Arkansas River

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The headwaters of the Arkansas near Leadville, Colorado

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 1450 miles (2334 km) it is the fourth longest river in the United States. 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. It is navigable by barges and large river craft thanks to a series of dams that turn it into reservoirs, from its mouth to Tulsa Oklahoma. From Tulsa to near its headwaters it is navigable by small craft such as rafts, canoes, and kayaks.

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, dropping 4600 feet (1.4 km) in 120 miles (193 km). At Cañon City, Colorado, it leaves the mountains and enters Royal Gorge. This section sees extensive Whitewater rafting in the spring and summer.

For most of its length through the rest of Colorado and Kansas, it is a typical Great Plains riverway, with wide shallow banks, subject to seasonal flooding. Tributaries include the Cimarron River flowing from NE New Mexico and the Salt Fork Arkansas River

Important cities along the Lower Arkansas include: 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.

1 Riverway commerce
2 Watershed trails
3 Pronunciations
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Riverway commerce

Main article: Kerr/McClellan Navigational Channel

Image:Kerr-McClellan map.png

The Kerr/McClellan Navigational Channel (also sometimes referred to as the Arkansas River Navigation System)
begins at Catoosa, Oklahoma 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 somewhere between Fort Smith, Arkansas and Pine Bluff, according to the season. From this point to its mouth, 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.

[edit] Pronunciations

Though many in the state of Kansas pronounce it as "ahr-KAN-zuhs" (as the city of Arkansas City, Kansas is pronounced), the most common pronunciation for the river is "AHR-kan-saw", as the state of Arkansas is pronounced.