Missouri River, the longest tributary of the Mississippi River and the second longest river in North America. It was formed by the confluence of the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers in the Rocky Mountain region of southwestern Montana (Gallatin region), USA, near 4,000 feet (1,200 m) above sea level.
Missouri Proper has a total of 2,315 miles (3,726 kilometers) of roads. However, some sources attribute the combined length of the Missouri and the Red Rock River (headwater of the Jefferson River) to southwestern Montana as the Missouri River itself, instead of identifying it as the river system consisting of both streams.
The Missouri–Red Rock River system has a total length of about 2,540 miles (4,090 kilometers), making it the third longest system in North America.
Missouri River begins flowing north and northeast (through the Great Falls) through western Montana before turning east across the northern part of the state. Shortly after crossing western North Dakota, it begins heading south-east before continuing south just south of Bismarck to northern and central South Dakota to Pierre, where it begins heading southeast again.
Continuing through central and southern South Dakota, the river later forms part of the South Dakota–Nebraska boundary, the Nebraska–Iowa boundary, the Nebraska–Missouri boundary, and the northern portion of South Dakota. Kansas– Missouri boundary. At Kansas City, Kansas, the river again turns east and, after flowing through Kansas City, Missouri, meanders east across west-central Missouri before heading southeast again to Jefferson City.
There it makes a final eastward turn, flowing until it joins the Mississippi River about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of St. Louis. Louis.
The river drainage basin occupies about 529,400 square miles (1,371,100 square kilometers) of the Great Plains, of which 2,550 square miles (16,840 square kilometers) lie in southern Canada.
The range of elevations in the basin is considerable: from near 14,000 feet (4,300 m) above sea level in the Colorado Rockies near the Continental Divide to 400 feet (120 m) where it joins the Mississippi.
Missouri Stream
The flow of the Missouri and most of its tributaries is highly variable—the minimum flow is 4,200 cubic feet (120 m cubic) per second and the maximum is 900,000 cubic feet (25,500 cubic m) per second. With unprotected slopes and heavy flow fluctuations, erosion and siltation are major problems.
The main tributaries include the Cheyenne, Kansas, Niobrara, Osage, Platte, and Yellowstone, which flow on the south and west sides, and the James and Milk, which enter from the north.
Other tributaries are the Bad, Blackwater, Cannonball, Gasconade, Grand, Heart, Judith, Knife, Little Missouri, Moreau, Musselshell, and White, which enter from the south and west. The Big Sioux, Chariton, Little Platte, Marias, Sun, and Teton rivers enter from the north and east.
Missouri was named Pekitan-oui on some early French maps and, later, Oumessourit; it was nicknamed “Big Muddy” because of the amount of solids it carried in suspension.
Thousands of Years
For thousands of years, the area near the head of the Missouri River was home to Native Americans such as the Blackfeet, Hidatsa, and Crow.
The river’s mouth was first discovered by Europeans in 1673—by French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet while they were canoeing down the Mississippi River. In the early 1700s French fur traders began to navigate upstream.
Early exploration of the river from its mouth to its head was attempted in 1804–05 during the Lewis and Clark Expedition. For many years trade on the river was limited to the fur trade, and the river was not used very often by the very early American settlers who moved west.
The American Fur Industry began using steamboats on rivers in 1830. Steamboat traffic on rivers peaked in 1858 but began to dwindle the following year with the completion of the Hannibal and St. Johns Railroads.
During the initial 150 years after settlement along the river, little was done to develop the Missouri as a useful waterway or as a source of irrigation and electricity.
In 1944
In 1944, the US Congress passed a comprehensive program for flood control and the development of water resources in the Missouri River basin. It envisions a system of more than 100 dams and reservoirs in the Missouri and several of its tributaries.
Localized flood protection, associated levees and bank stabilization, and deeper river channels were provided on the Missouri itself from Sioux City, Iowa, to the Mississippi, a distance of 760 miles (1,220 kilometers).
By the time a more ambitious plan—the Missouri River basin program called the Pick-Sloan plan—was adopted in the 1950s, maintenance of the canals had allowed commercial barge roads to begin operating in Missouri in 1953.
Dams built at MissouriFort Peck (near Glasgow, Montana), Garrison (North Dakota), and Gavins Point, Fort Randall, and Oahe (South Dakota). The Fort Peck Dam is one of the largest earth accumulation dams in the world.
The entire system of dams and reservoirs has greatly reduced flooding in the Missouri and provided water to irrigate millions of acres of farmland along the main river and its tributaries. Installing a hydroelectric power plant along the river generates electricity for many residents along the river’s headwaters.
Cities Over Missouri
In addition to the locations already mentioned, other major cities along the Missouri are Williston, North Dakota; Council Bluffs, Iowa; City of Omaha and Nebraska, Nebraska; Atchison and Leavenworth, Kansas; as well as Columbia and St. Charles, Missouri.
Rivers are not only of great value as a source of water and hydroelectric power, but are also one of the main sources of tourist energy in the country.
A free-flowing segment of the river in north-central Montana is the federally designated wild and beautiful national river, and the portion of the Missouri and the contiguous land east of it to Fort Peck is the Charles Meter National Wildlife Refuge. Russell.
Not only that, most of the rivers along the South Dakota–Nebraska border lie within the Missouri National Sightseeing River, a facility within the jurisdiction of the US National Park Service. There are also many state and local parks and sightseeing spots along the river.