Presented in this study are experimentally measured characteristics of the entrainment rate and settling speeds of fine-grained, cohesive sediments in freshwater. The investigation focused on three different sediments of varying mineral composition which are representative of the sediments of Lake Erie. The influences of the bulk sediment water content and of the mineral and size composition on the entrainment rate and equilibrium concentration of these suspended sediments were determined. Linear increases in the bulk sediment water content resulted in logarithmic increases in the entrainment rate and equilibrium concentration. For a limited range of shear stresses near that needed to initiate noticeable entrainment the entrainment rate and equilibrium concentration increased logarithmically as the applied shear stress was increased linearly. For larger stresses, ar increases in the applied shear stress caused approximately linear increases in the entrainment rate and equilibrium concentration. At fixed values of water content and shear stress the entrainment rate and equilibrium concentration increased as the clay mineral content of the sediment increased and as the median particle size decreased. Settling speed experiments demonstrated that the median settling speed of the suspended sediment particles in a quiescent fluid increased as the ionic strength of the solution increased. At a fixed ionic strength the settling speed decreased with increased clay mineral content.