North Flowing Streams

[Mitch f]

 

Some interesting related trivia... The White River, Buffalo River, Kings River, and War Eagle Creek all begin within a 3 mile radius of each other.
From there they flow west, north, and east, yet they all end up back together again. On the other side of the same high spot between Boston & Pettigrew, the Little Mulberry Creek, Mulberry River, Big Piney Creek, and the Illinois Bayou all begin within a few miles of each other and flow southerly to the Arkansas River.

Because they are so close together that all makes perfect sense

[Al Agnew]

Another thing that's interesting to me is that, due to the geologic history of Ozark streams, they are likely to flow in every direction  in just one stretch.  The phenomenon is called "entrenched meanders", and is due to the fact that at one time these rivers wandered across a nearly flat plain with very low gradients, and so they meandered across the landscape. As the Ozark plateau uplifted, the streams flowed faster, fast enough to begin cutting downwards into the rising plateau, but the uplift was so gradual that they remained in their meandering channels, and the channels became entrenched.  Due to centrifugal forces if nothing else, they cut into the outsides of bends, forming bluffs, while the slope on the inside of the bend is more gradual.  One of the most spectacular examples of a complex entrenched meander is the Gasconade, beginning a bit over 6 miles downstream from Hwy. 17 near Waynesville, and concluding over 14 miles downstream. At the beginning of this incredible bend, the river is flowing north, with minor variations.. It then curves to the northwest, then northeast, east, southeast, east, southeast, south, east, northeast, south, southwest, west, and finally south, ending up only 1.2 miles from the starting point while flowing over 14 miles!

[Mitch f]

I may need to fish some Entrenched Meanders very soon. 

[moguy1973]

The Bourbeuse around Hwy 185 is very similar to that too.  There's about 12 miles of river that is shaped like a shamrock and less than 1/2 a mile of land between the start and the finish.

[Mitch f]

The 2 Pineys, by that I mean at least they flow into the Gasconade

[Mitch f]

 

We can take the source of the Missouri River further:

At elevation 9,396 ft at the Continental Divide and at the border between Montana and Idaho in the headwaters of Hell Roaring Creek. The latter is a tributary of the Red Rock River, a tributary of the Beaverhead River, a tributary of the Jefferson River, a tributary of the Missouri River.

Fascinating subject. 

 

A good one from the River Hills Traveler

 

 

[Al Agnew]

There is a small stream draining a high plateau in the Teton Wilderness Area, south of Yellowstone Park in Wyoming, called North Two Ocean Creek. It drops off the plateau into a lower valley and into a swampy area, which is actually the continental divide, because the waters are divided there, with roughly half the flow of N. Two Oceans Creek flowing west as Pacific Creek, into the headwaters of the Snake River and eventually into the Pacific Ocean 1353 miles downstream, and the other half flowing east out of the swampy area as Atlantic Creek, into the headwaters of the Yellowstone River and eventually to the Gulf of Mexico 3488 miles downstream.

A situation I find interesting in Missouri is, there is a certain spot on Highway 32 west of Belleview where, if a raindrop falls in the eastbound lane, it runs off the south side into the headwaters of Black River, and if it runs off the north side of the yellow lines, it becomes part of the highest source of Big River.

[Brian Jones]

 

A situation I find interesting in Missouri is, there is a certain spot on Highway 32 west of Belleview where, if a raindrop falls in the eastbound lane, it runs off the south side into the headwaters of Black River, and if it runs off the north side of the yellow lines, it becomes part of the highest source of Big River.

Interesting.  I don't think I ever realized just how close the headwaters of the Black and Big River were to each other.