Missouri River
The Water: The Missouri River begins in Three Forks, Montana, where the Gallatin, Jefferson, and Madison Rivers combine. The tailwaters near Craig, Montana, offer the peak of its blue-ribbon trout fishing status. The “Mighty Mo” is the longest tributary of the Mississippi, flowing more than 2,300 miles. The Missouri has multiple reservoirs, one of which, Fort Peck, was the largest dam in the United States at the time it was built, and has more coastline than California.
Namesake: French explorer Jacques Marquette recorded the Missouria tribe in 1673 from which the river gets its name. The tribe was called Niuachi, meaning people at the river’s mouth or people with large canoes.
Headwaters: Gallatin, Jefferson, and Madison Rivers.
Estuary: The Missouri River and the Ohio River are the principal tributaries of the Mississippi River. The Missouri flows into the Mississippi in Illinois just north of St. Louis, Missouri.
Claim to Fame: The Missouri River was the main route used by Lewis and Clark when exploring the Louisiana Purchase land.
The Missouri watershed supports 25 percent of all U.S. agriculture.
Hardy Bridge near where the Dearborn River flows into the Missouri, was used as the Canadian border in the 1987 film The Untouchables.
