Hydrologic Unit Codes

Hydrologic Unit Codes (HUC) are part of a nationally recognized system of numbering the watersheds of the United States. Think of it as an address for a particular watershed. The lower the number of digits in a HUC, the larger the watershed.

Steuben County contains seven HUC-10 (or primary) watersheds including:
Fawn River (green)
Prairie River (pink)
Pigeon Creek (yellow)
Coldwater River (turquoise)
Fish Creek (blue)
West Branch St. Joseph River (peach)
Nettle Creek (purple)
These seven primary watersheds are divided into 24 smaller, more specific watersheds known as HUC-12’s.

Note the blue boundary that transects Steuben County. The boundary divides the county into watersheds that drain to the St. Joseph River that flows to Lake Michigan, and the St. Joseph River that drains into the Western Lake Erie basin.