White River (South Dakota)

Catchment area of ​​the White River

The White River ( English for " White River ") is a 816 km long right tributary of the Missouri River in the U.S. states of Nebraska and South Dakota.

The river's name is derived from the white-gray coloring of the water - a result of eroded sand, clay and volcanic ash, which leads to the river with it. The catchment area is about 20,600 km ². The river flows through a sparsely populated region of hills, plateaus and Badlands.

The White River has its origin in northwestern Nebraska, in the Pine Ridge Escarpment north of Harrison, at an altitude of 1462 m. It flows in a southeasterly, then in a north-easterly direction to Fort Robinson over and north of Crawford. He crossed the border to South Dakota and flows through the Pine Ridge Reservation to the north. The Wounded Knee Creek then flows into the White River. Then it flows past the Badlands National Park. On the northern edge of the reserve of the White River swings to the east-northeast and south-east and forms the northern boundary of the reserve and the southern boundary of the Buffalo Gap National Grassland. About 24 km south of Murdo meets the Little White River in the White River. After that, the White River flows in an easterly direction and ends in the Lake Francis Case dammed Missouri River, about 24 km south-west of Chamberlain.