Missouri Headwaters State Park

Significant dates

Three Forks of the Missouri
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Confluence of Madison and Jefferson
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Location	Gallatin County, Montana
Nearest city	Three Forks, Montana
Coordinates	45°55′15″N 111°29′53″W / 45.9207°N 111.4980°W / 45.9207; -111.4980Coordinates: 45°55′15″N 111°29′53″W / 45.9207°N 111.4980°W / 45.9207; -111.4980
Built	1805
NRHP Reference #	66000433^[1]
Added to NRHP	October 15, 1966
Designated NHL	October 9, 1960^[2]

Missouri Headwaters State Park is a Montana state park that marks the official start of the Missouri River. It includes the Three Forks of the Missouri National Historic Landmark.

It is located near Three Forks, Montana at an elevation of 4,045 feet (1,233 m).

The Missouri starts at the confluence of the Jefferson River and Madison River. It is joined about 0.6 mile down stream (northeast) by the Gallatin River.

Lewis and Clark visited the site on July 28, 1805. Meriwether Lewis in his journal entry wrote:

Both Capt. C. and myself corresponded in opinon with rispect(sic) to the impropriety of calling either of these [three] streams the Missouri and accordingly agreed to name them after the President of the United States and the Secretaries of the Treasury and State.

The Lewis and Clark decision not to call the Jefferson the Missouri has spurred debate over what is the longest river in North America since the Missouri and Mississippi are nearly identical in length. The Missouri traditionally had been called the longest river in North America. However, 72 miles of it have been trimmed off in re-channeling its streambed—mainly for the many hydroelectric power plants in the region— so that it is now sometimes referred as second to the Mississippi in terms of length. If the Jefferson were included in the Missouri length, it would technically still be considered the longest river by the USGS experts.

The utmost headwaters of the Missouri are subject to debate but both locations ultimately drain into the Jefferson. Lewis on August 12, 1805 said he visited the headwaters on Trail Creek just above Lemhi Pass on the Continental Divide in the Beaverhead Mountains at around 8,600 feet which he described:

the most distant fountain of the waters of the mighty Missouri in surch(sic) of which we have spent so many toilsome days and wristless(sic) nights.

However in 1888 Jacob V. Brower, who had championed turning the headwaters of the Mississippi River into a Minnesota state park, visited another site which today is believed to be the furthest point on the Missouri—now called Brower's Spring. Brower published his finding in 1896 in "The Missouri: Its Utmost Source."

The site of Brower's Spring is at around 8,800 feet in the Centennial Mountains. The site is commemorated by a rock pile at the source of Hellroaring Creek which flows into Red Rock River and then into Clark Canyon Reservoir where it joins the Beaverhead then the Big Hole River before ultimately hooking up with the Jefferson.^[3]

References

↑ National Park Service (2007-01-23). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
↑ "Three Forks of the Missouri". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved 2007-06-28.
↑ The True Utmost Reaches of the Missouri - Montana Outdoors - July-August 2005

External links

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.gov: Official Missouri Headwaters State Park website

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Missouri River Headwaters State Park.

Protected areas of Montana

Federal

National Parks	Glacier Yellowstone

National Monuments	Little Bighorn Battlefield Pompeys Pillar (BLM) Upper Missouri River Breaks (BLM)

National Battlefield	Big Hole

National Historical Parks & Historic Sites	Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS Nez Perce NHP

National Historic & Scenic Trails	Lewis and Clark NHT Nez Perce NHT Continental Divide NST Pacific Northwest NST

National Recreation Area	Bighorn Canyon

National Wildlife Refuges	Benton Lake Black Coulee Bowdoin Charles M. Russell Creedman Coulee Hailstone Halfbreed Lake Hewitt Lake Lake Mason Lake Thibadeau Lamesteer Lee Metcalf Lost Trail Medicine Lake National Bison Range Ninepipe Pablo Red Rock Lakes Swan River UL Bend War Horse

National Forests	Beaverhead Bitterroot Custer Flathead Gallatin Helena Kootenai Lewis and Clark Lolo

National Wilderness	Absaroka-Beartooth Anaconda-Pintler Bear Trap Canyon Bob Marshall Cabinet Mountains Gates of the Mountains Great Bear Lee Metcalf Medicine Lake Mission Mountains Rattlesnake Red Rock Lakes Scapegoat Selway-Bitterroot UL Bend Welcome Creek

National Wild & Scenic Rivers	Flathead Missouri

State

State Parks	Ackley Lake Anaconda Smoke Stack Bannack Beaverhead Rock Beavertail Hill Big Arm Black Sandy Brush Lake Camp Baker Chief Plenty Coups Clark's Lookout Cooney Council Grove Eden Bridge Elkhorn Finley First Peoples Buffalo Jump Fort Owen Frenchtown Pond Giant Springs Granite Ghost Town Greycliff Prairie Dog Town Hell Creek Lake Elmo Lake Mary Ronan Lewis and Clark Logan Lone Pine Lost Creek Madison Buffalo Jump Makoshika Medicine Rocks Missouri Headwaters Painted Rocks Parker Homestead Pictograph Cave Pirogue Island Placid Lake Rosebud Battlefield Salmon Lake Sluice Boxes Smith River Spring Meadow Lake Thompson Falls Tongue River Reservoir Tower Rock Travelers' Rest Wayfarers West Shore Whitefish Lake Wild Horse Island Yellow Bay

State Forests	Clearwater Coal Creek Lincoln Lubrecht Experimental Forest Stillwater Sula Swan River Thompson River

Wildlife Management Areas	Amelia Island Aunt Molly Badlands Beartooth Beckman Big Lake Blackfoot-Clearwater Blackleaf Blue Eyed Nellie Bowdoin Buffalo Head Park Bull River Calf Creek Canyon Creek Canyon Ferry Dodson Creek Dodson Dam Dome Mountain Ear Mountain Elk Island F Island Flathead Lake Flathead River Fleecer Mountain Fox Lake Freezout Lake Fresno Reservoir Fresno Tailwater Gallatin Garrity Mountain Grant Marsh Gravelly-Blacktail Haymaker Hinsdale Horseshoe Lake Howard Valley Isaac Homestead Judith River Kootenai/Falls Kootenai/West Kootenai/Woods Ranch Lake Helena Lost Creek Lower Stillwater Lake Madison-Bear Creek Madison-Wall Creek Milk River Mount Haggin Mount Jumbo Mount Silcox Nevada Lake Ninepipe North Swan Valley CE Pablo Ray Kuhns Robb-Ledford Rookery Roundhom Sanders Seven Sisters Silver Gate Silver Run Smith River Sun River Swan Lake Thompson-Fisher CE Three Mile Threemile Vandalia War Dance Island Warm Springs

U.S. National Register of Historic Places

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