The Missouri River, Part 1: Geography, Ecology, and Human Impacts

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In this episode, we detour off the main channel of the Mississippi River to get to know its longest tributary: the Missouri River. Our guide for this exploration is Steve Schnarr, Race Director for Missouri River Relief. We covered a lot of territory (like the Missouri River), so our conversation is split between two episodes. In this one, part one, we cover some of the basics of the river’s geography, including where it begins and how long it is. Steve describes what we know of the ecology of the natural river, including where it picked up all the sediment it was so famous for. Steve describes the history of dam building on the Missouri River, why we did it, and how it impacted the Native American communities that lived along the river.