Talk:Arkansas River

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[edit] 2003

I've got two sources (including 1911 EB) that say the Arkansas is 2000 miles long, and one (Ark River coalition) saying it's 1450. That's 550 miles of river in discrepancy. I'm suspicious that flood control work in the 20th century has shortened the river, but I'm not sure that would account for it. Any ideas for definitive numbers? -- ESP 18:54 14 Jul 2003 (UTC)

My 1997 almanac says 1459, gives source as Lake County, Colorado, and atlas confirms it coming from a Turquoise Lake in the mountains near Leadville, Colorado. 2,000 is likely either confusion, or adding in Mississippi length, or length in km garbled. Stan 20:57 14 Jul 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Pronunciation of Arkansas River (True or False)

True or false: This river's name is more commonly pronounced as "R Kansas" than as "Arkansas". 66.32.145.196 01:04, 11 Apr 2004 (UTC)

American Heritage Dictionary lists both pronunciations for "Arkansas River," but lists the "Arkansaw" pronunciation first, which means that they believe it is the more frequent pronunciation. Dpbsmith 01:48, 11 Apr 2004 (UTC)
However, there is one Internet site that says that "R Kansas" is the proper pronunciation of the river. 66.245.11.49 23:46, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

I am a recent resident of Garden City Kansas, through which this river once flowed. The proper pronunciation of the river is indeed "Arkansaw" but in most of Kansas it is commonly referred to as the "R Kansas" River for the play on words (i.e. Our Kansas River). - user nonbonumest

Since the river got its name from its Arkansas end (it came from the French name of the Quapaw tribe, whose ancestral home was near Arkansas Post), "Arkansaw" is its correct pronunciation. (The Arkansas legislature made that the official pronunciation of the state's name in 1881.[1]) However, "Arkansas" in Arkansas City, Kansas is properly pronounced "R Kansas" due to local usage there; as many Arkansas localities have unusual pronunciations (see Lafayette & Nevada Counties and El Dorado, all three pronounced differently from their respective namesakes), we can certainly respect Kansas' preference there. --RBBrittain 08:04, 21 November 2006 (UTC) (resident of Arkansas)

According the George R. Stewart, in his classic book on placenames Names on the Land, the river got its name not from the "French name of the Quapaw" so much as the Algonqiuan and Illiniwek guides who gave the French the name "Arkansea" for a village and the tribe located near the mouth of the Arkansas River. The French soon spelled it "Arkansa", then pluralized it as "Arkansas" (as they did with Illinois and Kansas). As for pronunciation, Stewart describes that at length. For a long time, at least through the creation of "Arkansaw Territory" (1819), the French-style pronunciation (approximately), with the final -s silent, was the norm. In the middle 1800s the spelling was in flux between Arkansaw and Arkansas, with Arkansas eventually winning out. Soon, among those who could read (a minority in Arkansas at the time), there developed the feeling that pronunciation should follow the spelling, and some people began to call the state "ar-KAN-sas". There was even a time, in the 1840s, when the two senators from the state differed and were introduced in Congress as "the senator from Arkansaw and the senator from Ar-KAN-sas. Confusion over which way to pronounce it spread, especially given things like the obvious pronunciation of the adjective "Arkansan". Finally the state legislature officially ruled the pronunciation to be Arkansaw-- the only state with an official pronunciation. However, just as the people of the state of Arkansas were unyielding in their pronunciation of both the state and the river, so too were the people of Kansas, through which the river flows for a great length. Given the half-century or more of uncertainty and multiple pronunciations of even the state of Arkansas, not formally resolved until the 1880s (and note the official pronunciation is of the state, not the river), I would argue that there is no official or proper pronunciation of the Arkansas River-- although my understanding is that few people outside Kansas pronounce it AR-kansas. Nonetheless, I think it is going too far to say there is a "proper" pronunciation. ...I can give some more of the nitty-gritty detatils of the pronunciation story from Stewart's book if anyone cares to hear. He devotes a whole chapter to it (called "Change the name of Arkansas--Never!"). Pfly 09:41, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Modern 21st Century Pronunciations

This is the true prevailing practice:

  • Arkansaw in the state of Arkansas.
  • R Kansas in the state of Kansas, indeed a play on words: "Our Kansas".
  • In Colorado and Oklahoma, either one is fine -- no one cares.

Paul 08:39, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Discontinuity of the Watercourse

In much of Western Kansas the Arkansas River is actually now a dry riverbed, due to large scale irrigation. I know that the river currently is dry (year round) at least from west of Lakin, Kansas east past Dodge City, but I suspect that it is dry for some distance past that both to the east and west, but to what distance I am unsure. If anyone knows anything in greater detail about this it might be useful to include in the article. - user nonbonumest

I am also curious about this. Sometimes it seems to be filled to the banks but has also been dry for years on end throughout Kansas. Can anyone explain why this is? --Junky 20:43, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Delisted GA

There are no references. slambo 10:36, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Re*Cycling Arkansas River and Kaw River's Earth Science

Source: USGS National Map: The Kansas-Lower Republican (KLR) basin drains almost 10,500 square miles within blue-shaded Missouri River basin
Source: USGS National Map: The Kansas-Lower Republican (KLR) basin drains almost 10,500 square miles within blue-shaded Missouri River basin

Also see:
MentroshipART of Peace (Eco-Futures Forum)
WikkaWiki's logo from the project's website.
RJBurkhart 01:16, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Port of Catoosa (aka) TulsaPort

Claremore, Oklahoma
Green Country (Oklahoma)
Tulsa, Oklahoma
RJBurkhart 00:31, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Adapt Kansas Water Office (KWO) KELP Resources

MentorshipART geoWIZard @
MentorshipART geoWIZard @

Debra Baker - KWO Basin Planner - 1-888-526-9283 or 785-296-3185 ...

The Upper Arkansas River Corridor Study is a Kansas Water Plan project ...
Susan Stover coordinates the project work at the KWO. ...

Continue survey of fishes in the Arkansas River of SW Kansas. ...
KDWP = Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks KWO = Kansas Water Office ...

The Kansas Water Office (KWO) administrates the provisions of the Kansas Weather ...
promoting the orderly development of the water in the Arkansas River ...

Kansas Environmental Leadership Program Ch. 2 ... (KWO, FS 37, 2002).
The Upper Arkansas River Basin. Streams in this basin are the Arkansas River ...

This site has publications and other information about alternative farming ...

RJBurkhart 18:14, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] i4CQuest-Keywords :: Arkansas Basin KWO Map Topo

Where possible, the streamflow trends were aggregated into KWO basin averages and ... On the map, click on a gaging station in a basin to open a new browser ...


This summary is based on all the map data being set in a Universal Transverse Mercator ... Total Riparian Land Use Bank Miles by KWO Planning Basin. Basin ...


Data maps & linksArkansas River data - John Martin/Ark River operations. Missouri River data and links. Republican River data. Topographic maps are available on the internet ...


About Equus BedsDRAINAGE BASIN--Hydrologic unit consisting of a part of the surface of the ... TOPOGRAPHIC MAP--A map that shows natural human-made features of an area ...


and the Kansas Water Office (KWO), with funding ... Health and Environment, and the Lower Arkansas Basin Advisory Committee ... western GMD2 south of the Arkansas River ...


Through the use of the available GIS themes (wetlands, hydro, topo, and photo) ...
The Kansas Water Office (KWO) is working with the Kansas Alliance for ...

RJBurkhart 03:29, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] January 2006 edits

Why should this article be in the Category:Human geography and the Category:Biogeography, and not every other river in the world? Like say the Amazon River or the Yukon River? The text of the article makes no mention of either of the topics. I'd revert the edits, but the user who added them (User:RJBurkhart) seems to revert them right back... so I don't know. -- Malepheasant 08:26, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

Since 1999, the Kansas Water Office (KWO) with Kansas Department of Health & Environment (KDHE) have "championed" community stewardship efforts to preserve & protect water quality via multiple river orienteering programs like Friend of the Kaw and bioneering interdisciplinary K-State Extension initiatives.
This multi-agency effort focuses on engaging community stakeholders in civic social responsibiltiy for water resources. Hence, biogeography & human geography categories seem appropriate.

[edit] Prairie Passage in Kansas Flyways

    • Also, National Audubon Society, among various external links, was added to the "see also" list, but the National Audobon Society article makes no mention of the Arkansas River; and this article makes no mention (apart from the "see also" list to which it was added) of the National Audobon Society; so I don't know what one has to do with the other. -- Malepheasant 10:29, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Our Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) seeks to protect waterfowl habitats & the National Audubon Society helps participants promote flyway corridor birding maps ...

[edit] The fourth longest in the US?

The article for the Rio Grande makes the same claim to fame, to be the fourth longest river in the US. So which is it? Rio Grande is longer, right? Steve G 07:22, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

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