Yamhill River
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The Yamhill River is a tributary of the Willamette River, approximately 12 mi (19 km) long, in northwestern Oregon in the United States. It drains an area of the Coastal Range west of the Willamette Valley, providing a fertile agricultural valley. It extends about 62 mi (100 km) to its farthest headwaters on the South Yamhill.
It is formed in central Yamhill County, approximately 2 mi (3 km) east of McMinville, by the confluence of the North Yamhill and South Yamhill rivers, both of which rise in the Coastal Range. It flows east in a meandering course, joining the Willamette from the west approximately 8 mi (13 km) south of Newberg.
The river is named for the Yamhill, a tribe of Native Americans of the Kalapooia people who inhabited the region at the time of the arrival of European settlers. The Yamhill were moved to the Grande Ronde Indian Reservation in 1855. During the 1830s and 1840s the area was extensively settled as part of the migration via the Oregon Trail.