The headwaters of a river or stream is the farthest place in that river or stream from its estuary or downstream confluence with another river, as measured along the course of the river. It is also known as a river's source.
The Bitterroot Range is a mountain range and a subrange of the Rocky Mountains that runs along the border of Montana and Idaho in the northwestern United States. The range spans an area of 24,223 square miles (62,740 km2) and is named after the bitterroot, a small pink flower that is the state flower of Montana.
The Jefferson River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 83 miles (134 km) long, in the U.S. state of Montana. The Jefferson River and the Madison River form the official beginning of the Missouri at Missouri Headwaters State Park near Three Forks. It is joined 0.6 miles (1.0 km) downstream (northeast) by the Gallatin.
Cow Creek is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 35 miles (56 km) long, in north central Montana in the United States. Cow Creek rises in the southern foothills of the Bear Paw Mountains in western Blaine County and flows east and then south, joining the Missouri approximately 25 air miles (40 km) northeast of Winifred, Montana—or 22 miles (35 km) upstream from the Fred Robinson Bridge.
Mount Jefferson is a mountain located on the Continental Divide between Fremont County of northeastern Idaho and Beaverhead County of southwestern Montana. Mount Jefferson is the highest point of the Centennial Mountains, whose crest runs along the Continental Divide and can be climbed using a class 2 route (scramble) from the access road to neighboring Sawtell Peak.
Fort Peck Lake, or Lake Fort Peck, is a major reservoir in Montana, formed by the Fort Peck Dam on the Missouri River. The lake lies in the eastern prairie region of Montana approximately 140 miles (230 km) east of Great Falls and 120 miles (190 km) north of Billings, reaching into portions of six counties.
Brower's Spring is a spring in the Centennial Mountains of Beaverhead County Montana that was marked by a surveyor in 1888 as the ultimate headwaters of the Missouri River and thus the fourth longest river in the world, the 3,902-mile (6,280 km)-long Mississippi-Missouri River.
Missouri Headwaters State Park is a Montana state park that marks the official start of the Missouri River. It includes the Three Forks of the Missouri National Historic Landmark, designated in 1960 because the site is one where the Lewis and Clark Expedition camped in 1805. The park is open for day use and camping, offering hiking trails, hunting, and water-related activities. It is located on Trident Road northeast of Three Forks, Montana at an elevation of 4,045 feet (1,233 m).
Jacob Vandenberg Brower (1844–1905) was a prolific writer of the Upper Midwest region of the United States who championed the location and protection of the utmost headwaters of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.
The Red Rock River is a roughly 70-mile (110 km) river in southwestern Montana in the United States. Its drainage basin covers over 1,548 square miles (4,010 km2). Its furthest tributary, Hell Roaring Creek, originates in the Beaverhead National Forest within a few hundred meters of the North American Continental Divide and Montana-Idaho border near Brower's Spring, at an elevation of about 9,100 feet (2,800 m). Brower's Spring is near the furthest headwaters of the Missouri River, one of the major watercourses of the central United States.
Roaring River Township is one of twenty-five townships in Barry County, Missouri, United States. As of the 2000 census, its population was 1,396.
Cow Island lies in a left turning bend of the Missouri River, in the area known as the Missouri River Breaks. The island is formed by sediments that are seasonally washed out from the mouths of Cow Creek and Bull Creek, which enter the Missouri River just upstream from Cow Island. The island is about 1.2 miles long and averages about 150 yards in width. It is located in extreme northern Fergus County, but lies across the river from extreme southern Blaine County, to its east.
Cat Creek is an unincorporated community in eastern Petroleum County, Montana, United States.
The basin that held Pleistocene Lake Musselshell is in the lower (north-flowing) reach of the river. It is underlain mostly by highly erodible Cretaceous Colorado shale, Montana group sandstone, siltstone and shale, and Hell Creek sandstone and shale. The bedrock is gently folded and affected by local faults and joints. There is a sequence of nine terraces and more than 100 glacial boulders. The terraces are older than the erratics as the erratics rest on the terraces.
