MISSOURI RIVER 



3864 



MISSOURI RIVER 



Its Course. High in the slopes of the Rocky 

 Mountains rise three rapid rivers, two of them 

 having their source within Yellowstone Park. 

 These are the Jefferson, the Madison and the 

 Gallatin, and they all unite at Gallatin City, 

 Mont., 4,032 feet above sea level, to form the 

 Missouri. A rushing stream, almost a torrent 

 here in its upper stretches, it hurries through 

 the Gate of the Rockies, a deep, steep-sided 

 gorge; leaps the cataracts at Great Falls, and 

 flowing first north, then east, makes its way 



THE MISSOURI RIVER 



Almost 3,000 miles in length, this stream and 

 its tributaries affect nine great states, each an 

 inland empire. (See, also, chart, page 3851.) 



across Montana. Just as it enters North Da- 

 kota it is joined by its largest tributary, the 

 Yellowstone, which rises in Yellowstone Park 

 not far from the two source-streams of the Mis- 

 souri. 



Crossing North Dakota in a great curve, the 

 river flows through South Dakota, divides Ne- 

 braska from Iowa and Missouri, forms the 

 northeastern boundary of Kansas, and then, 

 with an easterly trend, winds across Missouri. 

 Twenty miles above Saint Louis it mingles its 

 waters with those of the Mississippi, and sends 

 its vast burden of sediment down toward the 

 Gulf of Mexico. Every second, on an average, 

 it pours out 120,000 cubic feet of water twenty 

 cubic miles in a year ! And the silt which it 

 carries down amounts in a year to 550,000 tons. 



Its Influence on Geography. The drainage 

 basin of the Missouri has an area of almost 

 600,000 square miles very nearly half that of 

 the entire Mississippi system; for into it flow, 

 besides the Yellowstone mentioned above, the 

 Cheyenne, the James, the White, the Big Sioux, 

 the Platte, the Kansas and the Osage. Along 

 its banks at intervals are busy and growing 

 cities, whose location it has largely determined. 



There are Great Falls, built because of the 

 abundance of water power furnished by the 

 cataracts, Bismarck, Pierre, Sioux City, Omaha, 

 Council Bluffs, Atchison, Leavenworth and Kan- 

 sas City. When it reaches these latter cities, 

 after its mountain course is past, the Missouri 

 is a huge stream sometimes a mile or more in 

 width. Here, however, as in its earlier stages, 

 it is swift-flowing and turbid, its popular name, 

 used half in affection by those who live on its 

 banks, but in scorn by those who have no per- 

 sonal feeling for it, being the "Big Muddy." 



The Missouri has not, like the Mississippi, 

 built up a huge flood plain, but its course and 

 the state of its channel have been largely deter- 

 mined by the amount of sediment it carries. 

 Cutting through the mountains, it acquires vast 

 stores of sand and gravel, and later, when its 

 current is less rapid, it is forced to drop much 

 of this. Its channel, therefore, is on a bed of 

 silt which is in some places 125 feet deep. Some- 

 times, however, when the spring floods come, 

 the river cuts through all this and flows on a 

 rocky floor. 



History. In 1673 Marquette and Joliet 

 marked the spot where the Missouri emptied its 

 muddy waters into the clearer Mississippi, and 

 in the next century adventurous traders made 

 their way up the river in search of furs. For a 

 long, long time only canoes and such primi- 

 tive boats were seen on its waters, and one of 

 the interesting early sights was a band of thirty 

 or forty men walking along the shore and drag- 

 ging a boat upstream after it had carried down 

 its cargo of furs. 



But in 1819 the first steamboat made its way 

 up the river, and the steamboats used by the fur 

 companies played an important part in opening 

 up the great northwestern region. Navigation 

 was dangerous because of the sandbars and the 

 snags, or submerged trees, but it was not this 

 which led to the decline of river traffic after 

 1860. It was the railroads, which made special 

 rates for riverside towns, and so got all the com- 

 merce. For about a half-century the river car- 

 ried little merchandise, but since 1908 deter- 

 mined efforts have been made by the people of 

 the river ports to increase the use of this great 

 highway at their doors; they are aided by the 

 fact that freight rates on railroads are now regu- 

 lated by law, and no favoritism can be shown 

 one city over another. Improvements have been 

 projected and completed, consisting chiefly in 

 the building of levees and the removal of snags, 

 and there has already been a slight increase in 

 river traffic. 



