The Swan River is a long, north-flowing river in western Montana in the United States. The river drains a long isolated valley, known as the Swan Valley, between the Swan Range on the east and the Mission Mountains to the west. History On an 1884 Rand McNally map, the Swan River and Swan Lake are referred to as the Sweatinghouse River and the Sweatinghouse Lake. However, by 1895, most maps had adopted Swan, a name apparently proposed by early English hunters in the area and acknowledged by the locals, according to Ken Wolf’s 1980 Montana Magazine article “History of the Swan Valley.” Henry Coale quoted a local 1914 report that "Twenty years ago Trumpeter Swans were common in Montana, and used regularly to winter here, but are now on the verge of extinction." He indicated that the Kootenai Indians generally reported that swans bred in the Flathead Valley up to the first immigration of whites in 1886... Coale described swans nesting historically at Lake Rodgers, at Swan Lake, and on the east side of Flathead Lake, and on the lakes which drain Clearwater, a branch of the Big Blackfoot River. Course The Swan originates at Gray Wolf Lake in the Mission Mountains, at above sea level. Fed partly by melt from the Gray Wolf Glacier, the river descends through a short and steep canyon to Lindbergh Lake, at the base of the Mission Mountains. From there the river flows briefly east before turning north, passing Condon, flowing about to the northern end of the valley where it empties into Swan Lake. At the north end of the long lake, the river emerges into the Flathead Valley, where it turns abruptly west through a canyon, emptying into Flathead Lake at the town of Bigfork. Via Flathead Lake, it eventually drains to the Flathead River, a major tributary in the Columbia River system. The river is fed by many tributaries descending from the mountains along both sides of its valley. On the west side, streams draining the Mission Mountains into the Swan River include Glacier, Elk, Cold, Jim, Piper, Woodward, Whitetail, and Porcupine Creeks. Eastern tributaries, flowing off the Swan Range, include Holland, Smith, Alder, Lion, Goat, Soup, and Lost Creeks. Below Swan Lake, the river is also joined by Bear and Mud Creeks from the east. Montana Highway 83 roughly parallels the river from the Bigfork area to near Lindbergh Lake.