Geo Bee: Rivers

Brazos River

Being one of Texas' largest rivers,[4] it is sometimes used to mark the boundary between East Texas and West Texas.

The Sabine River

Boundary between eastern Spanish Texas and United States territory after 1819

Ouachita River

The Ouachita River is a 605-mile-long (974 km) river that runs south and east through the U.S. states of Arkansas and Louisiana, joining the Tensas River to form the Black River near Jonesville, Louisiana. It is the 25th-longest river in the United States

Milk River

Located in western part of Alberta. crosses the international border twice, leaving and then re-entering the United States.

Main Rivers with Length

Missouri: 2,540 miles Mississippi: 2,340 miles Yukon: 1,980 miles Rio Grande: 1,900 miles St. Lawrence: 1,900 miles Arkansas: 1,460 miles Colorado: 1,450 miles Atchafalaya: 1,420 miles Ohio: 1,310 miles Red: 1,290 miles

Red River of the North

River in Northern United States forming the border of Minnesota and North Dakota

Niobrara River

River in northern Nebraska that runs through the town of Valentine. It joins the Missouri River.

Tennessee River

The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River.[5] It is approximately 652 miles (1,049 km) long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names, as many of the Cherokee had their territory along its banks, especially in eastern Tennessee and northern Alabama.[2] Its current name is derived from the Cherokee village Tanasi

Trinity River (Texas)

The Trinity River is a 710-mile-long (1,140 km) river in Texas, and is the longest river with a watershed entirely within the U.S. state of Texas.

The White River

The White River is a 722-mile (1,162 km) long river that flows through the U.S. states of Arkansas and Missouri. Originating in the Boston Mountains of northwest Arkansas, it flows northwards into southern Missouri, and then turns back into Arkansas, flowing southeast to its mouth at the Mississippi River.

White River (Missouri River tributary)

The White River is a Missouri River tributary that flows 580 miles (930 km)through the U.S. states of Nebraska and South Dakota

Yukon River

The Yukon River is the third longest river in the United States at 1,980 miles. It begins at Llewellyn Glacier in Canada and flows north to Alaska where it proceeds to travel west across the state to the Bering Sea.

Two rivers begin in the United States and flow into or form a border with Mexico

the Colorado and the Rio Grande

Gila River

tributary of the Colorado that flows westward through Arizona; Phoenix lies near it; the 1853 Gadsden Purchase bought land south of the river from Mexico

Tanana River

tributary of the Yukon River that flows through Fairbanks and flows along the northern slopes of the Alaska Range

Connecticut River

Source in far northern New Hampshire, forms all of border between Vermont and New Hampshire before emptying into Long Island Sound (major cities: Hartford)

Arkansas River

The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United States in Colorado, specifically the Arkansas River Valley, where the headwaters derive from the snowpack in the Sawatch and Mosquito mountain ranges. It then flows east into the Midwest via Kansas, and finally into the South through Oklahoma and Arkansas. At 1,469 miles (2,364 km), it is the sixth-longest river in the United States,[7] the second-longest tributary in the Mississippi-Missouri system, and the 45th longest river in the world. Its origin is in the Rocky Mountains in Lake County, Colorado, near Leadville. In 1859, placer gold discovered in the Leadville area brought thousands seeking to strike it rich, but the easily recovered placer gold was quickly exhausted.[8] The Arkansas River's mouth is at Napoleon, Arkansas, and its drainage basin covers nearly 170,000 sq mi (440,300 km²).[6] In terms of volume, the river is much smaller than the Missouri and Ohio Rivers, with a mean discharge of about 40,000 cubic feet per second (1,100 m3/s). The Arkansas from its headwaters to the 100th meridian west formed part of the U.S.-Mexico border from the Adams-Onís Treaty (in force 1821) until the Texas Annexation or Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Canadian River

The Canadian River is the longest tributary of the Arkansas River in the United States. It is about 906 miles (1,458 km) long, starting in Colorado and traveling through New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, and Oklahoma

The Cimarron River

The Cimarron River extends 698 miles (1,123 km) across New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Kansas.

Colorado River

The Colorado River flows 1,450 miles from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado to the Gulf of California. Along the way it passes through Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California, and Mexico. The river is famous for carving out the Grand Canyon over the course of millions of years. Today the Colorado is an important source of water and power for the southwest United States. The Hoover Dam was built on the Colorado in 1936. It formed Lake Mead and provides power to the city of Las Vegas.

The Cumberland River

The Cumberland River is a major waterway of the Southern United States. The 688-mile-long (1,107 km)[2] river drains almost 18,000 square miles (47,000 km2) of southern Kentucky and north-central Tennessee. The river flows generally west from a source in the Appalachian Mountains to its confluence with the Ohio River near Paducah, Kentucky, and the mouth of the Tennessee River. Major tributaries include the Obey, Caney Fork, Stones, and Red rivers.

Green River

The Green River, located in the western United States, is the chief tributary of the Colorado River. The watershed of the river, known as the Green River Basin, covers parts of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. The Green River is 730 miles (1,170 km) long, beginning in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming and flowing through Wyoming and Utah for most of its course, except for 40 miles (64 km) into western Colorado.

Hudson River

The Hudson River flows 315 miles north to south in eastern New York. It is a fairly short river when compared to many of the other rivers on this page. However, the Hudson played an important role in the early history of the United States. When the Erie Canal was opened in 1825, the Hudson was connected to the Great Lakes. This created a trade route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes region. It had a major impact in the growth of New York City.

The James River

The James River (also known as the Jim River or the Dakota River) is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 710 miles (1,140 km) long, draining an area of 20,653 square miles (53,490 km2) in the U.S. states of North Dakota and South Dakota.[1] About 70 percent of the drainage area is in South Dakota.[2] The river provides the main drainage of the flat lowland area of the Dakotas between the two plateau regions known as the Coteau du Missouri and the Coteau des Prairies. This narrow area was formed by the James lobe of the Laurentide Ice Sheet during the last ice age, and as a consequence the watershed of the river is slender and it has few major tributaries for a river of its length.

The Kuskokwim River

The Kuskokwim River or Kusko River is a river, 702 miles (1,130 km) long, in Southwest Alaska in the United States.It is the ninth largest river in the United States by average discharge volume at its mouth and seventeenth largest by basin drainage area.

Little Missouri River (North Dakota)

The Little Missouri River is a tributary of the Missouri River, 560 miles (901 km) long, in the northern Great Plains of the United States. Rising in northeastern Wyoming, in western Crook County about 15 miles (24 km) west of Devils Tower, it flows northeastward, across a corner of southeastern Montana, and into South Dakota

Menominee

The Menominee River is a river in northwestern Michigan and northeastern Wisconsin in the United States.

Three rivers begin in the United States and flow into Canada

The Milk, Saint Lawrence rivers and the Red River of the North

The Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is one of the most important rivers in the United States. It flows 2,340 miles north to south from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana. Together with the Missouri River, it forms the fourth largest river system in the world. The source of the Mississippi is Lake Itasca in Minnesota. In the early history of the United States, the Mississippi River served as the westernmost border of the country until the Louisiana Territory was purchased from France in 1803. After that, the river was a symbol of the start of the American frontier. Today the river is an important transportation waterway, carrying goods from the middle of the country to the port of New Orleans and into the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi River travels through several states including Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. It acts as the border between several of these states. It also travels through several major cities including Minneapolis, St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans.

Missouri River

The Missouri River is the longest river in the United States at 2,540 miles long. Together with the Mississippi River, it forms the fourth largest river system in the world. It begins in Western Montana and flows to the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis. It travels through several states including Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. The first explorers to travel the entire length of the Missouri River were Lewis and Clark. They used the Missouri to make their way west when exploring the Louisiana Purchase. The river played an important role in the early history of the American frontier as the major trails to the west, such as the Oregon and Santa Fe Trail, began at the Missouri River.

North Platte River

The North Platte River is a major tributary of the Platte River and is approximately 716 miles (1,152 km) long, counting its many curves.[5] In a straight line, it travels about 550 miles (890 km), along its course through the U.S. states of Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska. The head of the river is essentially all of Jackson County, Colorado, whose boundaries are the continental divide on the east and south and the mountain drainage peaks on the east—the north boundary is the state of Wyoming border.

The Ohio River

The Ohio River is a 981-mile (1,579 km) long river in the midwestern United States that flows southwesterly from western Pennsylvania south of Lake Erie to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illinois. It is the second largest river by discharge volume in the United States and the largest tributary by volume of the north-south flowing Mississippi River that divides the eastern from western United States. The river flows through or along the border of six states, and its drainage basin includes parts of 15 states. Through its largest tributary, the Tennessee River, the basin includes several states of the southeastern U.S. It is the source of drinking water for three million people.

Pecos River

The Pecos River originates in north-central New Mexico and flows into Texas, emptying into the Rio Grande. Its headwaters are on the eastern slope of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range in Mora County north of Pecos, NM, at an elevation of over 12,000 feet (3,700 m) feet.[4] The river flows for 926 miles (1,490 km) before reaching the Rio Grande near Del Rio. Its drainage basin encompasses about 44,300 square miles

Red River

The Red River, or sometimes the Red River of the South, is a major river in the southern United States of America.[2] It was named for the red-bed country of its watershed. It is one of several rivers with that name. Although it was once a tributary of the Mississippi River, the Red River is now a tributary of the Atchafalaya River, a distributary of the Mississippi that flows separately into the Gulf of Mexico. It is connected to the Mississippi River by the Old River Control Structure. The south bank of the Red River formed part of the US-Mexico border from the Adams-Onís Treaty (in force 1821) until the Texas Annexation and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The Red River is the second-largest river basin in the southern Great Plains.[3] It rises in two branches in the Texas Panhandle and flows east, where it acts as the border between the states of Texas and Oklahoma. It forms a short border between Texas and Arkansas before entering Arkansas, turning south near Fulton, Arkansas, and flowing into Louisiana, where it flows into the Atchafalaya River. The total length of the river is 1,360 miles (2,190 km), with a mean flow of over 57,000 cubic feet per second (1,600 m3/s) at the mouth.

Rio Grande River

The Rio Grande flows 1,900 miles from Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way it travels through New Mexico and serves as the southern border of Texas between the United States and Mexico. Major tributaries of the Rio Grande include the Rio Conchos, the Rio Chama, and the San Juan River.

Savannah River

The Savannah River basin is located primarily in eastern Georgia and western South Carolina and defines the state boundary between Georgia and South Carolina.

Snake River

The Snake River is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest region in the United States. At 1,078 miles (1,735 km) long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, in turn the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean.[9] The Snake River rises in western Wyoming, then flows through the Snake River Plain of southern Idaho, the rugged Hells Canyon on the Oregon-Idaho border and the rolling Palouse Hills of Washington, emptying into the Columbia River at the Tri-Cities, Washington.

The Yellowstone River

The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 692 miles (1,114 km) long, in the western United States. Considered the principal tributary of the upper Missouri, the river and its tributaries drain a wide area stretching from the Rocky Mountains in the vicinity of the Yellowstone National Park across the mountains and high plains of southern Montana and northern Wyoming.

Two rivers begin in Canada and flow into the United States

The Yukon and the Columbia

The drainage basins

The drainage basins of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers extend into Canada,and the basin of the Gila River extends into Mexico.

Columbia River

The largest river in the northwest region of the United States is the Columbia River. It stretches 1,240 miles from the Canadian Rockies, through Washington state, and along the Oregon-Washington border to the Pacific Ocean. The river is an excellent source of power and is home to Grand Coulee Dam, the largest power producing dam in the United States.

Saint Lawrence River

This is a large and important river that is the main outlet of the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. It flows from its source in Lake Ontario along the entire border between Ontario and New York, then flowing entirely into Canada and continuing northeast through the Quebecois cities of Montreal and Quebec City, where it empties into a huge estuary that drains into a gulf of the same name. This river has a large commercial use in transporting goods throughout the populous eastern Canadian region and the United States Northeast.

The Smoky Hill River

This is a tributary of the Kansas River. It flows through much of the western part of the state from Colorado, and creates the Kansas River at its confluence with the Republican River. Much of the course of this river lies in an upland of the same name.

Des Moines River

This is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It flows from its source in Minnesota across Iowa from northwest to southeast, where it meets the Mississippi. This river flows through the capital of the same name as the river, and its name means "of the monks" in French.

Sheyenne River

This is a tributary of the Red River of the North. It meanders through eastern North Dakota from its source in the eastern central part of the state, and is classified as a perch river because its banks are higher than the surrounding ground.

Wabash River

Tributary of Ohio river, source in northern Indiana, makes up much of Indiana border with Illinois

Snake River

What river joins the Columbia river and forms part of the Oregon-Idaho border?