GALLATIN / MADISON / JEFFERSON

the three rivers that come together to form

The Missouri River

When the Lewis & Clark expedition came to what is now Three Forks, Montana, they couldn't decide which of the three tributaries should retain the name Missouri. So they gave them all new names, honoring the secretary of the treasury, secretary of state, and president that had made their trip possible.

Farther upstream, at Twin Bridges, Montana, the Big Hole, Beaverhead, and Ruby Rivers come together to form the Jefferson.

Now here's my rant: The Missouri River is listed as something like the fourteenth or fifteenth longest river in the world, but only because one stream of water keeps changing names! If you traveled up the Mississippi River to St. Louis and took a left, then continued upstream along the Missouri, the Jefferson, the Beaverhead and the Red Rock, I think you would find a single flow making it something like the THIRD longest.

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