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Arkansas River
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The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. The Arkansas generally flows to the east and southeast, and traverses the states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.
At 1,469 miles (2,364 km) it is the sixth longest river in the United States, the second-longest tributary in the Mississippi-Missouri system, and the 45th longest river in the world. Its origin is in the Colorado Rockies in Lake County near Leadville, and its outlet is at the historic site of Napoleon, Arkansas. The Arkansas River drainage basin covers nearly 195,000 sq mi (505,000 km²). (See watershed maps: ) In terms of volume, the river is smaller than both the Missouri and Ohio, with a mean discharge of 8,460 ft³/s (240 m³/s).
General descriptionThe Arkansas has three distinct characters in its long path through central North America.
At its headwaters the Arkansas runs as a steep mountain torrent through the Rockies in its narrow valley, dropping 4600 feet (1.4 km) in 120 miles (193 km).
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The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. The Arkansas generally flows to the east and southeast, and traverses the states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.
At 1,469 miles (2,364 km) it is the sixth longest river in the United States, the second-longest tributary in the Mississippi-Missouri system, and the 45th longest river in the world. Its origin is in the Colorado Rockies in Lake County near Leadville, and its outlet is at the historic site of Napoleon, Arkansas. The Arkansas River drainage basin covers nearly 195,000 sq mi (505,000 km²). (See watershed maps: ) In terms of volume, the river is smaller than both the Missouri and Ohio, with a mean discharge of 8,460 ft³/s (240 m³/s).
General descriptionThe Arkansas has three distinct characters in its long path through central North America.
At its headwaters the Arkansas runs as a steep mountain torrent through the Rockies in its narrow valley, dropping 4600 feet (1.4 km) in 120 miles (193 km). This section (including The Numbers, Brown's Canyon, and the Royal Gorge) sees extensive whitewater rafting in the
spring and summer.
Below the Royal Gorge, at Cañon City, Colorado, the Arkansas River Valley widens and flattens markedly. Just west of Pueblo, Colorado, the river enters the Great Plains.
Through the rest of Colorado, through Kansas, and through northern Oklahoma to Tulsa, it is a typical Great Plains riverway, with wide shallow banks, subject to seasonal flooding. Tributaries include the Canadian River and the Cimarron River (both flowing from northeastern New Mexico) and the Salt Fork Arkansas River.
Below Tulsa, and continuing to its mouth, the river is navigable by barges and large river craft thanks to a series of dams that turn it into reservoirs. (Above Tulsa, it is navigable only by small craft such as rafts, canoes, and kayaks.)
Water flow in the Arkansas River (as measured in central Kansas) has dropped from approximately 248 cubic feet per second (7 m³/s) average from 1944-1963 to 53 cubic feet per second (1.5 m³/s) average from 1984-2003, largely due to pumping of groundwater for irrigation in eastern Colorado and western Kansas.
Important cities along the Arkansas include Pueblo, Colorado; Wichita, Kansas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Fort Smith and Little Rock, Arkansas.
The I-40 Bridge Disaster of May 2002 took place on I-40's crossing of Kerr Reservoir on the Arkansas River near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma.
Riverway commerceThe McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System begins at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa on the Verdigris River, and runs via an extensive Lock and Dam system to the Mississippi.
Through Oklahoma and Arkansas, dams artificially deepen and widen this modest sized river to build it into a commercially navigable body of water. From the mouth of the Verdigris until the McClellan-Kerr system moves over to the White River near Arkansas Post, the Arkansas sustains commercial barge traffic and offers passenger and recreational use and is little more than a series of reservoirs.
Watershed trailsMany nations of Native Americans lived near or along the Arkansas in its 1450 mile (2334 km) stretch, but the first Europeans to see the river were members of the Coronado expedition on June 29, 1541. Also in the 1540s Hernando de Soto discovered the junction of the Arkansas with the Mississippi. The name "Arkansas" was first applied by Father Jacques Marquette, who called the river Akansa in his journal of 1673.
From 1819 the Adams-Onís Treaty set the Arkansas as part of the frontier between the United States and Spanish Mexico, which it remained until the annexation of Texas and Mexican-American War in 1846.
Later, the Santa Fe Trail followed the Arkansas through much of Kansas except for the Cimarron Cutoff from Cimarron, Kansas to Cimarron, New Mexico via Cimarron County, Oklahoma along the Cimarron River.
Angling the ArkansasThe Arkansas River, in central Colorado, provides some of the best brown trout fishing in the west. The Arkansas starts just north of Leadville, Colorado. The first 150 miles of the river, from Leadville to Pueblo, is prime trout water. Conditions vary widely along this section so the river is broken up into 4 sections; Leadville to Buena Vista, Buena Vista to Salida, Salida to Canon City, Canon City to Pueblo. The Arkansas drops over 5000 feet in elevation over this 150 mile stretch from Leadville to Pueblo. Seasons are quite different on each of these sections. The Arkansas through Canon City may be experiencing Spring conditions, while the Leadville area is still full blown winter. Due to this sudden change in climate and elevation, fishing conditions vary depending on which section of the river you plan to fish, and at what time of year you plan to be there. The Arkansas boasts high catches of browns and rainbows to 20 inches. Browns dominate the fishery.
PronunciationsThough many in the state of Kansas pronounce it as (as the city of Arkansas City, Kansas is pronounced), people in the state of Arkansas pronounce it (as the state of Arkansas is pronounced according to a state law passed in 1881). People in the Southern United States pronounce it .
See also
External links- for Equus Beds Aquifer Recharge Project
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- of navigation system
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