Yellowstone River


The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long, in the Western United States. Considered the principal tributary of the upper Missouri, via its own tributaries it drains an area with headwaters across the mountains and high plains of southern Montana and northern Wyoming, and stretching east from the Rocky Mountains in the vicinity of Yellowstone National Park. It flows northeast to its confluence with the Missouri River on the North Dakota side of the border, about west of Williston.

Etymology

The name is widely believed to have been derived from the Minnetaree Indian name Mi tse a-da-zi . Common lore recounts that the name was inspired by the yellow-colored rocks along the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, but the Minnetaree never lived along the upper stretches of the Yellowstone. Some scholars think that the river was instead named after yellow-colored sandstone bluffs on the lower Yellowstone.
The Cheyenne, who lived in the areas of present-day Billings and Yellowstone County, called it Mo'éheo'hé'e. The Crow, who lived along the upper Yellowstone in southern Montana, called it E-chee-dik-karsh-ah-shay. Translating the Minnetaree name, French trappers in the area referred to the river as Roche Jaune, a name adopted by ethnic American, French and other European mountain men until the mid-19th century.
Independently, Lewis and Clark recorded the English translation of Yellow Stone for the river after they encountered the Minnetaree in 1805. With expanding settlement by English-speaking people from the United States, the English name eventually became the most widely used. The river was explored in 1806 by William Clark as the Lewis and Clark Expedition returned east from the Pacific Coast. The Clark's Fork of the river was named after him.
Most of the natural features of the Yellowstone Valley not already named by Lewis and Clark were named by pioneer steamboat captain Grant Marsh. Marsh was selected by the Army for an exploratory expedition in 1873 on his riverboat Key West. The team was commanded by Brevet Brig. Gen. George Alexander Forsyth. Marsh kept a detailed log during the journey. The names he bestowed were recorded by an expedition representative of the War Department and applied to official maps; they include the following:
  • Forsyth Butte, named in honor of Forsyth, commander of the expedition.
  • Cut Nose Butte, Chimney Rock, and Diamond Island, for their resemblance to these objects.
  • Seven Sisters Islands, in remembrance of Captain Marsh's seven sisters.
  • Crittenden Island, for General T. L. Crittenden, who commanded the 17th Infantry, which was garrisoned at posts along the Missouri River.
  • Mary Island, for the chambermaid on the Key West, wife of the steward, "Dutch Jake."
  • Reno Island, for Major Marcus A. Reno, of the 7th Cavalry.
  • Schindel Island, for Major M. Bryant, commanding the escort for the Key West.
  • Edgerly Island, for Lieutenant W. S. Edgerly of the 7th Cavalry.
  • Monroe Island, for Captain Marsh's brother, Monroe Marsh.
  • DeRussy Rapids, for Isaac D. DeRussy, later lieutenant-colonel of the 14th Infantry.
  • McCune Rapids, for one of Marsh's longtime friends in St. Louis.
  • Barr's Bluff, for another Marsh friend.
  • Stanley's Point, for the colonel of the 22nd Infantry.
  • Sheridan's Buttes, for Lt. Gen. Philip Sheridan.

    Watershed

The Yellowstone River watershed is a river basin spanning across Montana, with minor extensions into Wyoming and North Dakota, toward headwaters and terminus, respectively. The Yellowstone Basin watershed contains a system of rivers, including the Yellowstone River, and four tributary basins: the Clarks Fork Yellowstone, Wind River and Bighorn River, Tongue River, and Powder River. These rivers form tributaries to the Missouri River.
The mainstem of the Yellowstone River is more than long. At the headwaters, elevations exceed above sea level, descending to at the confluence with the Missouri River in far western North Dakota. The watershed spans. The area contains many lakes, including Yellowstone Lake.

Dams

There are no storage dams located on the mainstem of the Yellowstone River. There are, however, six low-head diversion dams on the river that supply water to irrigation canals for use by farmer and ranchers.
  • Huntley Diversion Dam
  • Waco Diversion Dam
  • Ranchers Ditch Diversion
  • Yellowstone Canal Diversion
  • Cartersville Diversion Dam
  • Intake Diversion Dam
Additionally, the watershed contains five major reservoirs built on tributary rivers: Boysen, Buffalo Bill, Big Horn, Tongue River, and Lake De Smet reservoirs.

Geography

The river rises in northwestern Wyoming in the Absaroka Range, on the Continental Divide in southwestern Park County. The river starts where the North Fork and the South Fork of the Yellowstone River converge. The North Fork, the larger of the two forks, flows from Younts Peak. The South Fork flows from the southern slopes of Thorofare Mountain. The Yellowstone River flows northward through Yellowstone National Park, feeding and draining Yellowstone Lake, then dropping over the Upper and Lower Yellowstone Falls at the head of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone within the confines of the park. After passing through the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone downstream of the Grand Canyon, the river flows northward into Montana between the northern Absaroka Range and the Gallatin Range in Paradise Valley. The river emerges from the mountains near the town of Livingston, where it turns eastward and northeastward, flowing across the northern Great Plains past the city of Billings.
East of Billings, it is joined by the Bighorn River. Farther downriver, it is joined by the Tongue near Miles City, and then by the Powder in eastern Montana. It flows into the Missouri River near Buford, North Dakota, just upstream from Lake Sakakawea. The latter is a reservoir formed in 1953 by the Garrison Dam, built on the Missouri River within the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. It flooded the fertile bottomlands of the Affiliated Tribes, damaging their economy and reducing their ability to be self-sufficient.
In Montana, the river's waters have been used extensively for irrigation since the 1860s. In its upper reaches, within Yellowstone Park and the mountains of Montana, it is a popular destination for fly fishing. The Yellowstone is a Class I river from the Yellowstone National Park boundary to the North Dakota border for the purposes of stream access for recreational purposes.

Water right claims

The division of water rights to the entire Yellowstone River Basin among Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota, governed by a 1950 compact, was disputed in a 2010 lawsuit brought directly to the U.S. Supreme Court by Montana against Wyoming. Oral argument took place in January 2011. On May 2, 2011, the Court held 7–2 that Montana had no valid claim that its water supply had been diminished since Wyoming was irrigating the same acreage as always, albeit by a more modern method that returned less runoff to go downstream to Montana.

History

The Yellowstone River had long been an important artery of transportation for Native Americans. The region around the Big Horn, Powder and Tongue rivers is the traditional summer hunting grounds for numerous Native American tribes: Lakota Sioux, Crow, Cheyenne and Cree. Gold was discovered near Virginia City, Montana in the 1860s, and two of the primary routes for accessing the goldfields were the Bozeman Trail and the Bridger Trail both of which followed the Yellowstone for a short length. In the 19th century, European-American settlers depended on the river for transportation, and generally entered the region by riverboat.
Native American anger at settler encroachment on their hunting grounds led to Red Cloud's War. The conflict was settled with the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868, by which the US granted the territory of the Black Hills and the Powder River Country to the Lakota people. This region included the drainages of the Big Horn, Powder and Tongue rivers. But the discovery of gold in 1874 in the Black Hills, however, attracted thousands of miners who invaded the sacred grounds and competed for resources. New armed conflicts broke out with the Lakota Sioux.
The new competition and violence led to the Great Sioux War of 1876–77. The US sent in troops to protect the miners, although they had violated the treaty, and to defeat the Sioux. In 1876, Colonel John Gibbon led a column of men from Fort Ellis near Bozeman, Montana and traveled down the Yellowstone to meet up with General Alfred Terry's Dakota Column, which had traveled upstream from North Dakota. Terry formed a base of operations at the mouth of Rosebud Creek on the Yellowstone, but the US miscalculated the strength of the Lakota, who had gathered by the thousands along the river. Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer departed from Rosebud Creek with the 7th Cavalry on the expedition that ended in his complete defeat by the Lakota and Cheyenne at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The army ferried its survivors down the Yellowstone to the Missouri, and to Fort Abraham Lincoln.
The US Army returned in force and finally achieved victory over the tribes, forcing them onto reservations. The Lakota and allies were forced from eastern Montana and Wyoming: some bands fled to Canada, while others suffered removal to distant reservations, primarily located in present-day South Dakota and Nebraska west of the Missouri River. Crow warriors had enlisted as scouts with the US Army during the war and the Crow Indian Reservation was established in south-central Montana. The Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation is south of the Yellowstone in Montana.
Many of the early expeditions to the area that was later protected as Yellowstone National Park traveled along the Yellowstone River. These included the Cook–Folsom–Peterson Expedition and the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition. In the early 1870s, the Northern Pacific Railroad attempted to extend rail service along the Yellowstone to Livingston from Bismarck, North Dakota, a route proposed to cross the last of the Lakota buffalo hunting grounds. This route was finally completed in 1883. By the early 20th century, Northern Pacific was providing train service along the river to the north entrance of the park near Gardiner.