River · United States
Arkansas River
The Arkansas River starts high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and flows across the Great Plains of the USA. After about 2 364 km it joins the Mississippi in the state of Arkansas.
Picture credit: Frank Schulenburg (CC BY-SA 4.0) · USFWS/Southeast (Public domain) · Tony Webster (CC BY 2.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Arkansas River?
The river starts here: Sawatch Range of the Rocky Mountains near Leadville, Colorado.
It ends in the Mississippi River near Napoleon, Arkansas.
Countries on the river: the United States.
The story behind it
The Arkansas begins near the town of Leadville in Colorado, high up in the Sawatch Range. In the mountains it races through canyons, and many people ride its white water in rafts. In the Royal Gorge, near Cañon City, the river has cut a narrow canyon into solid granite, with walls more than 300 metres high. A bridge hangs high above the gorge; until 2001 it was the highest suspension bridge in the world. Then the river flows out onto the flat Great Plains. By 1910, so much of its water was taken for fields in Colorado that the river stopped flowing in July and August. In much of Kansas, people even say its name differently: «ar-KAN-zas», like the state of Kansas. Further on, it passes Wichita, Tulsa and Little Rock. From near Muskogee in Oklahoma, big cargo boats can travel on it all the way to the Mississippi.
Questions children ask
How long is the Arkansas River?
The Arkansas River is about 2 364 km long; some sources give about 2 350 km. It is the second-longest tributary in the Mississippi–Missouri river system.
Which states does the Arkansas River flow through?
It flows through four US states: Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Cities along the way include Pueblo, Wichita, Tulsa, Fort Smith and Little Rock.
Why do some people say «ar-KAN-zas»?
In much of Kansas, people pronounce the river's name like the word Kansas, with an «s» at the end. In the state of Arkansas, the name is said «AR-kən-saw».
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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