Arkansas River

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The Arkansas River flows through Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.

The headwaters of the Arkansas near Leadville, Colorado

Drought can reduce the Arkansas River so much that the trees along the river die.

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.^[1] Its origin is in the Colorado Rockies in Lake County near Leadville, and its outlet is at the historic site of Napoleon, Arkansas. It is the 2nd longest tributary in the Mississippi-Missouri system, with a drainage basin of nearly 195,000 sq. mi. (505,000 km²) (See watershed maps: 1) In terms of volume it is smaller than both the Missouri and Ohio, with a mean discharge of 8,460 cfs.

1 General description
2 Riverway commerce
3 Watershed trails
4 Pronunciations
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] General description

The 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 Cimarron River (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.)

Important cities along the Arkansas include Pueblo, Colorado; Wichita, Kansas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Little Rock, Arkansas.

The I-40 Bridge Disaster of May 2002 took place on I-40's crossing of the Arkansas River near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma.

[edit] Riverway commerce

Main article: McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System

Inland waterway system with McClellan-Kerr Navigational Channel shown in red.

The 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.

Lower Arkansas River

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.

[edit] Watershed trails

Many 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.

[edit] Pronunciations

Whitewater kayaking on the Arkansas River

Though many in the state of Kansas pronounce it as IPA: [ɑɹˈkænzəz] (as the city of Arkansas City, Kansas is pronounced), the most common pronunciation for the river is [ˈɑɹkənsɔ], as the state of Arkansas is pronounced according to a state law passed in 1881. People in the Southern United States pronounce it [ˈæɹkənsɔ].