Missouri River

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Missouri River
Missouri at N.P. Dodge Park, Omaha, Nebraska
Origin	Confluence of Madison, Gallatin and Jefferson in Montana.
Mouth	Mississippi River near St. Louis, Missouri
Basin countries	USA, Canada
Length	2,341 miles (3,767 km)
Source elevation	4,045 ft
Mouth elevation	400 ft
Avg. discharge	Great Falls^[1]: 292 ft³/s Pierre^[2]: 559 ft³/s Sioux City: 36,830 ft³/s Omaha: 39,100 ft³/s Kansas City: 56,950 ft³/s Boonville: 69,220 ft³/s Hermann: 87,950 ft³/s^[3]
Basin area	529,300 square miles (1,376,180 km²)

The Missouri River is a tributary of the Mississippi River in the United States. The Missouri begins at the confluence of the Madison, Jefferson, and Gallatin rivers in Montana, and flows into the Mississippi north of St. Louis, Missouri. At 2,341 mi (3,767 km)^[4] in length, it drains approximately one-sixth of the North American continent.

The Missouri in its original natural meandering state was the longest river in North America. Nearly 72 miles of the river has been cut off in channeling^[5] and so it is now comparable in length to the Mississippi River. The combination of the two longest rivers in North America forms the third longest river in the world.

At its confluence the Missouri nearly doubles the volume of the Mississippi accounting for 45 percent of the flow at St. Louis in normal times and as much as 70 percent of the flow during some droughts. ^[6]

It is the second largest tributary by volume of the Mississippi, trailing only the Ohio.

The river is nicknamed "Big Muddy" and also "Dark River" because of the high silt content. Given that the river meanders from bluff to bluff in the flat Midwestern states it is also referred to as the "Wide Missouri."

[edit] Course

[edit] Overview

The Missouri River and its tributaries

The headwaters of the Missouri are in the Rocky Mountains of southwestern Montana, near the Continental Divide. The river rises in the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers, which converge near Three Forks, Montana to form the Missouri. It flows north, through mountainous canyons, emerging from the mountains near Great Falls, where a large cataract historically marked the navigable limit of the river. It flows east across the plains of Montana into North Dakota, then turns southeast, flowing into South Dakota, and along the north and eastern edge of Nebraska, forming part of its border with South Dakota and all of its border with Iowa, flowing past Sioux City and Omaha. It forms the entire boundary between Nebraska and Missouri, and part of the boundary between Missouri and Kansas. At Kansas City, it turns generally eastward, flowing across Missouri where it joins the Mississippi just north of St. Louis.

The extensive system of tributaries drain nearly all the semi-arid northern Great Plains of the United States. A very small portion of southern Alberta, Canada and south-western Saskatchewan is also drained by the river through its tributary, the Milk. Another, separate area, in southern Saskatchewan is drained by another Missouri tributary, the Poplar River.

The river's course roughly follows the edge of the glaciation during the last ice age. Most of the river's longer tributaries stretch away from this edge, with their origins towards the west, draining portions of the eastern Rockies.

[edit] Headwaters

The Missouri in name officially begins at Missouri Headwaters State Park at 4,045 feet in Montana at the confluence of the Jefferson River and Madison River. The Gallatin River joins the river about 0.6 of a mile downstream as it flows northeast.

Merriwether Lewis in his journal entry on July 28, 1805 wrote:

Both Capt. C. and myself corresponded in opinon with rispect(sic) to the impropriety of calling either of these [three] streams the Missouri and accordingly agreed to name them after the President of the United States and the Secretaries of the Treasury and state.

The Lewis and Clark decision not to call the Jefferson the Missouri has spurred debate over what is the longest river in North America since the Missouri and Mississippi are nearly identical in length. With the Jefferson the Missouri would be the longest river.

Lewis (who had followed the Jefferson River to the Beaverhead River) said that on August 12, 1805, he visited Beaverhead tributary of Trail Creek just above Lemhi Pass on the Continental Divide in the Beaverhead Mountains on the Montana and Idaho border at around 8,600 feet which he described:

the most distant fountain of the waters of the mighty Missouri in surch(sic) of which we have spent so many toilsome days and wristless(sic) nights.

However in 1888 Jacob V. Brower, who had championed turning the headwaters of the Mississippi River into a Minnesota state park, visited another site which today is believed to be the furthest point on the Missouri -- now called Brower's Spring. Brower published his finding in 1896 in "The Missouri: It's Utmost Source."

The site of Brower's Spring at around 8,800 feet in the Centennial Mountains. The site now commemorated by a rock pile at the source of Hellroaring Creek which flows into Red Rock River and then into Clark Canyon Reservoir where it joins the Beaverhead then the Big Hole River before ultimately hooking up with the Jefferson.^[7]

[edit] Mouth

The Missouri enters the Mississippi near its mile 195. The elevation is approximately 400 feet. The confluence is ringed by Camp Dubois which is now part of Lewis and Clark State Memorial Park in Illinois; Columbia Bottoms Conservation Area on the south bank of the Missouri in St. Louis and on the north bank of the Missouri by the Edward "Ted" and Pat Jones-Confluence Point State Park in West Alton, Missouri.

[edit] History

High silt content makes the Missouri (left) noticeably lighter than the Mississippi here at their confluence north of St. Louis.

[edit] Exploration

[edit] Jolliet and Marquette

Main articles: Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette

The first Europeans to see the river were the French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette who shortly after looking at the Piasa petroglyph painting on the bluffs of Mississippi River above Alton, Illinois heard the Missouri rushing into the Mississippi.

Marquette wrote:

While conversing about these monsters sailing quietly in clear and calm water, we heard the noise of a rapid into which we were about to run. I never saw anything more terrific, a tangle of entire trees from the mouth of the Pekistanoui with such impetuosity that one could not attempt to cross it without great danger. The commotion was such that the water was made muddy by it and could not clear itself.

Pekitanoui is a river of considerable size, coming from the northwest, from a great distance; and it discharges into the Mississippi. There are many villages of savages along this river, and I hope by this means to discover the Vermillion or California Sea.^[8]^[9]

Marquette and Joliet referred to the river as "Pekistanoui" and they made a reference to a tribe who lived upstream on the river as "Oumessourita" which was pronounced "OO-Missouri." ^[10]), (meaning "those who have dugout canoes" ^[11]) This was the Illinois (tribe) name for the Missouri (tribe) whose village was nearly 200 miles upstream near Brunswick, Missouri.

Marquette wrote that natives had told him that it was just a six day canoe trip up the river (about 60 miles) where it would be possible to portage over to another river that would take people to California.

Jolliet and Marquette never explored the Missouri beyond its mouth.

[edit] Bourgmont

Main articles: Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont and Fort Orleans

The Missouri remained formally unexplored and uncharted until Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont wrote "Exact Description of Louisiana, of Its Harbors, Lands and Rivers, and Names of the Indian Tribes That Occupy It, and the Commerce and Advantages to Be Derived Therefrom for the Establishment of a Colony" in 1713 followed in 1714 by "The Route to Be Taken to Ascend the Missouri River." In the two documents Bourgmont was the first to use the name "Missouri" to refer to the river (and he was to name many of the tributaries along the river based on the Native American tribes that lived on them). The names and locations were to be used by cartographer Guillaume Delisle to create the first reasonably accurate map of the river.

Bourgmont himself was living with the Missouri tribe at its Brunswick village with his Missouri wife and son. He had been on the lam from French authorities since 1706 when he deserted his post as commandant of Fort Detroit after he was criticized by Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac for his handling of an attack by the Ottawa (tribe) in which a priest, a French sergeant and 30 Ottawa were killed. Bourgmont had further infuriated the French by illegally trapping and for immoral behavior when he showed up at French outposts with his Native American wife.

However after Bourgmont's two documents, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, founder of Louisiana, said that rather than arresting Bourgmont they should make decorate him with Cross of St. Louis and name him "commandant of the Missouri" to represent France on the entire river. Bourgmont's reputation was further enhanced when the Pawnee who had been befriended by Bourgmont massacred the Spanish Villasur expedition in 1720 near modern day Columbus, Nebraska which was to temporarily end Spanish designs on the Missouri River and clear the way for a New France empire stretching from Montreal, Canada to New Mexico.

After squabbling with French authorities over financing of a new fort on the Missouri and also suffering a yearlong illness, Bourgmont established Fort Orleans which was the first fort and first longer term European settlement of any kind on the Missouri in late 1723 near his home at Brunswick. In 1724 Bourgmont led an expedition to enlist Commanche support in the fight against the Spanish. In 1725 Bourgmont brought the chiefs of the Missouri River tribes to Paris to see the glory of France including the palaces of Versailles, and Fountainbleau and a hunting expedition on a royal preserve with Louis XV. Bourgmont was raised to rank of nobility remained in France and did not accompany the chiefs back to the New World. Fort Orleans was either abandoned or its small contingent massacred by Native Americans in 1726.

It is unclear how far up the Missouri Bourgmont traveled. He is the documented first European discoverer of the Platte River. In his writings he described the blonde-haired Mandans. So it is possible that he made it as far north as their villages in central North Dakota.

[edit] MacKay and Evans

Main article: MacKay and Evans Expedition

The Spanish took over the Missouri River in the Treaty of Paris (1763) that ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years War. The Spanish claim to the Missouri was based on Hernando de Soto (explorer) "discovery" of the Mississippi River on May 8, 1541. The Spanish initially did not extensively explore the river and were to let French fur traders continue their activities although under license.

After the British began to exert influence on the Upper Missouri River via the Hudson Bay Company. News of the English incurrsions came following an expedition by Jacques D’Eglise in 1790. The Spanish chartered the "Company of Discoverers and Explorers of the Missouri" (popularly referred to as the "Missouri Company") and offered a reward for the first person to reach the Pacific via the Missouri. In 1794 and 1795 expeditions led by Jean Baptiste Truteau and Antoine Simon Lecuyer de la Jonchšre did not even make it as far north as the Madan villages in central North Dakota.^[12]

The most significant expedition though was the MacKay and Evans Expedition of 1795-1797. James MacKay (explorer) and John Evans (explorer) were hired by the Spanish to tell the British to leave the upper Missouri and to search a route to the Pacific Ocean.^[13]

McKay and Evans established a winter camp about 20 miles south of Sioux City, Iowa on the Nebraska side where they built Fort Columbus. Evans went on to th Mandan village where he expelled out British traders. While talking to Native Americans they were to pinpoint the Yellowstone River (which they called "Yellow Rock").

They were to create a detailed map of the upper Missouri that was to be used by Lewis and Clark.

[edit] Lewis and Clark

Main articles: Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark

On October 27, 1795, the United States and Spain signed Pinckney's Treaty giving American merchants the "right of deposit" in New Orleans, meaning they could use the port to store goods for export. The treaty also recognized American rights to navigate the entire Mississippi River.

In 1798 Spain revoked the treaty.

On October 1, 1800, the Spanish secretly returned Louisiana to the French under Napoleon in the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso. The transfer was so secret that the Spanish continued to administer the territory but in 1801 they restored the United States rights to use the river and New Orleans.

Thomas Jefferson fearing the cutoffs could occur again sought to negotiate with France to buy New Orleans for the asking price of $10 million. Napoleon came back with a counter offer of $15 million for all of the Louisiana Territory including the Missouri River. The deal was signed on May 2, 1803.

On June 20, 1803, Thomas Jefferson instructed Meriwether Lewis ^[14] to explore the Missouri and look for a water route to the Pacific.

Although the deal was signed, Spain still balked at an American takeover citing first that France had never formally taken over the Louisiana Territory. Spain was to formally tell Lewis not take the journey and expressly forbade Lewis from seeing the McKay and Evans map which was the most detailed and accurate of its time. Lewis was to gain access to it surreptitiously. To avoid jurisdictionally issues with Spain they wintered in 1803-1804 at Camp Dubois on the Illinois (United States) side of the Mississippi.

Lewis and William Clark left on May 14, 1804 and returned to St. Louis on September 23, 1806.

[edit] American Frontier

Karl Bodmer "Fort Pierre and the Adjacent Prairie", c. 1833

The river particularly upstream from Kansas City, Missouri where it takes a sharp eastern turn into the heart of the the state of Missouri defined the American frontier in the 19th century.

All of the major trails for the opening of the American West have their starting points on the river including the, California, Mormon, Oregon, and Santa Fe trails. The first westward leg of the Pony Express was a ferry ride across the Missouri at St. Joseph, Missouri. The first westward leg of the First Transcontinental Railroad was a ferry ride across the Missouri between Council Bluffs, Iowa and Omaha, Nebraska.

The Hannibal Bridge which was the first bridge to cross the river when it opened in Kansas City in 1869 was a major reason Kansas City became the biggest city on the river upstream from its mouth at St. Louis.

Extensive use of paddle steamers on the upper river helped facilitate European settlement of the Dakotas and Montana.

The Department of the Missouri which was headquartered on the banks of the river at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas was the military command center for the Indian Wars in the region.

The most northern point on the Missouri that was navigable in Frontier times was Fort Benton, Montana at approximately 2,620 feet^[15]

[edit] River Modifications

Fort Randall Dam on the Missouri River in South Dakota

Since the river meanders through the flat Midwest states, it has often changed course and its wake left numerous oxbow lakes (Big Lake, Missouri is the biggest such lake in Missouri). In the early 1800s the United States Supreme Court (which decides state border disputes) said that when the river changed course the border also changed (as happened with the Fairfax District at Kansas City, Kansas which switched from Missouri to Kansas. However in the late 1800s the Court began ruling on absolute boundaries -- creating geographic oddities such as:

Carter Lake, Iowa which is now a piece of Iowa on the west side of the Missouri that is between downtown Omaha and Eppley Airfield
French Bottoms at St. Joseph, Missouri which placed a piece of Missouri on the west of the River forcing Missouri residents to go through Kansas to reach Rosecrans Airport.

In the 20th century, the upper Missouri was extensively dammed for flood control, irrigation, and hydroelectric power. After President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Flood Control Act of 1944, the Pick-Sloan Plan turned the Missouri River into the largest reservoir system in North America. There are six dams in four states:

Fort Peck in Montana
Garrison in North Dakota
Oahe in South Dakota
Big Bend in South Dakota
Fort Randall in South Dakota
Gavins Point on the South Dakota-Nebraska border.

These dams were constructed without locks, so commercial navigation on the Missouri cannot proceed above the Gavins Point Dam. The Corps of Engineers maintains a 9-foot deep (3 meter) navigation channel for 735 miles (1183 km) between Sioux City, Iowa and St. Louis in non-Winter months. The dams aid navigation on the lower river by reducing fluctuations in water levels.

35-percent of the Missouri River is impounded, 32-percent has been channelized, and 33-percent is unchannelized.^[16]

The only significant stretch of free-flowing stream on the lower Missouri is the Missouri National Recreational River section between Gavins Point Dam and Ponca State Park, Nebraska. This federally-designated "Wild and Scenic River" is among the last unspoiled stretches of the Missouri, and exhibits the islands, bars, chutes and snags that once characterized the "Mighty Mo".

The huge amounts of sediment in the Big Muddy create a constant need to dredge behind the dams as well as on the navigation streams. Dredging has resulted in 7.4 million tons of sand and debris being dredge out of the navigation channel of the river each year.^[17]

Barge traffic has been steadily declining from 3.3 million tons in 1977 to 1.3 million tons in 2000. ^[18]

The declining barge traffic industry has stirred controversies over the management of the river and whether upstream dams should release the water to maintain the commercial navigation standards

The States of Iowa and Missouri have sought to revive their waterfronts by permitting riverboat gambling. The initial gambling regulations required the casinos to navigate the river. They were subsequently amended so that the casinos could be permanent land based structures as long as they had a moat with Missouri River water surrounding them.

[edit] Popular depictions

George Caleb Bingham "Fur Traders on Missouri River", c. 1845.

The American painter George Catlin traveled up the Missouri in the 1830s, making portraits of individuals and tribes of Native Americans. He also painted several Missouri River landscapes, notably "Floyd's Bluff" and "Brick Kilns", both from 1832.

The Swiss painter Karl Bodmer accompanied German explorer Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied from 1832 through 1834 on his Missouri River expedition. Bodmer was hired as an artist by Maximilian for the purpose of recording images of the Native American tribes that they encountered in the American West.

In 1843, the American painter and naturalist John James Audubon traveled west to the upper Missouri River and the Dakota Territory to do fieldwork for his final major opus, Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. A typical example from this folio is "American Bison".

Missouri painter George Caleb Bingham immortalized the fur traders and flatboatmen who plied the Missouri River in the early 1800s; these same boatmen were known for their river chanties, including the haunting American folk song "Oh Shenandoah". Each verse of "Oh Shenandoah" ends with the line, "...'cross the wide Missouri."

The river is notable for being the setting of the Pete Seeger song Waist Deep in the Big Muddy. (There is some ambiguity as to location. Seeger also sings that the action took place in "Loo-siana".) The song is set in 1942, during training for World War II, but its image of a foolish captain who pushes his men further and further into a hopeless situation was clearly meant to parallel the Vietnam War. In the song, a captain leading a squad on training maneuvers insists on crossing the titular river, insisting that it is safe to cross. The captain sinks into the mud, drowns, and his squad turns back. As they are heading back, they are taken by the beauty of the river and stay.