The Watab River, also known as Watab Creek, is a tributary of the Mississippi River in Stearns County in central Minnesota in the United States. It is named from the Ojibwe language wadab-ziibi (river with spruce-roots) due to the exposed spruce roots once found along its banks. It rises in Watab Lake and flows northeast where it merges with County Ditch Number 12 before flowing east and into the Mississippi River at Sartell.