Arkansas Valley
| Arkansas River | |
| River | |
 The lower part of the Arkansas River near Little Rock, Arkansas
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| Country | United States |
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| States | Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas |
| Region | Great Plains |
| Part of | Mississippi River watershed |
| Tributaries | |
| - left | Fountain Creek, Pawnee River, Little Arkansas River, Walnut River, Verdigris River, Neosho River |
| - right | Cimarron River, Salt Fork Arkansas River, Canadian River, Poteau River |
| Cities | Pueblo, CO, Wichita, KS, Tulsa, OK, Muskogee, OK, Fort Smith, AR, Little Rock, AR, Pine Bluff, AR |
| Source | Confluence of East Fork Arkansas River and Tennessee Creek |
| - location | Near Leadville, Rocky Mountains, Colorado |
| - elevation | 9,728 ft (2,965 m) |
| - coordinates | 39°15′30″N 106°20′38″W / 39.25833°N 106.34389°W |
| Mouth | Mississippi River |
| - location | Franklin Township, Desha County, near Napoleon, Arkansas |
| - elevation | 108 ft (33 m) |
| - coordinates | 33°46′30″N 91°04′15″W / 33.77500°N 91.07083°WCoordinates: 33°46′30″N 91°04′15″W / 33.77500°N 91.07083°W |
| Length | 1,469 mi (2,364 km), West-east |
| Basin | 168,002 sq mi (435,123 km2) |
| Discharge | for Dardanelle, Arkansas, river mile 219.5 (river kilometer 353.3) |
| - average | 40,517 cu ft/s (1,147 m3/s) |
| - max | 683,000 cu ft/s (19,340 m3/s) |
| - min | 1,207 cu ft/s (34 m3/s) |
 The Arkansas River flows through Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, and its watershed also drains parts of Texas, New Mexico and Missouri.
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The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United States in Colorado, specifically the Arkansas River Valley, where the headwaters derive from the snowpack in the Sawatch and Mosquito mountain ranges. It then flows east into the Midwest via Kansas, and finally into the South through Oklahoma and Arkansas.
At 1,469 miles (2,364 km), it is the sixth-longest river in the United States, the second-longest tributary in the Mississippi–Missouri system, and the 45th longest river in the world. Its origin is in the Rocky Mountains in Lake County, Colorado, near Leadville. In 1859, placer gold discovered in the Leadville area brought thousands seeking to strike it rich, but the easily recovered placer gold was quickly exhausted. The Arkansas River's mouth is at Napoleon, Arkansas, and its drainage basin covers nearly 170,000 sq mi (440,300 km²). In terms of volume, the river is much smaller than the Missouri and Ohio Rivers, with a mean discharge of roughly 41,000 cubic feet per second (1,200 m3/s).
The Arkansas from its headwaters to the 100th meridian west formed part of the U.S.-Mexico border from the Adams–Onís Treaty (in force 1821) until the Texas Annexation or Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
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Wikipedia