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Arikaree River

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Template:Geobox The Arikaree River is a 156-mile-long (251 km)[1] river in the central Great Plains of North America. A tributary of the Republican River, most of its length lies in the American state of Colorado.[2]

Name

The river is named after the indigenous Arikara people.[3] The word "Arikaree" refers to "horn".[4]

Geography

The source of the Arikaree River is in extreme eastern Elbert County, Colorado on the western edge of the High Plains region of the Great Plains.[2][5] From there, the river flows generally northeast across the High Plains in eastern Colorado. It then crosses the extreme northwestern corner of Kansas before entering far southwestern Nebraska. At the town of Haigler, the Arikaree joins with the North Fork Republican River to form the Republican River.[2]

The point where the Arikaree River flows out of Yuma County, Colorado and into Cheyenne County, Kansas, located at 39°58′41″N 102°03′06″W / 39.97806°N 102.05167°W / 39.97806; -102.05167, is the lowest point in Colorado at an elevation of 3,317 feet (1,011 m). It holds the distinction of being the highest low point of any U.S. state, higher than the highest points of 18 states and the District of Columbia.[6]

History

Along the river is the site of the 1868 Battle of Beecher Island.

See also

References

  1. ^ "National Hydrography Dataset". National Hydrography Dataset. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
  2. ^ a b c "Colorado [Map]" (PDF). Colorado Department of Transportation. Retrieved 2015-12-04.
  3. ^ Dawson, John Frank (1954). Place names in Colorado: why 700 communities were so named, 150 of Spanish or Indian origin. Denver, CO: The J. Frank Dawson Publishing Co. p. 7.
  4. ^ Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States (PDF). p. 28.
  5. ^ "Physiographic Provinces of Colorado". Colorado Geological Survey. Retrieved 2015-12-04.
  6. ^ U.S. Geological Survey. "Elevations and Distances". Archived from the original on 31 August 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-08. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

External links