Saint Francis River

St. Francis River
River
The St. Francis River at Lake City, Arkansas is placid and silt-laden.
Country	United States
States	Missouri, Arkansas
Regions	Ozark Plateau, Mississippi Alluvial Plain
Districts	St. Francois Mountains, Crowleys Ridge
Tributaries
- left	Little Saint Francis River, Twelvemile Creek, Blue Spring, Mingo Ditch, Little River
- right	Stouts Creek, Marble Creek, Big Creek, Otter Creek, L'Anguille River
Cities	Farmington, Missouri, Fisk, Missouri, Lake City, Arkansas, Marked Tree, Arkansas
Source	Elephant Rocks State Park
- location	Iron County, St. Francois Mountains, Ozark Plateau, Missouri
- elevation	1,568 ft (478 m)
Mouth	Mississippi River
- location	Near Helena-West Helena, Phillips County, Mississippi Alluvial Plain, Arkansas
- elevation	171 ft (52 m)
- coordinates	34°37′28″N 90°35′31″W / 34.62444°N 90.59194°W / 34.62444; -90.59194Coordinates: 34°37′28″N 90°35′31″W / 34.62444°N 90.59194°W / 34.62444; -90.59194
Length	426 mi (686 km)
Basin	7,550 sq mi (19,554 km2)
Map of the St. Francis River watershed. The Castor/Whitewater headwaters (darker shade on the map) were historically part of the St. Francis watershed but are now diverted to the Mississippi.

The St. Francis River is a tributary of the Mississippi River, about 426 miles (686 km) long, in southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas in the United States. The river drains a mostly rural area and forms part of the Missouri-Arkansas state line along the western side of the Missouri Bootheel.

The river rises in a region of granite mountains in Iron County, Missouri, and flows generally southwardly through the Ozarks and the St. Francois Mountains near Missouri's highest point Taum Sauk. It forms the Missouri-Arkansas border in the Bootheel and eventually exits the state at Missouri's lowest point in the "toe" at 241 feet (73 m) above sea level. It passes through Lake Wappapello, which is formed by a dam constructed in 1941. Below the dam the river meanders through cane forests and willow swamplands, transitioning from a clear stream into a slow and silt-laden muddy river as it enters the flat lands of the Mississippi embayment. In its lower course the river parallels Crowleys Ridge and is part of a navigation and flood-control project involving a network of diversion channels and ditches along it and the Castor and Little Rivers. Below the mouth of the Little River in Poinsett County, Arkansas, the St. Francis is navigable by barge. It joins the Mississippi River in Phillips County, Arkansas, about 7 miles (11 km) north of Helena.