Missouri River 
The Missouri River is a tributary of
the Mississippi River in the
United States. The Missouri begins at the confluence of
the
Madison,
Jefferson, and
Gallatin rivers in
Montana, and flows into the Mississippi north of
St. Louis, Missouri. At 2,341 mi (3,767 km)[1]
in length, it drains approximately one-sixth of the
North American continent. Depending on whether its
length is reckoned from the headwaters of its sources (as
the Mississippi's length is reckoned from
Lake Itasca,
Minnesota), or from their confluence where the Missouri
is first so-named (at
Three Forks, Montana), it is currently either the
longest or second-longest river in the United States.
Prior
to the
Pick-Sloan Program and
channelization, it was unquestionably the longest river
in the US. The combined Missouri-Mississippi river system is
the
third longest river in the world. According to
statements from the Army Corps of Engineers, in an
average year, the Missouri River provides about 45 percent
of the flow of the Mississippi past St. Louis. The mean flow
of the Missouri at its mouth is approximately 35,000 cfs,
compared to 47,000 cfs of the Mississippi below the Illinois
River, which joins about 17 miles north of the confluence
(ref.?). Its volume on average is also less than that of the
Ohio River, another tributary of the Mississippi.
(Source by
Wikipedia)
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