Republican River | |
---|---|
Location | |
Country | United States |
States | Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado |
Physical characteristics | |
Source confluence | |
• location | Haigler, Nebraska |
• coordinates | 40°01′12″N101°56′16″W / 40.02000°N 101.93778°W [2] |
• elevation | 3,253 ft (992 m) |
Mouth | Kansas River |
• location | Junction City, Kansas |
• coordinates | 39°03′36″N96°48′05″W / 39.06000°N 96.80139°W [2] |
• elevation | 1,043 ft (318 m) |
Length | 453 mi (729 km) |
Basin size | 24,900 sq mi (64,000 km2) |
Discharge | |
• location | Junction City about 3 mi (4.8 km) above the mouth [3] |
• average | 848 cu ft/s (24.0 m3/s) |
• minimum | 3.2 cu ft/s (0.091 m3/s) |
• maximum | 33,300 cu ft/s (940 m3/s) |
Basin features | |
Tributaries | |
• left | North Fork Republican River, Frenchman Creek, Red Willow Creek, Medicine Creek |
• right | Arikaree River, South Fork Republican River, Sappa Creek, Prairie Dog Creek, White Rock Creek |
Watersheds | Republican-Kansas-Missouri-Mississippi |
The Republican River is a river in the central Great Plains of North America, rising in the High Plains of eastern Colorado and flowing east 453 miles (729 km) [4] through the U.S. states of Nebraska and Kansas.
The Republican River is formed by the confluence of the North Fork Republican River and the Arikaree River just north of Haigler in Dundy County, Nebraska. It joins with the South Fork Republican River immediately southeast of Benkelman, Nebraska. All three tributaries originate in the High Plains of northeastern Colorado. [5] [6] [7] From the confluence, the river flows generally eastward along the southern border of Nebraska, passing through Swanson Reservoir and Harlan County Reservoir before curving southward into the Smoky Hills region of Kansas. The Republican River joins the Smoky Hill River at Junction City, Kansas to form the Kansas River.
Some cities along the river are McCook, Nebraska, Clay Center, Kansas, Concordia, Kansas and Junction City, Kansas. Near Concordia is the Republican River Pegram Truss, a bridge that goes over the Republican River that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The river was named after a branch of Pawnee Indians known as "the Republicans". [8]
As early as 1785, the Spanish and French had identified one of the villages of the Pawnee people as aldea de la Republica (little village of the Republic). A French traders' custom was to name rivers for the tribal villages located on their banks. [9] In this way, the north fork of the Kansas River was named Fourche des Republiques or Fork of the Republics. [1]
The Kitkehahkis Pawnee villages farmed corn, beans, and pumpkin in the fertile Republican valley floor but seasonally left to hunt buffalo in the plains to the west and south. [9]
The Kitkehahkis, or Republican Pawnee, occasionally abandoned and relocated various villages along the Republican River. In 1806, first the Spanish and then the Americans journeyed to the large Kitkehahkis village on Republican River, the Pike-Pawnee Village Site then near the present Guide Rock, Nebraska. Both parties were seeking the tribe's assistance in enforcing competing claims to the Louisiana Territory. Leading the much smaller American expedition, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike convinced the Kitkehahkis to accept the American Flag in place of the Spanish.
In 1853, Fort Riley was established at the junction of the Republican with the Smoky Hill and Kansas Rivers. American settlement of the lower Republican River in began in the 1860s. [10]
Prior to 1864, the Kansas River was publicly navigable under Kansas law. A side-wheel steamboat of 125 tons burden, Financier No. 2, reached the Republican River in 1855 and ascended it some 40 miles. [11] However, in 1864, railroad interests passed a bill through the Kansas Legislature entitled, "An act declaring the Kansas, Republican, Smoky Hill, Solomon, and Big Blue rivers not navigable, and authorizing the bridging of the same." Railroads were thus permitted to bridge or dam the Republican as if it were never declared navigable. [12]
The Kansas Pacific Railway reached the fork of the Republican in 1866, crossing into the Junction City town site. The Junction City and Fort Kearney Railroad was constructed up the valley of the Republican to Clay Center in 1873. [13]
The 1864 law was repealed in 1913; [16] however, under Kansas Law, public access, whether for transport or recreation, is permitted only on publicly owned rivers. The State of Kansas owns only the Kansas and Arkansas Rivers as well as the portion of the Missouri River adjoining the northeastern corner of the state. [17] As such, the limit of public river access is at the mouth of the Republican River. A public boat access ramp was opened on the mouth of the Republican River in 2009 just upstream of the railroad bridge, [18] providing access to the upper end of the Kansas River National Water Trail, a part of the National Water Trail program. [19]
Milford Lake, the largest man-made lake in Kansas, was completed on the Republican in 1967.
Allocation of the water from the Republican River is governed through an agreement called the Republican River Compact, involving the states of Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado, as modified by the settlement [20] of a United States Supreme Court case (Kansas vs. Nebraska and Colorado) involving a water-use dispute under the Compact. [21]
On July 9, 1902, the river flooded near Concordia, Kansas, breaking a dam and re-routing the river by a quarter-mile (about half a kilometer). [22]
The storm of May 31 and June 1, 1935, (called "Nebraska's Deadliest Flood") dumped an average rainfall of 9 inches (230 mm) on the river's watershed. This storm was also unique in that it moved in the same direction as the drainage basin. As a result, the Frenchman, Red Willow, Medicine, Deer, Muddy, and Turkey creeks all reached their flood peaks at the same time as the crest passed on the Republican River.
According to witness accounts, the roar of the water could be heard coming down the Republican Valley 5 miles (8 km) away. Many survivors also reported that there were two crests - the water came up on May 28, then receded slightly, but the second crest on June 1 greatly exceeded the first. At one point, the water rose 6 feet (1.8 m) in 30 minutes and was 10 to 15 feet (3 to 5 m) higher than the previous record crest. One eyewitness said the water level rose in some places at 10 miles per hour or more. [23] Another account states that the Republican rose 10 feet (3 m) in 12 minutes in McCook, destroying the structures in its path. Water was 20 feet (6 m) deep in some places, and the discharge was 280,000 cubic feet per second (7,900 m3/s), more than 320 times the normal flow today.
Estimates show 113 people killed. From 11,400 to 41,500 head of cattle were killed; one report said that carcasses littering the roads made them impassable. A total of 341 miles (549 km) of highway and 307 bridges were destroyed, and 74,500 acres (301 km2) of farmland were inundated. [24]
The Missouri River is the longest river in the United States. Rising in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Mountains of southwestern Montana, the Missouri flows east and south for 2,341 miles (3,767 km) before entering the Mississippi River north of St. Louis, Missouri. The river drains semi-arid watershed of more than 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 km2), which includes parts of ten U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. Although a tributary of the Mississippi, the Missouri River is slightly longer and carries a comparable volume of water. When combined with the lower Mississippi River, it forms the world's fourth-longest river system.
The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/Mountain West. Its drainage basin includes much of the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, much of the populated region known as the Colorado Front Range and Eastern Plains, and a portion of southeastern Wyoming in the vicinity of the city of Cheyenne. It joins the North Platte River in western Nebraska to form the Platte, which then flows across Nebraska to the Missouri. The river serves as the principal source of water for eastern Colorado. In its valley along the foothills in Colorado, it has permitted agriculture in an area of the Colorado Piedmont and Great Plains that is otherwise arid.
Cheyenne County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. The county population was 1,748 at 2020 census. The county seat is Cheyenne Wells.
The Kansas River, also known as the Kaw, is a meandering prairie river in northeastern Kansas in the United States. It is the southwesternmost part of the Missouri River drainage, which is in turn the northwesternmost portion of the extensive Mississippi River drainage. Its two names both come from the Kanza (Kaw) people who once inhabited the area; Kansas was one of the anglicizations of the French transcription Cansez of the original kką:ze. The city of Kansas City, Missouri, was named for the river, as was later the state of Kansas.
The Smoky Hill River is a 575-mile (925 km) river in the central Great Plains of North America, running through Colorado and Kansas.
The Platte River is a major river in the State of Nebraska. It is about 310 mi (500 km) long; measured to its farthest source via its tributary, the North Platte River, it flows for over 1,050 miles (1,690 km). The Platte River is a tributary of the Missouri River, which itself is a tributary of the Mississippi River which flows to the Gulf of Mexico. The Platte over most of its length is a broad, shallow, meandering stream with a sandy bottom and many islands—a braided stream.
The Arikaree River is a 156-mile-long (251 km) river in the central Great Plains of North America. It lies mostly in the American state of Colorado, draining land between the North and South Forks of the Republican River, and it flows into the North Fork in Nebraska after flowing a short distance through Kansas. It is a designated area within the Colorado Natural Areas Program to protect native and uncommon species that may be endangered or threatened.
The Smoky Hills are an upland region of hills in the central Great Plains of North America. They are located in the Midwestern United States, encompassing north-central Kansas and a small portion of south-central Nebraska.
The Battle of Beecher Island, also known as the Battle of Arikaree Fork, was an armed conflict between elements of the United States Army and several of the Plains Native American tribes in September 1868. Beecher Island, on the Arikaree River, then known as part of the North Fork of the Republican River, near present-day Wray, Colorado, was named afterwards for Lieutenant Fredrick H. Beecher, an army officer killed during the battle.
The Solomon River, often referred to as the "Solomon Fork", is a 184-mile-long (296 km) river in the central Great Plains of North America. The entire length of the river lies in the U.S. state of Kansas. It is a tributary of the Smoky Hill River.
The Saline River is a 397-mile-long (639 km) tributary of the Smoky Hill River in the central Great Plains of North America. The entire length of the river lies in the U.S. state of Kansas in the northwest part of the state. Its name comes from the French translation of its Native name Ne Miskua, referring to its salty content.
Boulder Creek is a 31.4-mile-long (50.5 km) creek draining the Rocky Mountains to the west of Boulder, Colorado, as well as the city itself and surrounding plains.
The North Fork Republican River is a 55.4-mile-long (89.2 km) tributary of the Republican River. It flows eastward from a source in Yuma County, Colorado to just north of Haigler in Dundy County, Nebraska. There it joins with the Arikaree River to form the Republican River.
The South Fork Republican River is a river that arises in Lincoln County, Colorado, United States, and flows east-northeastward for about 171 miles (275 km) through Kit Carson and Yuma Counties, Colorado, and Cheyenne County, Kansas, to a confluence with the Republican River in Dundy County, Nebraska. Bonny Reservoir is located on the South Fork Republican River in Yuma County, Colorado.
Milford Lake, also known as Milford Reservoir, is the largest man-made lake in Kansas with 15,700 acres (64 km2) of water. Over 33,000 acres (130 km2) of land resources are managed for quality recreational experiences as well as for protection of the project’s natural and cultural resources. Approximately 70% of the land resources are available for public hunting.
The Pawnee Indian Museum State Historic Site, designated by the Smithsonian trinomial 14RP1, is an archaeological site and museum located near the city of Republic in the state of Kansas in the Midwestern United States. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places under the name Pawnee Indian Village Site.
Guide Rock, whose Pawnee name is Pa-hur or Pahur, is a hill in south central Nebraska in the United States. In the traditional Pawnee religion, it was one of five dwelling places of spirit animals with miraculous powers.
The North Fork Smoky Hill River is a river in the central Great Plains of North America. A tributary of the Smoky Hill River, it flows from eastern Colorado into western Kansas.
Yocemento is an unincorporated community in Big Creek Township, Ellis County, Kansas, United States. The settlement lies across the banks of Big Creek against the base of bluffs capped by massive limestone blocks, in which lies the 20th-century origin of the community.