[14][35] The Yellowstone River has the highest discharge, even though the Platte is longer and drains a larger area. Conflict between settlers and Native Americans in the watershed led to some of the most longstanding and violent of the American Indian Wars. The first Europeans encountered the river in the late seventeenth century, and the region passed through Spanish and French hands before becoming part of the United States through the Louisiana Purchase. HELENA, Mont. [Missouri River shipping] "never achieved its expectations. Transport of agricultural and mining products by barge, however, saw a revival in the early twentieth century. The river drains a sparsely populated, semi-arid watershed of more than 500,000 square miles (1,300,000km2), which includes parts of ten U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. Fertilizer runoff, which causes elevated levels of nitrogen and other nutrients, is a major problem along the Missouri River, especially in Iowa and Missouri. The Missouri River, a tributary of the Mississippi River, is about 100 miles longer. [131], True to the then-ideal of Manifest Destiny, over 500,000 people set out from the river town of Independence, Missouri, to their various destinations in the American West from the 1830s to the 1860s. However, damming and channeling the river has kept it from reaching its natural sediment sources along most of its course. Although the plains of the watershed have extremely little local vertical relief, the land rises about 10 feet per mile (1.9 m/km) from east to west. 8 reviews of Missouri River Headwaters State Park "Five hundred and thirty two acres of impressive scenery including three rivers, the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin, that merge right in front of you to begin the Missouri River. The fighting resulted in a complete Native American victory. [24], With more than 170,000 square miles (440,000km2) under the plow, the Missouri River watershed includes roughly one-fourth of all the agricultural land in the United States, providing more than a third of the country's wheat, flax, barley, and oats. The prime trout water consists of the tailwater downstream from Holter Dam. ", The Fourth Decade of the Kansas City District: 19381947, Pick-Sloan Missouri River Basin Program: Hydropower and Irrigation, Missouri River Mainstem System 20102011 Draft Annual Operating Plan, "North Dakota: Fort Berthold Reservation", "Dam, Hydropower and Reservoir Statistics", "Power generation at Missouri River dams rebounds", Final Oahe Dam / Lake Oahe Master Plan: Missouri River, South Dakota and North Dakota, "Dams and Reservoirs on the Upper Missouri River", "A brief history of steamboating on the Missouri River, with emphasis on the Boonslick region", "Missouri River Bank Stabilization and Navigation Project", "Blame game as rising river nears SD homes: Some residents say corps erred in not releasing water sooner", "Corps failing to keep Missouri River navigation open as promised, Nixon says; AG demands to know plan", "Letter from Missouri Attorney General Jeremiah W. Nixon to Brigadier General Gregg. [137][138], Conflicts between natives and settlers over the opening of the Bozeman Trail in the Dakotas, Wyoming and Montana led to Red Cloud's War, in which the Lakota and Cheyenne fought against the U.S. Army. However, many northwestern cities, such as Billings, Montana, are among the fastest growing in the Missouri basin. The park offers camping, hiking trails, hunting, and water-related activities. The following year Bourgmont led an expedition to enlist Comanche support against the Spanish, who continued to show interest in taking over the Missouri. Unit WF 5 consists of 49.3 river mi (79.3 km) of St. Francis River in Madison and Wayne Counties, Missouri, extending from the mouth of Wachita Creek west of Fredericktown, Madison County, downstream to the mouth of Big Creek northwest of Silva, Wayne County. Major tributaries of the Niobrara River are the Keya Paha River and Snake River. While it continues south, eventually reaching Oahe Dam in South Dakota, the Grand, Moreau and Cheyenne Rivers all join the Missouri from the west. The Upper Mississippi runs from its headwaters to its confluence with the Missouri River at St. Louis, Missouri. [203] In 2006, barges on the Missouri hauled only 200,000 short tons (180,000t) of products which is equal to the daily freight traffic on the Mississippi. In contrast, the upper Mississippi has 29 locks and dams and averaged 61.3million tons of cargo annually from 2008 to 2011,[206] and its locks are closed in the winter. A lake, flowing into a small stream is hard to imagine becoming the wide Mississippi as it flows south. Although some freight was hauled overland, most transport to and from the gold fields was done through the Missouri and Kansas Rivers, as well as the Snake River in western Wyoming and the Bear River in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. Almost all of the barge traffic on the Missouri River ships sand and gravel dredged from the lower 500 miles (800km) of the river; the remaining portion of the shipping channel now sees little to no use by commercial vessels.[200]. The river here drains about 484,100sqmi (1,254,000km2), representing about 91% of the entire basin. Many dams and bank stabilization projects have been built to help convert 300,000 acres (1,200km2) of Missouri River floodplain to agricultural land. The Missouri swings east at Kansas City, where the Kansas River enters from the west, and so on into north-central Missouri. The largest discharge ever recorded was over 750,000cuft/s (21,000m3/s) on July 31, 1993, during a historic flood. [75], Immediately before the Quaternary Ice Age, the Missouri River was likely split into three segments: an upper portion that drained northwards into Hudson Bay,[76][77] A route more directly west into Colorado lay along the Kansas River and its tributary the Republican River as well as pair of smaller Colorado streams, Big Sandy Creek and the South Platte River, to near Denver. The growth of the fur trade in the early 19th century laid much of the groundwork as trappers explored the region and blazed trails. Fort Union gradually became the main headquarters for the fur trade in the upper Missouri basin. This is from a drainage area of 186,400sqmi (483,000km2), or 35% of the total river basin. Missouri River Headwaters - The Historical Marker Database Their journals described lands amply stocked with thousands of buffalo, beaver, and river otter; and also an abundant population of sea otters on the Pacific Northwest coast. [196], In 1945, the USACE began the Missouri River Bank Stabilization and Navigation Project, which would permanently increase the river's navigation channel to a width of 300 feet (91m) and a depth of nine feet (2.7 metres). Fort Raymond was later replaced by Fort Lisa at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone in North Dakota; a second fort also called Fort Lisa was built downstream on the Missouri River in Nebraska. [24][26], Elevations in the watershed vary widely, ranging from just over 400 feet (120m) at the Missouri's mouth[1] to the 14,293-foot (4,357m) summit of Mount Lincoln in central Colorado. The Sloan plan, which stressed the development of local irrigation, included provisions for roughly 85smaller dams on tributaries. Compared with the Mississippi River above their confluence, the Missouri is twice as long[b] Foreign diseases brought by settlers, such as smallpox, raged across the land, decimating Native American populations. Go back. [16][17], Flowing eastward through the plains of eastern Montana, the Missouri receives the Poplar River from the north before crossing into North Dakota where the Yellowstone River, its greatest tributary by volume, joins from the southwest. The Missouri River is the longest river in the U.S. and this state park shows where the three rivers join to create the headwaters of the Missouri River. Many proclaim that there is no better way to explore Missouri than on a river cruise. Discover the Headwaters of the Mississippi River - AZ Animals [33], To the north, the much lower Laurentian Divide separates the Missouri River watershed from those of the Oldman River, a tributary of the South Saskatchewan River, as well as the Souris, Sheyenne, and smaller tributaries of the Red River of the North. [90], In this pre-colonial and early-colonial era, the Missouri river was used as a path of trade and transport, and the river and its tributaries often formed territorial boundaries. By 1954, the rising waters of Canyon Ferry Lake submerged the old 1898 dam, whose powerhouse still stands underwater about .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);clip-path:polygon(0px 0px,0px 0px,0px 0px);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}1+12 miles (2.4km) upstream of the present-day dam.[153]. [37] On the other end of the scale is the tiny Roe River in Montana, which at 201 feet (61m) long is one of the world's shortest rivers. Within the boundaries of this scenic park the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers merge to form the 2,300 mile Missouri River. Three Forks of the Missouri - U.S. National Park Service Low oxygen levels in rivers and the vast Gulf of Mexico dead zone at the end of the Mississippi Delta are both results of high nutrient concentrations in the Missouri and other tributaries of the Mississippi. Concluded at Paris the 10th day of February, 1763. Except for the headwaters in the Rockies, there is little precipitation in this part of the watershed. Biodiversity generally increased proceeding downstream from the cold, subalpine headwaters in Montana to the temperate, moist climate of Missouri. A small run-of-the river structure completed in 1898 near the present site of Canyon Ferry Dam became the second dam built on the Missouri. A handful, such as the Western Engineer and the Yellowstone, could make it up the river as far as eastern Montana. They also negotiated relations with numerous Native American tribes and wrote extensive reports on the climate, ecology and geology of the region. Tomaz Kunst/Shutterstock.com The Mississippi River is fed by Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota. "[99][100] They recorded Pekitanoui or Pekistanoui as the local name for the Missouri. [31] The Minnesota and Des Moines Rivers, tributaries of the upper Mississippi, drain most of the area bordering the eastern side of the Missouri River basin. However, shipping traffic has since been far lower than expected shipments of commodities including produce, manufactured items, lumber, and oil averaged only 683,000tons (616,000t) per year from 1994 to 2006. The use of the horse allowed them to travel greater distances, and thus facilitated hunting, communications and trade. The White River headwaters are located southeast of Harrison, Nebraska. [202] One of the largest drops has been in agricultural products, especially wheat. [185], The industry's success, however, did not guarantee safety. (Printed from the Copy. By 1763, France's army in North America had been defeated by a combined British-American force and was forced to sue for peace. However, the party never explored the Missouri beyond its mouth, nor did they linger in the area. Reservoirs along the Missouri trap roughly 36.4million short tons (33.0million metric tons) of sediment each year. A mile further downstream you can view the Gallatin River merging to form the headwaters of the Missouri River, the longest U.S. river. and middle and lower sections that flowed eastward down the regional slope. [78] [23] Comparable to the size of the Canadian province of Quebec, the watershed encompasses most of the central Great Plains, stretching from the Rocky Mountains in the west to the Mississippi River Valley in the east and from the southern extreme of western Canada to the border of the Arkansas River watershed. [c] [215] By 2001, there were 87,000 acres (350km2) of riverside floodplain undergoing active restoration. Outcompeted by trains, the number of boats slowly dwindled, until there was almost nothing left by the 1890s. The South fork [Gallatin River] is about 70 yds wide & falls in about 400 yards below the midle fork. The Mississippi River flows for approximately 1,172 miles (1,886km) above St. Louis, The Mississippi drains an area of 172,200sqmi (446,000km, "Long Pool" is the name used by area residents to refer to the smooth, almost lake-like 55mi (89km) stretch of the Missouri between the Black Eagle Dam and the town of, harvp error: no target: CITEREFFeldhamerThompsonChapman2003 (, harvp error: no target: CITEREFMorris1912 (, List of tributaries of the Missouri River, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, List of dams in the Missouri River watershed, Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, List of tributaries of the Mississippi River, List of longest main-stem rivers in the United States, List of populated places along the Missouri River, "AISRI Dictionary Database Searchprototype version. This part of the river, designated a U.S. National Wild and Scenic River in 1976, flows within the Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument, a 375,000-acre (1,520km2) preserve comprising steep cliffs, deep gorges, arid plains, badlands, archaeological sites, and whitewater rapids on the Missouri itself. Richard Opper, former executive directorMissouri River Basin Association[181], Boat travel on the Missouri began with the wood-framed canoes and bull boats that Native Americans used for thousands of years before the colonization of the Great Plains introduced larger craft to the river. From Leadville, Colorado, the Arkansas River . Most of the river's floodplain habitat is long gone, replaced by irrigated agricultural land. the Missouri River's catchment encompasses nearly one-sixth of the area of the United States[22] or just over five percent of the continent of North America. [108][110], In 1795, the young United States and Spain signed Pinckney's Treaty, which recognized American rights to navigate the Mississippi River and store goods for export in New Orleans. [122] This method was unlike that of the Pacific Northwest fur trade, which involved trappers hired by the various fur enterprises, namely Hudson's Bay. Montanakids | Missouri Headwaters State Park [10] In 1912, the USACE was authorized to maintain the Missouri to a depth of six feet (1.8 metres) from the Port of Kansas City to the mouth, a distance of 368 miles (592km). [54], The lowermost gage with a period of record greater than fifty years is at Hermann, Missouri 97.9 miles (157.6km) upstream of the mouth of the Missouri where the average annual flow was 87,520cuft/s (2,478m3/s) from 1897 to 2010. The Missouri Headwaters State Park provides a campground, picnic areas, foot trails to points of interest, and interpretive displays of the area's cultural and natural history. This form of pollution also affects the upper Mississippi, Illinois and Ohio Rivers. The Jefferson River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 83 miles (134 km) long, in the U.S. state of Montana.The Jefferson River and the Madison River form the official beginning of the Missouri at Missouri Headwaters State Park near Three Forks.It is joined 0.6 miles (1.0 km) downstream (northeast) by the Gallatin.. From broad valleys to a narrow canyon, the Jefferson River . U.S. troops were sent to the area to protect the miners, and drive out the natives from the new settlements. There, most of these people would set out overland along the large but shallow and unnavigable Platte River, which pioneers described as "a mile wide and an inch deep" and "the most magnificent and useless of rivers". The Niobrara River ends at the confluence with the Missouri River near Niobrara, Nebraska. [80][81] Advances of the continental ice sheets diverted the river and its tributaries, causing them to pool up into large temporary lakes such as Glacial Lakes Great Falls, Musselshell and others. [148] Hauser was rebuilt in 1910 as a concrete gravity structure, and stands to this day. This area is sometimes counted as part of the Missouri River watershed, even though its waters do not flow to either side of the Continental Divide. [139] In 1868, the Treaty of Fort Laramie was signed, which "guaranteed" the use of the Black Hills, Powder River Country and other regions surrounding the northern Missouri River to Native Americans without white intervention. [93], Once, tens of millions of American bison (commonly called buffalo), one of the keystone species of the Great Plains and the Ohio Valley, roamed the plains of the Missouri River basin. [145] The largest of the five dams, Ryan Dam, was built in 1913. [32] South of there, the Missouri basin is bordered on the west by the drainage of the Green River, a tributary of the Colorado, then on the south by the mainstem of the Colorado. [147] The nearby steel Hauser Dam was finished in 1907, but failed in 1908 because of structural deficiencies, causing catastrophic flooding all the way downstream past Craig. Fort Orleans was either abandoned or its small contingent massacred by Native Americans in 1726. Three Forks Area Historical Society depth (sq mi) To depth map. Safer paths were blazed to the Great Salt Lake near Corinne, Utah, during the gold rush period, which led to the large-scale settlement of the Rocky Mountains region and eastern Great Basin. Before the construction of dams, the river flooded twice each year once in the "April Rise" or "Spring Fresh", with the melting of snow on the plains of the watershed, and in the "June Rise", caused by snowmelt and summer rainstorms in the Rocky Mountains. Each of these tributaries drains an area greater than 50,000 square miles (130,000km2) or has an average discharge greater than 5,000cuft/s (140m3/s). In addition, they later learned that the Mississippi drained into the Gulf of Mexico and not the Pacific as they had originally presumed; the expedition turned back about 440 miles (710km) short of the Gulf at the confluence of the Arkansas River with the Mississippi. 287 north, which parallels the Missouri for about 100 miles. Your source for historic information and stories related to the Headwaters of the Missouri River area, near Three Forks, Montana. The latter two, however, are sometimes considered part of a strait between Lake Huron and Lake Erie. [88], Indigenous peoples of North America who have lived along the Missouri have historically had access to ample food, water, and shelter. However, the center of Native American wealth and trade lay along the Missouri River in the Dakotas region on its great bend south. Build the Missouri River Development Project", "Elevations and Distances in the United States", The 1972 Black Hills-Rapid City Flood Revisited, "Continental Divides in North Dakota and North America", "USGS Gage #06805500 on the Platte River at Louisville, NE", "USGS Gage #06892350 on the Kansas River at DeSoto, KS", "USGS Gage #06174500 on the Milk River at Nashua, MT", "USGS Gage #06478500 on the James River near Scotland, SD", Environmental Setting of the Yellowstone River Basin, Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming, "USGS Gage #06452000 on the White River near Oacoma, SD", "USGS Gage #06465500 on the Niobrara River near Verdel, NE", "USGS Gage #06337000 on the Little Missouri River near Watford City, ND", "USGS Gage #06926510 on the Osage River below St. Thomas, MO", "USGS Gage #06485500 on the Big Sioux River at Akron, IA", The Missouri River Water Protection Program fact sheet, "USGS Gage #06934500 on the Missouri River at Hermann, Missouri: Monthly Average Flow", "USGS Gage #06893000 on the Missouri River at Kansas City, MO", "USGS Gage #06440000 on the Missouri River at Pierre, SD", "USGS Gage #06486000 on the Missouri River at Sioux City, IA", "USGS Gage #06610000 on the Missouri River at Omaha, NE", "USGS Gage #06909000 on the Missouri River at Boonville, MO", "USGS Gage #06342500 on the Missouri River at Bismarck, ND", "USGS Gage #07010000 on the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri: Peak Streamflow", "Photo map of the western United States: Cenozoic", "Cretaceous Paleogeography, Southwestern US", "Interplay of oceanographic and paleoclimate events with tectonism during middle to late Miocene sedimentation across the southwestern USA", 10.1130/0091-7613(2002)030<0063:PTOTMP>2.0.CO;2, Pleistocene Glaciation and Diversion of the Missouri River in Northern Montana, "Pleistocene Glaciation and Diversion of the Missouri River in Northern Montana", "Missouri River Planning: Recognizing and Incorporating Sediment Management (2010)", "Missouri River helped build Louisiana coast, but it won't help restore it", "Etienne de Vniard sieur de Bourgmont: Timeline", The definitive Treaty of Peace and Friendship between his Britannick Majesty, the Most Christian King, and the King of Spain. Effortlessly float between quaint villages, scenic countryside, and history-rich cities and destinations like St. Louis, Hannibal, Cape Girardeau, and New Madrid without unpacking your bags. Missouri Headwaters State Park is a public recreation area occupying 535 acres (217 ha) at the site of the official start of the Missouri River. It is unclear exactly how far Bourgmont traveled beyond there; he described the blond-haired Mandans in his journals, so it is likely he reached as far as their villages in present-day North Dakota. The marine chart shows depth and hydrology of Missouri River on the map. The headwaters of the Marias River is at the confluence of Cut Bank Creek and Two Medicine River, just south of the town of Cut Bank. Several sections of the Missouri River were added to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System from Fort Benton to Robinson Bridge, Gavins Point Dam to Ponca State Park and Fort Randall Dam to Lewis and Clark Lake. An early expedition led by Robert Stuart from 1812 to 1813 proved the Platte impossible to navigate by the dugout canoes they used, let alone the large sidewheelers and sternwheelers that would later ply the Missouri in increasing numbers. When the glaciers retreated, the Missouri flowed in a new course along the south side of the Bearpaws, and the lower part of the Milk River tributary took over the original main channel. [24] By providing flood control, the reservoirs dramatically reduce peak flows and increase low flows. LILLIAN CROOK: WildDakotaWoman The Crooked Little Missouri River And [97], In May 1673, the French-Canadian explorer Louis Jolliet and the French explorer Jacques Marquette left the settlement of St. Ignace on Lake Huron and traveled down the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers, aiming to reach the Pacific Ocean. Many migratory animals naturally inhabit the plains area. Although a tributary of the Mississippi, the Missouri River is slightly longer[14] and carries a comparable volume of water. The Missouri then continues, as the longest river in North America, where it eventually joins with the Mississippi River north of St. Louis. It is formed by the confluence of the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers in the Rocky Mountains area of southwestern Montana (Gallatin county), U.S., about 4,000 feet (1,200 metres) above sea level. The Missouri Headwaters area was a geographical focal point important to early Native Americans trappers, traders and settlers. In 1725 Bourgmont brought the chiefs of several Missouri River tribes to visit France. [161] This was met with controversy from inhabitants of the Yellowstone basin, and eventually the USBR proposed a solution: to greatly increase the size of the proposed dam at Riverdale today's Garrison Dam, thus replacing the storage that would have been provided by the Yellowstone dams. For over 12,000 years, people have depended on the Missouri River and its tributaries as a source of sustenance and transportation. One explorer remarked that the Platte was "too thick to drink, too thin to plow". [69], The Missouri and many of its tributaries cross the Great Plains, flowing over or cutting into the Ogallala Group and older mid-Cenozoic sedimentary rocks. [109] The two set out along the Missouri, and established Fort Charles about 20 miles (32km) south of present-day Sioux City as a winter camp in 1795. [158][159] The 1944 act authorized the PickSloan Missouri Basin Program (PickSloan Plan), which was a composite of two widely varying proposals. Furthermore, frequent Native American attacks on trading posts made it dangerous for employees of the fur companies. Missouri River - Wikipedia [89] No written records from the tribes and peoples of the pre-European contact period exist because they did not yet use writing. River floating and fishing are popular activities. Most migratory groups that passed through the area eventually settled in the Ohio Valley and the lower Mississippi River Valley, but many, including the Mound builders, stayed along the Missouri, becoming the ancestors of the later Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains. Below the dam the Missouri receives the Knife River from the west and flows south to Bismarck, the capital of North Dakota, where the Heart River joins from the west. [198] The USACE was blamed for failing to maintain the channel to the minimum depth. Missouri River Wildlife, Size, Activities, and More - AZ Animals The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara / Sanish tribes sued the federal government on the basis of the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie which provided that reservation land could not be taken without the consent of both the tribes and Congress. [39] However, including the longest headwaters tributaries, the 453-mile (729km) Republican River and the 156-mile (251km) Arikaree River, brings the total length to 749 miles (1,205km). The Missouri River was one of the main routes for the westward expansion of the United States during the 19th century. [91] A large cluster of walled Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara villages situated on bluffs and islands of the river was home to thousands, and later served as a market and trading post used by early French and British explorers and fur traders. For navigation purposes, the Missouri River is divided into two main sections. [187] The development of the Transcontinental and Northern Pacific Railroads marked the beginning of the end of steamboat commerce on the Missouri. The Headwaters Heritage Museum, in operation since 1982, is located in downtown Three Forks, Montana at 202 S. Main, at the corner of Main and Cedar. In some regions, the industry continued well into the 1840s, but in others such as the Platte River valley, declines of the beaver population contributed to an earlier demise. In time, the species came to benefit from the indigenous peoples' periodic controlled burnings of the grasslands surrounding the Missouri to clear out old and dead growth. The deal was signed in 1803, doubling the size of the United States with the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory. At the confluence, the Yellowstone is actually the larger river. The Mississippi River - WorldAtlas 287 will turn into I-15 in Helena, which you can take all the way to Great Falls for even more great fishing. Most of the Indigenous peoples in the region at that time had semi-nomadic cultures, with many tribes maintaining different summer and winter camps. A further 281,000 square miles (730,000km2) of the basin is devoted to the raising of livestock, mainly cattle. We are protecting the headwaters in Kansas to prevent further degradation and ensure this tributary remains a vital source of water and recreational opportunities.
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