Introduction to The Missouri River
Missouri River, one of the largest rivers in North America and a chief tributary of the Mississippi. It is also called the “Big Muddy,” because of the tremendous load of silt that it carries. The Missouri begins at the junction of the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers near Three Forks, Montana. It flows 2,315 miles (3,726 km) to the Mississippi, the junction being just north of St. Louis, Missouri.
Including the Jefferson-Beaverhead-Red Rock headwater stream, which has its source in the Rocky Mountains west of Yellowstone National Park, the Missouri's length is 2,564 miles (4,126 km). The combined Mississippi-Missouri-Red Rock, with a length of 3,741 miles (6,021 km), is one of the world's great rivers.
Course and Characteristics
The Missouri flows northward through the Rockies, passes the Gates of the Mountains gorge, and breaks upon the Great Plains between Helena and Great Falls, Montana. It veers north and east across northern Montana, turns south and east, crosses the Dakotas, and forms the boundary between Nebraska and Kansas on its right bank and South Dakota, Iowa, and Missouri on its left. Turning eastward at Kansas City, the river crosses Missouri and empties into the Mississippi.
Except in the Rockies, where its headwaters are swift mountain streams, the Missouri is normally a shallow, slowly moving river. Its average drop is only about 1 1/2 feet per mile (28 cm per km). Like the Mississippi, the Missouri varies enormously in flow. Near its mouth, it has carried as much as 800,000 cubic feet (22,650 m 3 ) of water per second and as little as 13,000 cubic feet (370 m 3 ) during periods of drought.
Low water occurs in winter, when much of the surface water in the basin is frozen. High water (March through June) comes with spring rains and thaws and the melting of snow in the mountains. As a result, the river rises and falls as much as 35 feet (11 m) and occasionally changes its channel. When low, it often becomes choked with sand and mud.
Many rivers drain into the Missouri. From west to east, they include the Marias, Musselshell, Milk, Yellowstone, Little Missouri, Cheyenne, Niobrara, James, Big Sioux, Platte, Kansas, Chariton, and Osage.
The Basin and Its Development
The Missouri's basin extends from the Rocky Mountains eastward across the northern plain and prairie states to the basin of the Mississippi. It covers 529,300 square miles (1,370,880 km 2 ), 98 per cent of which is in the United States, the rest in Canada. Roughly one-sixth of the 48 contiguous states of the United States is drained by the Missouri.
Most of the basin is sparsely populated, but there a number of cities with a population greater than 100,000. The largest is Denver, with 554,636.
Agriculture prevails in most of the basin. Droughts, however, occur frequently, for rainfall is limited and unreliable; and floods cause loss of life and property.
To protect against these natural hazards and to promote greater economic growth, Congress authorized the Missouri River basin development program in 1944. This multibillion-dollar project is based on the Pick-Sloan Plan for harnessing the river and developing its basin. It is a compromise between separate plans submitted by the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Corps of Engineers. The entire project, involving the work of scores of state and federal agencies, is directed by the Missouri Basin Interagency Committee (MBIAC), consisting of 10 state governors and seven representatives of federal departments and agencies.
The principal goals of the program are to store and conserve water by means of dams; to control floods, mainly by regulating the flow at the dams but also by building levees and making channel improvements; to provide irrigation water and improved water supplies for home and industrial uses; to generate hydroelectric power; to improve navigation on the Missouri; and to provide public recreation facilities.
History of the Missouri River
Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet passed the mouth of the Missouri on their way down the Mississippi in 1673. During the first half of the 1700's, French and Spanish explorers—Bourgmont, La Vérendrye and his sons, the Mallet brothers, Villasur, and others—penetrated the lower part of the basin, both by following the river and by journeying overland. The first full exploration and account of the Missouri came with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804–06.
The basin was acquired by the United States in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Settlers poured into the area in ever increasing numbers. Some remained; others continued westward by way of the Santa Fe and Oregon trails, which began near Kansas City. The Mormons reached Utah by way of the Mormon Trail. Steamboats brought increased trade to the basin after 1819. After the Civil War they gave way to the railways.
The basin has become one of the leading agricultural regions in the nation. In the west it is particularly noted for wheat, cattle, and sheep; in the east, for corn, soybeans, cattle, and hogs. Mining and lumbering are important in the Rockies.
In 1993 torrential rains caused the lower Missouri River to flood. From Omaha, Nebraska, to St. Charles, Missouri, widespread flooding occurred, causing billions of dollars' worth of damage.
