Big Blue River (Kansas)
| Big Blue River Great Blue Earth River | |
|---|---|
.JPG) Big Blue River above Manhattan, Kansas | |
 Map of the Kansas River drainage basin showing the Big Blue and Little Blue rivers | |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Nebraska, Kansas |
| Region | Great Plains |
| Cities | Manhattan, KS, Beatrice, NE, Crete, NE, Seward, NE |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | |
| - location | Near Aurora, NE, Great Plains, United States |
| - coordinates | 40°57′00″N 098°04′31″W / 40.95000°N 98.07528°W[1] |
| Mouth | Kansas River |
| - location | Near Manhattan, Great Plains, United States |
| - coordinates | 39°11′17″N 096°31′40″W / 39.18806°N 96.52778°W[1] |
| Length | 359 mi (578 km), South[2] |
| Discharge | |
| - location | Manhattan, KS[3] |
| - average | 982 cu ft/s (27.8 m3/s)[3] |
| - minimum | 8 cu ft/s (0.23 m3/s) |
| - maximum | 18,000 cu ft/s (510 m3/s) |
| Basin features | |
| River system | Kansas River watershed |
| Tributaries | |
| - left | Little Blue River, West Fork of the Little Blue River |
The Big Blue River is the biggest tributary of the Kansas River. The river is about 359 miles (578 km) long.[2] It goes from central Nebraska into Kansas, until its confluence with the Kansas River at Manhattan.
Its name was given from the Kansa tribe of Native Americans. They lived at its mouth from 1780 to 1830. They called it the Great Blue Earth River.
River course[change | change source]
The river goes through mostly agricultural land.[4] Big towns on the river include: Manhattan, Kansas, Beatrice, Nebraska; Crete, Nebraska; and Seward, Nebraska.
Water rights[change | change source]
Nebraska and Kansas have an agreement on who gets to use the water. Nebraska has full use of the river's water. However, from May 1 to September 30, Nebraska must allow a certain amount to go into Kansas.[5] There has been no shortage of water in the river.
References[change | change source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Big Blue River". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. 1978-10-13. Retrieved 2013-08-17.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map Archived 2012-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, accessed March 30, 2011
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Big Blue R NR Manhattan, KS".
- ↑ "Big Blue River Basin". Archived from the original (English) on 2008-10-06. Retrieved 2008-08-13.
- ↑ "Kansas-Nebraska Big Blue River Compact" (PDF). 1971. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-26.