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A Photographic Journey up the Missouri River in North Dakota - Confluence with the Yellowstone River

Photographs of the Missouri River confluence with the Yellowstone River

These photos provide a visual journey up the Missouri River in North Dakota. The pictures are arranged in approximate upstream order and dates and locations are given when known.  These photographs may give you a glimpse of the sites Lewis & Clark saw and also serve to illustrate the history and development of the Missouri River.

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Missouri River and Yellowstone River, North Dakota, U.S.A. April 1994

The Yellowstone River, one of the main tributaries of the upper Missouri River, is visible entering the Missouri River near the North Dakota-Montana border in this low-oblique photograph. During the ice age, the Missouri River was the boundary between glaciers to the north and ice-free land to the south. Apparent in the photograph are the western end of Lake Sakakawea and scattered agricultural field patterns. With the discovery of rich oil reserves nearby in 1951, the city of Williston on the north side of the Missouri River (barely discernible in the center of the photograph) increased in importance. It is a trade, processing, and shipping center for the agricultural region and has an oil refinery, stockyards, grain elevators, and dairy processing plants. The area has large reserves of lignite, natural gas, salt, and leonite.

Credit: NASA's Earth From Space web site http://earth.jsc.nasa.gov

Missouri - Yellowstone Confluence

Credit: North Dakota Tourism Department

Pelicans at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers

Credit: North Dakota Tourism Department

Missouri - Yellowstone Confluence with hills in background

Credit: North Dakota Tourism Department

Aerial photograph of the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers

July 28, 1995

Credit: U.S. Geological Survey

Missouri-Yellowstone Confluence Interpretive Center

According to a State Historical Society of North Dakota news release about the Confluence Center, "The Missouri-Yellowstone Confluence Interpretive Center is considered part of the Fort Buford State Historic Site, and is located ½ mile east of the Fort Buford site. Like the Fort Buford site, it is managed and maintained by the state’s history agency, the State Historical Society of North Dakota. The Center’s permanent exhibits explore the geography and geology of the area, its prehistoric life, and the impact of people arriving by Trails, Tracks, Rivers and Roads, which is also the name of the exhibits area. Featured in the 2,000-square-foot permanent gallery is the Lewis and Clark journey, the fur trade era, Fort Buford, and the development of the modern-day irrigation and energy industries. Temporary exhibits are also featured in the adjoining 1,000-square-foot temporary gallery. There are more than 200 artifacts in the permanent gallery, including a frontier army transport wagon, a steamboat pilot’s navigating wheel, and a 1903 Cadillac; artifacts and exhibits in the temporary gallery will be rotated annually. Visitors are also able to watch the award-winning video, Splendid Isolation: Fort Buford, chronicling the history of this key frontier army post that operated from June 1866 to October 1895."

September 2, 2003

Credit: U.S. Geological Survey

View of Missouri River from Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site

June 1992

Credit:  U.S. Geological Survey

View of Missouri River from Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site

June 1992

Credit:  U.S. Geological Survey

The Fort Union Trading Post was established in 1828 more than 20 years after the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  However, the National Historic Site interprets the confluence area, described as "this long wished for spot" by Lewis and Clark.

June 1992

Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site

June 1992

Credit:  U.S. Geological Survey

The pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) is one of the largest fish species found in the Missouri/Mississippi River drainage. Individuals can grow to 60 inches in length and weigh up to 85 pounds.  They are usually a light brown or "pallid" color on the dorsal surface and white underneath, with a flattened, shovel-shaped snout and four barbels positioned in front of a sucker-like mouth.  They spawn in mid-summer in response to rising river flows.  This bottom-dwelling species represents a group of fishes that were dominant during the late Cretaceous period -- about 70 million years ago.

Pallid sturgeon are adapted for living close to the bottom of large, shallow rivers with sand and gravel bars. The primary reason for their decline is believed to be loss of habitat caused by the construction of dams that have modified flows, reduced turbidity, and lowered water temperatures.

The pallid sturgeon was federally listed as endangered in 1990.  Recovery efforts include captive breeding, with experimental stocking in the upper Missouri and lower Yellowstone Rivers.

Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/photo by Ken Bouc, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission

Yellowstone River near Cartwright, North Dakota

Looking from the left bank toward main pier nearest the left bank.

May 13, 1960

Credit: U.S. Geological Survey

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