page_title: Saco River
section_title: Major tributaries
hierarchical_section_title: Saco River / Major tributaries
caption_attribution_description: English: Matthew Teal, taken by me September 30th, 2005.
context_page_description: The Saco River is a river in northeastern New Hampshire and southwestern Maine in the United States. It drains a rural area of 1,703 square miles of forests and farmlands west and southwest of Portland, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean at Saco Bay, 136 miles from its source. It supplies drinking water to roughly 250,000 people in thirty-five towns; and historically provided transportation and water power encouraging development of the cities of Biddeford and Saco and the towns of Fryeburg and Hiram. The name "Saco" comes from the Eastern Abenaki word [sɑkohki], meaning "land where the river comes out". The Jesuit Relations, ethnographic documents from the 17th century, refer to the river as Chouacoet.
context_section_description: Listed from source to mouth:
  Dry River
  Sawyer River
  Rocky Branch
  Ellis River
  East Branch Saco River
  Swift River
  Cold River
  Charles River
  Outlet, Kezar Lake
  Kezar River
  Shepards River
  Tenmile River
  Hancock Brook
  Ossipee River
  Little Ossipee River
caption: The Saco River from the Covered Bridge Gift Shoppe
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