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32.72789001464844 100 WikiText2 |
20550 The first glowing reports of country rich with thousands of game animals came in 1806 when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark returned from their two @-@ year expedition . Their journals described lands rich with thousands of buffalo , beaver , and river otter ; and also an abundant population of sea otters on t... |
54.968021392822266 148 WikiText2 |
20551 Lisa 's men started construction of Fort Raymond , which sat on a bluff overlooking the confluence of the Yellowstone and Bighorn , in the fall of 1807 . The fort would serve primarily as a trading post for bartering with the Native Americans for furs . This method was unlike that of the Pacific Northwest fur tr... |
28.860013961791992 172 WikiText2 |
20552 Fur trapping activities in the early 19th century encompassed nearly all of the Rocky Mountains on both the eastern and western slopes . Trappers of the Hudson 's Bay Company , St. Louis Missouri Fur Company , American Fur Company , Rocky Mountain Fur Company , North West Company and other outfits worked thousan... |
56.28013610839844 135 WikiText2 |
20553 As the 1830s drew to a close , the fur industry slowly began to die as silk replaced beaver fur as a desirable clothing item . By this time , also , the beaver population of streams in the Rocky Mountains had been decimated by intense hunting . Furthermore , frequent Native American attacks on trading posts made... |
36.539947509765625 174 WikiText2 |
20554 = = = Settlers and pioneers = = = |
234.75083923339844 9 WikiText2 |
20555 The river roughly defined the American frontier in the 19th century , particularly downstream from Kansas City , where it takes a sharp eastern turn into the heart of the state of Missouri . The major trails for the opening of the American West all have their starting points on the river , including the Californ... |
30.635616302490234 155 WikiText2 |
20556 True to the then @-@ ideal of Manifest Destiny , over 500 @,@ 000 people set out from the river town of Independence , Missouri to their various destinations in the American West from the 1830s to the 1860s . These people had many reasons to embark on this strenuous year @-@ long journey – economic crisis , and ... |
47.348812103271484 228 WikiText2 |
20557 During the 1860s , gold strikes in Montana , Colorado , Wyoming and northern Utah attracted another wave of hopefuls to the region . Although some freight was hauled overland , most transport to and from the gold fields was done through the Missouri and Kansas Rivers , as well as the Snake River in western Wyomi... |
42.39000701904297 213 WikiText2 |
20558 As settlers expanded their holdings into the Great Plains , they ran into land conflicts with Native American tribes . This resulted in frequent raids , massacres and armed conflicts , leading to the federal government creating multiple treaties with the Plains tribes , which generally involved establishing bord... |
31.097103118896484 111 WikiText2 |
20559 Conflicts between natives and settlers over the opening of the Bozeman Trail in the Dakotas , Wyoming and Montana led to Red Cloud 's War , in which the Lakota and Cheyenne fought against the U.S. Army . The fighting resulted in a complete Native American victory . In 1868 , the Treaty of Fort Laramie was signed... |
34.50537109375 197 WikiText2 |
20560 However , the peace and freedom of the Native Americans did not last for long . The Great Sioux War of 1876 – 77 was sparked when American miners discovered gold in the Black Hills of western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming . These lands were originally set aside for Native American use by the Treaty of Fort La... |
17.379732131958008 159 WikiText2 |
20561 = = Dam @-@ building era = = |
1608.9744873046875 10 WikiText2 |
20562 In the late 19th and early 20th centuries , a great number of dams were built along the course of the Missouri , transforming 35 percent of the river into a chain of reservoirs . River development was stimulated by a variety of factors , first by growing demand for electricity in the rural northwestern parts of ... |
27.505104064941406 119 WikiText2 |
20563 Between 1890 and 1940 , five dams were built in the vicinity of Great Falls to generate power from the Great Falls of the Missouri , a chain of giant waterfalls formed by the river in its path through western Montana . Black Eagle Dam , built in 1891 on Black Eagle Falls , was the first dam of the Missouri . Rep... |
34.44700241088867 139 WikiText2 |
20564 In the same period , several private establishments – most notably the Montana Power Company – began to develop the Missouri River above Great Falls and below Helena for power generation . A small run @-@ of @-@ the river structure completed in 1898 near the present site of Canyon Ferry Dam became the second dam... |
78.79641723632812 157 WikiText2 |
20565 Holter Dam , about 45 miles ( 72 km ) downstream of Helena , was the third hydroelectric dam built on this stretch of the Missouri River . When completed in 1918 by the Montana Power Company and the United Missouri River Power Company , its reservoir flooded the Gates of the Mountains , a limestone canyon which ... |
63.0950813293457 168 WikiText2 |
20566 " [ The Missouri 's temperament was ] uncertain as the actions of a jury or the state of a woman 's mind . " – Sioux City Register , March 28 , 1868 |
167.6294708251953 34 WikiText2 |
20567 The Missouri basin suffered a series of catastrophic floods around the turn of the 20th century , most notably in 1844 , 1881 , and 1926 – 1927 . In 1940 , as part of the Great Depression @-@ era New Deal , the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ( USACE ) completed Fort Peck Dam in Montana . Construction of this massi... |
37.30344009399414 161 WikiText2 |
20568 Flooding damages on the Mississippi – Missouri river system were one of the primary reasons for which Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1944 , opening the way for the USACE to develop the Missouri on a massive scale . The 1944 act authorized the Pick – Sloan Missouri Basin Program ( Pick – Sloan Plan ) , ... |
54.76988220214844 121 WikiText2 |
20569 In the early stages of Pick – Sloan development , tentative plans were made to build a low dam on the Missouri at Riverdale , North Dakota and 27 smaller dams on the Yellowstone River and its tributaries . This was met with controversy from inhabitants of the Yellowstone basin , and eventually the USBR proposed ... |
48.75575256347656 185 WikiText2 |
20570 The six dams of the Mainstem System , chiefly Fort Peck , Garrison and Oahe , are among the largest dams in the world by volume ; their sprawling reservoirs also rank within the biggest of the nation . Holding up to 74 @.@ 1 million acre feet ( 91 @.@ 4 km3 ) in total , the six reservoirs can store more than thr... |
42.417964935302734 219 WikiText2 |
20571 The table at left lists statistics of all fifteen dams on the Missouri River , ordered downstream . Many of the run @-@ of @-@ the @-@ river dams on the Missouri ( marked in yellow ) form very small impoundments which may or may not have been given names ; those unnamed are left blank . All dams are on the upper... |
77.44244384765625 92 WikiText2 |
20572 = = Navigation = = |
1547.796142578125 5 WikiText2 |
20573 " [ Missouri River shipping ] never achieved its expectations . Even under the very best of circumstances , it was never a huge industry . " ~ Richard Opper , former Missouri River Basin Association executive director |
120.04362487792969 38 WikiText2 |
20574 Boat travel on the Missouri started with the wood @-@ framed canoes and bull boats of the Native Americans , which were used for thousands of years before the introduction of larger craft to the river upon colonization of the Great Plains . The first steamboat on the Missouri was the Independence , which started... |
59.73064422607422 124 WikiText2 |
20575 During the early 19th century , at the height of the fur trade , steamboats and keelboats began traveling nearly the whole length of the Missouri from Montana 's rugged Missouri Breaks to the mouth , carrying beaver and buffalo furs to and from the areas that the trappers frequented . This resulted in the develo... |
33.546043395996094 90 WikiText2 |
20576 Water transport increased through the 1850s with multiple craft ferrying pioneers , emigrants and miners ; many of these runs were from St. Louis or Independence to near Omaha . There , most of these people would set out overland along the large but shallow and unnavigable Platte River , which was described by p... |
56.8782844543457 143 WikiText2 |
20577 The industry 's success , however , did not guarantee safety . In the early decades before the river 's flow was controlled by man , its sketchy rises and falls and its massive amounts of sediment , which prevented a clear view of the bottom , wrecked some 300 vessels . Because of the dangers of navigating the M... |
38.858333587646484 138 WikiText2 |
20578 = = = Passage to Sioux City = = = |
350.4425048828125 10 WikiText2 |
20579 Since the beginning of the 20th century , the Missouri River has been extensively engineered for water transport purposes , and about 32 percent of the river now flows through artificially straightened channels . In 1912 , the USACE was authorized to maintain the Missouri to a depth of six feet ( 1 @.@ 8 m ) fro... |
25.800758361816406 197 WikiText2 |
20580 Construction of dams on the Missouri under the Pick @-@ Sloan Plan in the mid @-@ twentieth century was the final step in aiding navigation . The large reservoirs of the Mainstem System help provide a dependable flow to maintain the navigation channel year @-@ round , and are capable of halting most of the river... |
109.69307708740234 115 WikiText2 |
20581 In 1945 , the USACE began the Missouri River Bank Stabilization and Navigation Project , which would permanently increase the river 's navigation channel to a width of 300 feet ( 91 m ) and a depth of nine feet ( 2 @.@ 7 m ) . During work that continues to this day , the 735 @-@ mile ( 1 @,@ 183 km ) navigation ... |
41.61391067504883 166 WikiText2 |
20582 In 1929 , the Missouri River Navigation Commission estimated the total amount of goods shipped on the river annually at 15 million tons ( 13 @.@ 6 million metric tons ) , providing widespread consensus for the creation of a navigation channel . However , shipping traffic has since been far lower than expected – ... |
69.56100463867188 93 WikiText2 |
20583 By tonnage of transported material , Missouri is by far the largest user of the river accounting for 83 percent of river traffic , while Kansas has 12 percent , Nebraska three percent and Iowa two percent . Almost all of the barge traffic on the Missouri River ships sand and gravel dredged from the lower 500 mil... |
41.557804107666016 83 WikiText2 |
20584 = = = Traffic decline = = = |
348.7569885253906 8 WikiText2 |
20585 Tonnage of goods shipped by barges on the Missouri River has seen a serious decline from the 1960s to the present . In the 1960s , the USACE predicted an increase to 12 million short tons ( 11 Mt ) per year by 2000 , but instead the opposite has happened . The amount of goods plunged from 3 @.@ 3 million short t... |
27.956758499145508 173 WikiText2 |
20586 Drought conditions in the early 21st century and competition from other modes of transport – mainly railroads – are the primary reason for decreasing river traffic on the Missouri . The failure of the USACE to consistently maintain the navigation channel has also hampered the industry . Currently , efforts are b... |
71.71078491210938 181 WikiText2 |
20587 There are no lock and dams on the lower Missouri River , but there are plenty of wing dams that jettie out into the river and make it harder for barges to navigate . In contrast , the upper Mississippi has 29 locks and dams and averaged 61 @.@ 3 million tons of cargo annually from 2008 to 2011 , and its locks ar... |
62.94221878051758 71 WikiText2 |
20588 = = Ecology = = |
753.7686157226562 5 WikiText2 |
20589 = = = Natural history = = = |
156.796875 8 WikiText2 |
20590 Historically , the thousands of square miles that comprised the floodplain of the Missouri River supported a wide range of plant and animal species . Biodiversity generally increased proceeding downstream from the cold , subalpine headwaters in Montana to the temperate , moist climate of Missouri . Today , the r... |
28.916706085205078 175 WikiText2 |
20591 The World Wide Fund For Nature divides the Missouri River watershed into three freshwater ecoregions : the Upper Missouri , Lower Missouri and Central Prairie . The Upper Missouri , roughly encompassing the area within Montana , Wyoming , southern Alberta and Saskatchewan , and North Dakota , comprises mainly se... |
26.142078399658203 213 WikiText2 |
20592 = = = Human impacts = = = |
284.4485168457031 8 WikiText2 |
20593 Since the beginning of river commerce and industrial development in the 1800s , the Missouri has been severely polluted and its water quality degraded by human activity . Most of the river 's floodplain habitat is long gone , replaced by irrigated agricultural land . Development of the floodplain has led to incr... |
27.274574279785156 187 WikiText2 |
20594 Channelization of the lower Missouri waters has made the river narrower , deeper and less accessible to riparian flora and fauna . Numerous dams and bank stabilization projects have been constructed to facilitate the conversion of 300 @,@ 000 acres ( 1 @,@ 200 km2 ) of Missouri River floodplain to agricultural l... |
40.02372741699219 121 WikiText2 |
20595 The USACE began work on ecosystem restoration projects along the lower Missouri River in the early 21st century . Because of the low use of the shipping channel in the lower Missouri maintained by the USACE , it is now considered feasible to remove some of the levees , dikes , and wing dams that constrict the ri... |
51.02278137207031 92 WikiText2 |
20596 Restoration projects have re @-@ mobilized some of the sediments that had been trapped behind bank stabilization structures , prompting concerns of exacerbated nutrient and sediment pollution locally and downstream in the northern Gulf of Mexico . A 2010 National Research Council report assessed the roles of sed... |
55.245872497558594 127 WikiText2 |
20597 = = Tourism and recreation = = |
850.2076416015625 7 WikiText2 |
20598 With over 1 @,@ 500 sq mi ( 3 @,@ 900 km2 ) of open water , the six reservoirs of the Missouri River Mainstem System provide some of the main recreational areas within the basin . Visitation has increased from 10 million visitor @-@ hours in the mid @-@ 1960s to over 60 million visitor @-@ hours in 1990 . Develo... |
48.91253662109375 129 WikiText2 |
20599 The Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail , some 3 @,@ 700 miles ( 6 @,@ 000 km ) long , follows nearly the entire Missouri River from its mouth to its source , retracing the route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition . Extending from Wood River , Illinois , in the east , to Astoria , Oregon , in the west , it al... |
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