River.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) stated that 37.2 miles (59.9 km) of the river were affected: an estimated 70,000 fish were killed along with aquatic plants, insects, clams and crustaceans.

The 1984 fish kill affected a portion of the river from a bend north of Lucinda Avenue, near Annie's Woods, to Lincoln Highway.

IDOC gathered evidence that proved a faulty pipe at Del Monte was responsible for this particular fish kill.

After finding they were at fault, Del Monte paid the state an agreed upon value of lost fish and took steps to prevent a similar mishap.

[10] The United States Geological Survey maintains four monitoring stations, in cooperation with National Weather Service, along the Kishwaukee River.

Rounded and granite, these boulders ranged in size from a cannonball to giant rocks weighing more than a ton.

Though the Illinoian covered the entire area, evidence of the coverage is found only in a few sediments at the surface in select sites.

The second ice sheet, the Wisconsinan, advanced over the area 25,000 to 13,500 years ago and covered most of the prior glacial deposits.

The depression is a subglacial channel, easily differentiated from a valley by the lack of rivers and streams along its bottom.

A designation of Class A describes a stream where a significant number of the species of fish are silt intolerant.

Canada thistle has persisted in the region since as early as 1922 when McHenry County started showing concern.

"The county has its regular thistle commissioners and they in turn have been authorized to engage scores of assistants to aid in doing away with these pests ...

If the land owner refuses to cut them down at the lawful time, the commissioner simply hires a man [at $3 to $4 a day] to do the work and reports the transaction and makes a bill which is placed against the land at the coming tax paying season", McHenry County officials were recorded as saying at the time.

In addition to tree cover river otters find ideal habitat in northern Illinois when it is isolated from the main river channel, has extensive vegetation, open water in winter, good water quality, suitable den sites and minimal human disturbance.

Although, there are not currently any endangered or threatened reptile or amphibian species the river basin was at one time home to the state-endangered eastern Massasauga.

Lower areas in the Bottoms are sprinkled with wetlands that are populated by myriad aquatic species including turtles, frogs and beaver.

Hiking and skiing trails total about 7.6 miles (12.2 km) and wind through prairies, woodlands, and wetlands.

In all, the area of MacQueen and Potawatomi preserves encompasses more than 900 acres (3.6 km2) and 3.2 miles (5.1 km) of the Kishwaukee River, which is not only set aside for public use but actively being conserved and monitored.

[20] Under Governor George Ryan the state of Illinois acquired 570 acres (2.3 km2) of land along the Kishwaukee River in DeKalb County.

Friends of the Kishwaukee River, founded in 2012, is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote and enhance good stewardship of the river and the surrounding lands by restoring and preserving its natural character, encouraging safe and responsible recreation, protecting its watershed from degradation, and increasing the area's community's appreciation of its natural beauty.