The Missouri River is a little too thick “ to swim in and not quite thick enough to walk on. Thomas Hart Benton, American painter The Big Muddy ” and U.S. Senator from Missouri

States. The Missouri River What is a watershed includes parts of Watershed? 10 states and two Canadian A Big Muddy History provinces. The river itself The name “Missouri,” in Missouri River, A watershed includes all touches seven states: comes from a Native American tribe that lived of the land that drains into Montana, North Dakota, along the river. The name means “People of the the same river. It acts like South Dakota, Nebraska, Big Canoes” because the tribe used massive a giant bowl. We all live in Iowa, Kansas and Missouri. “dugout” canoes made from cottonwood a watershed. If it rains in The Missouri River is logs. The state was named after the your backyard, that water 2,341 miles long, making river. The river’s nickname is “The Big will eventually drain into it the longest river in North Muddy,” because of all the dirt and sand a stream, and then a river. America. that the river brings along with it, which Your watershed is named All of the Missouri River gives it a chocolate color. The Missouri after the biggest river that Watershed is also part of the ends in the confluence of the Missouri and rain will drain into. Mississippi River watershed Mississippi rivers near St. Louis. The Missouri River because the Missouri River The first white American explorers watershed is 1/6 of the area flows into the “Mighty and rivers in this watershed state of Louisiana into the to travel the length of the Missouri of the continental United Miss.” All of the streams eventually flow through the Gulf of Mexico. River were Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, along with their crew called the Corps of Discovery. It took Missouri River Facts Trashing our River them 14 months to get up the river to Three Forks, Montana, where the Missouri River > 40% of Missouri residents get Fishermen or other people hanging out along the river leave starts. their drinking water from the One Missourian Uses some of the trash in the Missouri River. Some gets dumped in A boat can’t float from the beginning of the Missouri River. One Hundred Gallons the river by people too lazy to dispose of it properly. But most > In Missouri, 80 percent of concrete or 832 Lbs. of it washes in from other rivers and streams that drain into the Missouri River to the end anymore because of Water a Day! there are 15 dams along the river. Six of those is made from Missouri River sand. Missouri River. dams create huge “reservoirs” or lakes that help > The “Big Muddy” is less muddy Any piece of trash from any street or yard in your town can get control floods on the river and store water for than it used to be. The river carries blown or washed into a storm drain or stream. All of that ends dry years. 1/4 of the sediment (sand and mud) up draining into the big river. The river also has been straightened, or that it did naturally. That sediment is now There are no government agencies that regularly clean trash “channelized,” to keep it from moving around trapped behind dams. from the Missouri River. It is up to local communities to clean and to make it easier for barges to use the river. > The Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is required to their rivers. Today the river is 72 miles shorter than it was manage the Missouri River for 8 purposes: Navigation, Since 2001, Missouri River Relief has hosted 104 river when Lewis and Clark traveled it. Flood Control, Water Supply, Water Quality, Fish and cleanups in 22 communities, working with 17,000 Wildlife, Recreation, Irrigation and Hydropower. volunteers to remove 718 tons of trash from the > The Missouri River is about 1/3 as wide as banks of the Missouri River. That’s almost it was. Channelization created new farm 1-½ million pounds of junk land but destroyed many thousands of that doesn’t belong there! acres of habitat for birds, fish and wildlife. The USACE is now working to restore some of the islands and wetlands that fish and wildlife need.

Just a few things Missouri River Relief volunteers removed from the river just last year! You Can Help! 364 Tires 1 Hula Hoop 1 5 gal. Jug of Insecticide 10 Refrigerators 2 Hockey Sticks 1 Oil Drum You can help the Missouri River by 19 Propane Tanks 100+ Balls (Soccer, Football, Basketball, Tennis) 1 Computer Hard Drive Tower cleaning up your neighborhood or your 30 55 gal. Plastic Barrels 1 Basketball Goal 1 Hot Tub favorite stream. You can even adopt your 21 55 gal. Metal Drums 1 Lawn Mower 25 Lottery “scratcher” Tickets – scratched favorite stream by starting a Missouri 34 5 gal. Plastic Buckets 2 Shopping Carts Thousands of Styrofoam cups, straws, Stream Team. (www.mostreamteam.org) 1 500 gallon Metal Diesel Tank 1 plastic Step Ladder bottles & plastic bags 36 Chairs 2 inflatable Swimming Pools To learn more about Missouri River 13 TVs 1 5 gal. Plastic Bucket with Poison An “Official” Message in a Bottle from Fort Relief, visit www.riverrelief.org Morgan, Colo. This Newspaper In Education feature brought to you by this newspaper, Missouri River Relief and the Missouri Press Association