WHITE RIVER

river rising on the Pine Ridge Escarpment in northwestern Nebraska, U.S., and flowing in a northeasterly direction into South Dakota. Passing across the northern boundaries of the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Sioux Indian reservations, it then turns east and empties into the Missouri River near Chamberlain, S.D., after a course of 325 miles (523 km). Around the White River's upper course, light rainfall, sparse vegetation, and geologic conditions have created the Badlands, where small intermittent tributaries have carved a labyrinth of pinnacles, valleys, slopes, and fantastic features into the soft-clay formations. Its lower course is a sand-filled, braided, meandering channel more than a mile wide. The river's drainage basin, which covers 10,200 square miles (26,400 square km), has deposits of manganese and fuller's earth, a claylike substance used in industry. river formed by the confluence of its West and East forks near Petersburg in southwestern Indiana, U.S., and flowing in a southwesterly direction for 52 miles (84 km) before entering the Wabash River, opposite Mt. Carmel, Ill. Its 255-mile (410-km) West Fork rises in Randolph county, eastern Indiana; its 282-mile (454-km) East Fork (sometimes called Driftwood) is a combination of streams that join near Columbus in Bartholomew county. river rising in the Boston Mountains, in northwestern Arkansas, U.S., and flowing northeast into southern Missouri, where it bends southeast and reenters Arkansas, continuing in a southerly direction to join the Arkansas River near its confluence with the Mississippi River, above Arkansas City. The river's descent in the upper course exceeds 25 feet (8 m) per mile. Through the Boston Mountains and the Ozark Plateau of southern Missouri, the White River is deeply entrenched in narrow gorges; much of its middle course is a valley more than 500 feet (150 m) deep. At Newport, Ark., the White emerges from the highlands onto the Mississippi River's floodplain, where the stream gradient is less than 3 feet (9 m) per mile, with many meanders, abandoned channels, and swampland. The river is 685 miles (1,102 km) long, drains 28,000 square miles (73,000 square km), and is navigable upstream to Batesville, Ark., for about 300 miles (480 km). Major tributaries are the Buffalo River entering from the south and the Cache, Little Red, and North Fork rivers entering from the north. Bull Shoals Dam (1947), on the White River just north of Cotter, Ark., impounds Bull Shoals Lake, which extends 37 miles (60 km) upstream. Forsyth Dam impounds Lake Taneycomo, 5 miles (8 km) northeast of Branson, Mo.