Missouri Headwaters State Park

State park in Montana, USA

Confluence of the Madison River and Jefferson River at the starting point of the Missouri River

Location in Montana

Location

Gallatin County, Montana, United States

Nearest city

Three Forks, Montana

Coordinates

45°55′15″N 111°29′53″W / 45.9207°N 111.498°W / 45.9207; -111.498

Area

532 acres (215 ha)

Elevation

4,049 feet (1,234 m)

Designation

Montana state park

Established

1947

Visitors

33,436 (in 2023)

Administrator

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks

Website

Missouri Headwaters State Park

United States historic place

Significant dates

Three Forks of the Missouri
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark

Show map of MontanaShow map of the United States
Location	Gallatin County, Montana
Area	1,500 acres (610 ha)
Built	1805
NRHP reference No.	66000433
Added to NRHP	October 15, 1966
Designated NHL	October 9, 1960

Missouri Headwaters State Park is a public recreation area occupying 535 acres (217 ha) at the site of the official start of the Missouri River. The park offers camping, hiking trails, hunting, and water-related activities. It is located on Trident Road northeast of Three Forks, Montana at an elevation of 4,045 feet (1,233 m). The park includes the Three Forks of the Missouri National Historic Landmark, designated in 1960 because the site is one where the Lewis and Clark Expedition camped in 1805.

Setting

The bulk of Missouri Headwaters State Park is found on a peninsula flanked on the east by the Gallatin River and the west by the Missouri River and the Madison River. Small parts of the park are also located on the east bank of the Gallatin River, and an island in the Missouri just below the confluence of the Madison and Jefferson Rivers. The total park size is 532 acres (215 ha). The Jefferson River meets the Madison and Missouri roughly midway through the park's north-south extent.

History

The Lewis and Clark Expedition encamped at the confluence site on July 26, 1805. On July 28, Meriwether Lewis wrote in his journal:

"Both Capt. C. and myself corrisponded in opinion with rispect to the impropriety of calling either of these streams the Missouri and accordingly agreed to name them after the President of the United States and the Secretaries of the Treasury and state..."

The expedition were likely the first white men to ever penetrate this landscape. Lewis and Clark were at first uncertain how to proceed, and scouted each of the branches before ultimately departing on July 30 up the Jefferson River. The expedition also passed the forks on its return journey on July 13, 1806.

As the west was explored and developed through the 19th century, the forks area was frequently used as a camp site by fur trappers. Acquisition for the state park was begun by preservation organizations in the 1960s.

Claims of Missouri River source

The Lewis and Clark decision not to call the Jefferson the Missouri has spurred debate over what is the longest river in North America, since the Missouri and Mississippi are nearly identical in length. The Missouri traditionally had been called the longest river in North America. However, 72 miles of it have been trimmed off in re-channeling its streambed—mainly for the many hydroelectric power plants in the region— so that it is now sometimes referred as second to the Mississippi in terms of length. If the Jefferson were included in the Missouri length, it would technically still be considered the longest river by experts of the United States Geological Survey.

The utmost headwaters of the Missouri are subject to debate but two commonly claimed locations ultimately drain into the Jefferson. Lewis on August 12, 1805 said he visited the headwaters on Trail Creek just above Lemhi Pass on the Continental Divide in the Beaverhead Mountains at around 8,600 feet which he described:

the most distant fountain of the waters of the mighty Missouri in surch(sic) of which we have spent so many toilsome days and wristless(sic) nights.

In 1888 Jacob V. Brower, who had championed turning the headwaters of the Mississippi River into a Minnesota state park, visited another site which today is also claimed to be the furthest point on the Missouri. Brower published his finding in 1896 in "The Missouri: Its Utmost Source."

Brower's Spring, as the site is now known, is at around 8,800 feet in the Centennial Mountains. The site is commemorated by a rock pile at the source of Hellroaring Creek which flows into Red Rock River and then into Clark Canyon Reservoir where it joins the Beaverhead then the Big Hole River before ultimately hooking up with the Jefferson.

References

^ "Missouri River Headwaters State Park". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
^ "Missouri Headwaters State Park". Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
"Park Origin by Date". Montana State Parks. 2014. Archived from the original on January 1, 2020. Retrieved May 28, 2018.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (May 6, 2024). "2023 Montana State Parks Annual Visitation Report" (PDF). fwp.mt.gov. Retrieved July 26, 2024.
"Three Forks of the Missouri". National Historic Landmarks Program. National Park Service. Archived from the original on November 19, 2003. Retrieved June 28, 2007.
Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition 28 July 1805. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
^ "NHL nomination for Three Forks of the Missouri". National Park Service. Retrieved March 17, 2017.
^ "Lewis and Clark: Three Forks of the Missouri (Missouri Headwaters State Park)". National Park Service. Retrieved March 17, 2017.
"The True Utmost Reaches of the Missouri - Montana Outdoors - July-August 2005". Archived from the original on January 18, 2012. Retrieved February 11, 2007.

External links

Missouri Headwaters State Park Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks
Missouri Headwaters State Park Map Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks

Protected areas of Montana

Federal

National parks	Glacier Yellowstone
National monuments	Little Bighorn Battlefield Pompeys Pillar (BLM) Upper Missouri River Breaks (BLM)
National battlefield	Big Hole
National historical parks and historic sites	Grant–Kohrs Ranch NHS Nez Perce NHP
National historic and scenic trails	Lewis and Clark NHT Nez Perce NHT Continental Divide NST Pacific Northwest NST
National recreation area	Bighorn Canyon
National Wildlife Refuges	Benton Lake Black Coulee Bowdoin Charles M. Russell Creedman Coulee Grass Lake Hailstone Hewitt Lake Lake Mason Lake Thibadeau Lamesteer Lee Metcalf Lost Trail Medicine Lake Ninepipe Pablo Red Rock Lakes Swan River UL Bend War Horse
National Forests	Beaverhead–Deerlodge Bitterroot Custer Flathead Gallatin Helena Kootenai Lewis and Clark Lolo
National Wilderness	Absaroka–Beartooth Anaconda–Pintler Bear Trap Canyon Bob Marshall Cabinet Mountains Gates of the Mountains Great Bear Lee Metcalf Medicine Lake Mission Mountains Rattlesnake Red Rock Lakes Scapegoat Selway–Bitterroot UL Bend Welcome Creek
National wild and scenic rivers	East Rosebud Creek Flathead Missouri

State

State parks	Ackley Lake Anaconda Smoke Stack Bannack Beaverhead Rock Beavertail Hill Big Arm Black Sandy Brush Lake Chief Plenty Coups Clark's Lookout Cooney Council Grove Elkhorn Finley Fish Creek First Peoples Buffalo Jump Fort Owen Frenchtown Pond Giant Springs Granite Ghost Town Greycliff Prairie Dog Town Hell Creek Lake Elmo Lake Mary Ronan Les Mason Lewis and Clark Caverns Logan Lone Pine Lost Creek Madison Buffalo Jump Makoshika Medicine Rocks Milltown Missouri Headwaters Painted Rocks Parker Homestead Pictograph Cave Pirogue Island Placid Lake Rosebud Battlefield Salmon Lake Sluice Boxes Smith River Somers Beach Spring Meadow Lake Thompson Falls Tongue River Reservoir Tower Rock Travelers' Rest Wayfarers West Shore Whitefish Lake Wild Horse Island Yellow Bay
State forests	Clearwater Coal Creek Lincoln Lubrecht Experimental Stillwater Sula Swan River Thompson River
Wildlife Management Areas	Amelia Island Aunt Molly Badlands Beartooth Beckman Big Lake Blackfoot-Clearwater Blackleaf Blue Eyed Nellie Bowdoin Buffalo Head Park Bull River Calf Creek Canyon Creek Canyon Ferry Dodson Creek Dodson Dam Dome Mountain Ear Mountain Elk Island F Island Flathead Lake Flathead River Fleecer Mountain Fox Lake Freezout Lake Fresno Reservoir Fresno Tailwater Gallatin Garrity Mountain Grant Marsh Gravelly-Blacktail Haymaker Hinsdale Horseshoe Lake Howard Valley Isaac Homestead Judith River Kootenai/Falls Kootenai/West Kootenai/Woods Ranch Lake Helena Lost Creek Lower Stillwater Lake Madison-Bear Creek Madison-Wall Creek Milk River Mount Haggin Mount Jumbo Mount Silcox Nevada Lake Ninepipe North Swan Valley CE Pablo Ray Kuhns Robb-Ledford Rookery Roundhom Sanders Seven Sisters Silver Gate Silver Run Smith River Sun River Swan Lake Thompson-Fisher CE Three Mile Threemile Vandalia War Dance Island Warm Springs

Other

Nonprofit	American Prairie
Tribal	CSKT Bison Range

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