Powder River (Wyoming and Montana)
Powder River | |
A view of the Powder River in northern Wyoming
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Country | United States |
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States | Wyoming, Montana |
Tributaries | |
- left | Crazy Woman Creek, Clear Creek[disambiguation needed], Mizpah Creek |
- right | Wild Horse Creek, Little Powder River |
Source | Confluence of Middle Fork and North Fork |
- location | Near Kaycee, Wyoming |
- elevation | 4,564 ft (1,391 m) |
- coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. [1] |
Mouth | Yellowstone River |
- location | Near Terry, Montana |
- elevation | 2,241 ft (683 m) |
- coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. [1] |
Length | 375 mi (604 km) |
Basin | 21,875 sq mi (56,656 km2) |
Discharge | for Locate, MT |
- average | 558 cu ft/s (16 m3/s) |
- max | 31,000 cu ft/s (878 m3/s) |
- min | 0 cu ft/s (0 m3/s) |
Map of the Powder River basin
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Powder River (Apsáalooke: Chakadee Wakpa; Assiniboine: Caȟní wakpá [2]) is a tributary of the Yellowstone River, approximately 375 miles (604 km) long in northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana in the United States. It drains an area historically known as the Powder River Country on the high plains east of the Bighorn Mountains.
It rises in three forks in north central Wyoming. The North and Middle forks rise along the eastern slope of the Bighorn Mountains. The South Fork rises on the southern slopes of the Bighorn Mountains west of Casper. The three forks meet on the foothills east of the Bighorns near the town of Kaycee. The combined stream flows northward, east of the Bighorns, and into Montana. It is joined by the Little Powder near the town of Broadus, and joins the Yellowstone approximately 50 miles (80 km) downriver from Miles City, Montana. The Powder River was so named (in the English language as well as in local indigenous languages) because the sand along a portion of its banks resembles powder or dust.[3][4]
See also
- Powder River Country
- Fort McKinney (Wyoming)
- List of Wyoming rivers
- List of rivers of Montana
- Montana Stream Access Law
Notes
- All articles with links needing disambiguation
- Articles with links needing disambiguation from April 2014
- Pages with broken file links
- Geobox usage tracking for river type
- Rivers of Montana
- Rivers of Wyoming
- Landforms of Prairie County, Montana
- Landforms of Custer County, Montana
- Tributaries of the Yellowstone River
- Landforms of Johnson County, Wyoming