longest river

American Agriculture History Minute: Longest River in the U. S.

DanAmerican Agriculture History Minute, This Land of Ours

longest river
Historic railroad Katy Bridge over Missouri River at Boonville with a lifted midsection and visitor observation deck
DepositPhotos image

I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute.

American Agriculture History Minute: Longest River in the U. S.

Many people assume the longest river in the U.S. is the Mississippi, but that title belongs to the Missouri and part of American agriculture history.

Rising from the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Montana, the Missouri flows east and south for 2,341 miles before entering the Mississippi north of St. Louis. The river drains a sparsely populated area of more than 500,000 square miles, which includes parts of 10 U.S. states. And although a tributary of the Mississippi, the Missouri is slightly longer and carries a comparable volume of water.

That’s today’s American Agriculture History Minute. I’m Mark Oppold. Thanks for reading. I’ll see you next time.