Missouri (river)

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Major river in central USA, largest tributary of the Mississippi, which it joins north of St Louis; length 3,969 km/2,466 mi; drainage area 1,370,000 sq km/529,000 sq mi. It rises among the Rocky Mountains in Montana, and passes northwards through a 366 m/1,200 ft gorge known as the ‘Gate of the Mountains’. The river is formed by the confluence of the Jefferson, Gallatin, and Madison rivers near Gallatin City, southwestern Montana, and flows southeast through the states of Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota to Sioux City, Iowa. It then turns south to form the borders between Iowa and Nebraska and between Kansas and Missouri, and enters the Mississippi channel 32 km/20 mi north of St Louis. Kansas City, Missouri, is the largest city on its banks.

Since 1944 the muddy, turbulent river has been calmed by a series of locks and dams designed for irrigation and flood control. The largest of these dams are Fort Peck in Montana, Garrison in North Dakota, Oahe and Fort Randall in South Dakota, and Bagnell on the Osage River in Missouri; there are also hundreds of smaller structures. The dams interfere with the natural seasonal flows of the river, and several species are threatened with extinction; the Missouri was on the US ‘most-endangered river’ list 1993–2001. In 1993 there was massive flooding along the banks of the Missouri.

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