Longest river in each US state

The United States is a continent of rivers. The Missouri-Mississippi system drains the heart of North America, the Colorado carves the Grand Canyon, the Rio Grande traces the Mexican border, and the Yukon sweeps across Alaska. This guide pairs each of the 50 states with its most defining river.

The 10 longest rivers in the United States

The most notable river of each state

For each state below, we list the river that most defines it — usually the longest, sometimes the most historically or economically important.

The Mississippi: spine of the continent

The Mississippi River flows 2,340 miles from Lake Itasca, Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico south of New Orleans. Along the way it touches 10 states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. Its drainage basin covers 40% of the contiguous United States, including most of the country between the Rockies and the Appalachians.

The Mississippi carried European exploration, defined slave-state geography in the 19th century, inspired Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and remains the busiest inland waterway in the country.

The Missouri: technically the longest

The Missouri is the longest single river in the US by 1 mile. It begins where three streams meet near Three Forks, Montana, and flows 2,341 miles east-southeast through North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri before joining the Mississippi just north of St. Louis. Lewis and Clark's 1804-1806 expedition followed the Missouri to the Pacific.

The Colorado: the river that carved a canyon

At 1,450 miles, the Colorado is shorter than the Mississippi but arguably more dramatic. It rises in Rocky Mountain National Park, cuts the Grand Canyon over millions of years, and historically reached the Gulf of California in Mexico. Today it is so heavily tapped — for Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles and the irrigated farms of Arizona and California — that it rarely reaches the sea.

The Rio Grande: an international border

The Rio Grande forms the entire 1,254-mile border between Texas and Mexico. From its source in southern Colorado, it flows through New Mexico, divides Texas from the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas, and empties into the Gulf of Mexico at Brownsville/Matamoros.

The Yukon: Alaska's giant

The Yukon River runs 1,980 miles from the Coast Mountains of British Columbia across the Yukon Territory and Alaska to the Bering Sea. It's the third longest US river and was the lifeline of the 1896 Klondike Gold Rush.

Famous river facts

• Hudson River — only 315 miles long, but defined the rise of New York City as a port.
• Potomac — flows past Washington, D.C., separating Maryland and Virginia.
• Columbia — the largest river in the Pacific Northwest by volume; powers more hydroelectric dams than any other US river.
• Snake River — carves Hells Canyon, the deepest river gorge in North America.
• Ohio River — the dividing line between the antebellum North and South.
• Wabash — Indiana's state river, immortalized in the song "On the Banks of the Wabash."

Frequently asked questions

Related guides