Canadian River

The Canadian River is a river in the United States that flows through the states of Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma. It is distinguished from its tributary, the North Canadian River, which joins it at Eufaula Lake.

At 1458 km, the Canadian River is the longest tributary of the Arkansas. It rises at (37° 1′ 0″ N, 105° 3′ 0″ W37.0166666667-105.052926) at 2926 m above sea level in the Sangre de Cristo Range in Las Animas County, Colorado. 2.5 km further south it reaches New Mexico in Colfax County. It flows southeastward through several canyons until it is dammed for the first time at Conchas Lake, from which point it flows eastward. The Canadian is then dammed at Lake Logan and Ute Lake.

It then continues to flow through the Texas Panhandle, where it forms the northern boundary of the Llano Estacado. It is then dammed in Lake Meredith, which is managed by the National Park Service as Lake Meredith National Recreation Area. It is adjoined by the Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument.

The river continues to flow across the plains of Oklahoma, where it forms numerous bays and meanders with islands of quicksand. It is dammed again at Eufaula Lake before joining the Arkansas River in Haskell County at (35° 27′ 12″ N, 95° 1′ 58″ W35.453429-95.032733).

The first European in the area of today's Texas was the Spanish conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1541. In 1601 the Spanish governor of New Mexico, Don Juan de Oñate, undertook an expedition to the prairies of Oklahoma, he named the river Rio Magdalena.

The name Canadian was given to it by French explorers who were looking for a route from Mississippi to Santa Fe. They assumed the river would flow northward to Canada.

According to Jicarilla tradition, it is one of the four sacred rivers that border their land, along with the Arkansas River, the Rio Grande, and the Rio Pecos.

See also: List of the longest rivers on earth