Kansas River

The Kansas River, also known as the Kaw, is a river in northeastern Kansas in the United States. It is the southwestern-most part of the Missouri River drainage, which is in turn the northwestern-most portion of the extensive Mississippi River drainage. Its two names both come from the Kanza (Kaw) people who once inhabited the area; Kansas was one of the anglicizations of the French transcription Cansez () of the original  kką:ze.  The city of Kansas City, Missouri, was named for the river, as was later the state of Kansas.

The river valley averages  in width, with the widest points being between Wamego and Rossville, where it is up to  wide, then narrowing to  or less in places below Eudora and De Soto. Much of the river's watershed is dammed for flood control, but the Kansas River is generally free-flowing and has only minor obstructions, including diversion weirs and one low-impact hydroelectric dam.

Course
Beginning at the confluence of the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers, just east of aptly named Junction City (), the Kansas River flows some  generally eastward to join the Missouri River at Kaw Point () in Kansas City. Dropping  on its journey seaward, the water in the Kansas River falls less than . The Kansas River valley is only  long; the surplus length of the river is due to meandering across the floodplain. The river's course roughly follows the maximum extent of a Pre-Illinoian glaciation, and the river likely began as a path of glacial meltwater drainage.

Drainage

The Kansas drains  of land in Kansas (almost all of the northern half), along with  in Nebraska and  in Colorado, making a total of just over . When including the Republican River and its headwater tributaries, the Kansas River system has a length of , making it the 21st longest river system in the United States. Its highest headwaters are at about  and extend nearly to Limon, Colorado. Much of the drainage of the river lies within the Great Plains, but the river itself exists entirely within the Mid Continent Region. The majority of the rest of the state is drained by the Arkansas (and its tributaries, the Neosho, Cimarron, and Verdigris, all three of which drain into the Arkansas in Oklahoma). A portion of central-eastern Kansas is drained by the Marais des Cygnes River, which flows into Missouri to meet the Missouri River.  A small area in the extreme northeast part of the state drains directly into the Missouri. In the Kansas City metro area, some streams drain east into the Blue River tributary of the Missouri.

Geology
The Kansas River flows through what is known as the Stable Interior region. Since this region is near the center of the North American Plate, it has not experienced any extensive geologic faulting, folding, or mountain building in recent geologic time. The river flows through limestone and shale strata that, except for diagenesis, remain largely undisturbed since deposition beneath the Western Interior Seaway. The age of the rock exposed by the river becomes progressively older as the river moves downstream for two main reasons. First, downstream areas experience more erosion from increased flow, and second because the slight uplift of the Ozark dome to the southeast caused the strata in Kansas to dip very slightly to the west.

All of the rocks in the area are sedimentary, ranging from Late Pennsylvanian (300 million years ago) to recent, with three minor exceptions. The first is sand and gravel brought down from the Rocky Mountains which have settled in the western extents of the Kansas River basin. Second, the retreat of the Kansan glaciation left behind a combination of ice- and meltwater-deposited sediments known as drifta, a poorly sorted mixture of clay, sand, gravel, and even large boulders that cover parts of the extreme eastern portion of the Kansas River basin. The third is loess, a fine silt that may have originally been deposited by the melting water of the receding glaciers, then redeposited by the wind. The thickest loess deposits can be found in the northwest and north-central part of the Kansas River basin from southern Nebraska into northwest Kansas, as well as near the river's mouth.

History

The first map showing the Kansas River is French cartographer Guillaume de L'Isle's "Carte de la Louisiane," which was drawn about 1718.  On it, the "Grande Riviere des Cansez" flows into the Missouri River at about the 39th parallel.  This map, with virtually no changes except for the translation of French into English, was subsequently published by John Senex, a London cartographer and engraver, in 1721.

From June 26 through 29, 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition camped at Kaw Point at the Kansas River's mouth. They praised the scenery in their accounts and noted the area would be a good location for a fort.

In August 1819, Maj. Stephen H. Long steered the first steamer into the Kansas River with his 30-ton boat Western Engineer. He made it scarcely a mile up the river before turning back, citing mud bars from the recent floods.

The mouth of the Kansas River in the West Bottoms area of Kansas City (at a longitude of 94 degrees 36 minutes West) was the basis for Missouri's western boundary from Iowa to Arkansas when it became a state in 1821 (Kansas entered the Union in 1861.) South of the Missouri River, that longitude still remains the boundary between Kansas and Missouri. North of the Missouri River, the state of Missouri extended its boundary further to the west in 1836 with the Platte Purchase.  The river has moved slightly since this designation, but the state boundary has remained the same. This line is known as the Osage Boundary.

From the 1840s through the early 1870s, the southern ridgelines of the lower section of the Kansas River were the beginnings of the Oregon, California, and Santa Fe trails as they left Kansas City.

Beginning in 1854, steamboats operated regularly from Kansas City to Lawrence and Topeka, and sometimes as far as Manhattan, Junction City, and Fort Riley. This traffic continued through the territorial period and the early years of statehood, falling off rapidly about 1860. The last steamer to travel the Kansas was the Alexander Majors, which was chartered in 1866 to run between Kansas City and Lawrence until the railroad bridge at the mouth of the river, which had been destroyed by floods, could be rebuilt. This traffic into statehood gave the Kansas legal status as a navigable stream in the eyes of the Federal government. In the 1860s, the country's goods were increasingly transported by the extensive and comparatively efficient railroad system.

On February 25, 1864, the state legislature declared the Kansas River nonnavigable, allowing railroad and bridge companies to build bridges and dams without restriction. The first train to operate in Kansas south of the Kansas River did so by crossing the river in Lawrence on November 1, 1867. This law remained in effect until 1913, when, after it had been characterized as "a crime against the public welfare of Kansas", it was finally repealed and the river's status was restored to a navigable stream. The status has not since changed, though modern commercial navigation on the river is largely confined to dredging.

Recreation
Recreation along the Kansas River includes fishing, canoeing and kayaking, and rowing. There are 18 public access points along the river. The Friends of the Kaw organizes many float trips down the river each year (as well as cleanup efforts), and the Lawrence KOA rents canoes for self-guided trips. At least two rowing teams regularly use the river: The University of Kansas rowing team uses the pool above the Bowersock Dam for their training, and the Kansas City Boat Club as well as University of Missouri-Kansas City rows in the final stretches of the river, near its mouth and the connection to the Missouri River.

River modifications

On the river
 Kansas City: A few yards downstream from the I-435 bridge, a weir diverts water to an intake for WaterOne. Portage access is on the left bank.
 Lawrence: Bowersock Dam is the largest obstruction on the river. It serves not only to create a standing pool for one of Lawrence's municipal water intakes (the other is at Clinton Lake), but also to create a head for the Bowersock Mills & Power Company. At this site, the Bowersock Mills & Power Company operates the only hydroelectric power station in Kansas: a 2.5-megawatt low-impact hydropower facility. The University of Kansas's rowing team uses the pool for its exercises. Portage access is on the left bank.
 Tecumseh: An easily navigable low head weir diverts water to the Tecumseh power plant, just downstream from Topeka.
 Topeka: A Topeka water department dam diverts water to the right bank for a municipal water intake. Portage access is on the left bank.

Within the watershed
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Land Management operate many reservoirs within the watershed of the Kansas River for local and Mississippi River flood control, with secondary recreational uses.

In popular culture
The river is featured prominently in the 2017 documentary When Kings Reigned, directed by Kansans Ian Ballinger and Alison Dover. The film talks about life along the Kansas River in the late 1800s, and the trials that the fishermen on the river faced. Étienne de Veniard Sieur de Bourgmont's expedition into the Kansas River valley and the history of the Kanza people in their villages along the river is discussed in The Last Wild Places of Kansas, a book by George Frazier.

Places and locations along the river
(Listed from mouth upstream)

Counties
 Wyandotte and Johnson (boundary in part)
 Jefferson and Douglas (boundary)
 Shawnee
 Pottawatomie and Wabaunsee (boundary)
 Riley
 Geary
 Jewell

Cities and towns

Tributaries
 Wakarusa River
 Big Blue River
 Republican River
 Smoky Hill River
 Delaware River

See also
 List of rivers of Kansas
 Johnny Kaw

References

External links

 Bowersock Mills & Power Company
 Kaw Point
 Kaw Valley Heritage Alliance
 USGS
 Lower Kansas
 USGS: Map of Historical and Cultural Sites along the Kaw Valley
 

Category:Geography of Kansas City, Kansas
Category:Bodies of water of Douglas County, Kansas
Category:Rivers of Geary County, Kansas
Category:Bodies of water of Jefferson County, Kansas
Category:Rivers of Johnson County, Kansas
Category:Bodies of water of Pottawatomie County, Kansas
Category:Bodies of water of Riley County, Kansas
Category:Rivers of Shawnee County, Kansas
Category:Bodies of water of Wabaunsee County, Kansas
Category:Bodies of water of Wyandotte County, Kansas
Category:Mississippi River watershed
Category:Rivers of Kansas
Category:Tributaries of the Missouri River