The Niobrara River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 430 mi (692 km) long, the U.S. states of Wyoming and Nebraska. The river drains one of the most arid sections of the Great Plains, and has a low flow for a river of its length.
It rises in the High Plains of eastern Wyoming, in southern Niobrara County, Wyoming. It flows east as an intermittent stream past Lusk, then southeast into northwestern Nebraska. It flows southeast across the Pine Ridge country of Sioux County, then east through Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, past Marsland, and through Box Butte Reservoir. It flows east across northern Nebraska, on the north edge of the Sand Hills, past Valentine. It is joined by the Snake River about 13 mi (21 km) southwest of Valentine. In north-central Nebraska it is joined by the Keya Paha River approximately 6 mi (10 km) west of Butte. It joins the Missouri northwest of Niobrara in northern Knox County.
The Niobrara River is a popular river for recreational canoeing, tubing, and kayaking along a stretch between Valentine and western Keya Paha County.
The headwaters of the Missouri are in the Rocky Mountains of southwestern Montana, near the continental divide.
The entire Missouri River watershed was acquired from the French by the United States in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase and explored by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which successfully used the river in exploring for a route to the Pacific Ocean.
This federally-designated "Wild and Scenic River" is among the last unspoiled stretches of the Missouri, and exhibits the islands, bars, chutes and snags that once characterized the "Mighty Mo".
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