Yellowstone River

           

The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 692 miles (1,114 km) long, in the western United States. Considered the principal tributary of the upper Missouri, the river and its tributaries drain a wide area stretching from the Rocky Mountains in the vicinity of the Yellowstone National Park across the mountains and high plains of southern Montana and northern Wyoming. An ExxonMobil pipeline which runs from Silver Tip, to Billings, Montana ruptured about 10 miles west of Billings on July 1, 2011 at about 10:40pm. The resulting spill leaked an estimated 1,500 barrels of oil into the Yellowstone River (equivalent to 63,000 gallons) for 56 minutes before it was shut down.

The river rises on the slopes of Yount Peak in Wyoming’s Absaroka Range and soon enters the southeastern corner of Yellowstone National Park. It then flows northward into Yellowstone Lake, and, after exiting the north end of the lake, plunges 422 feet (129 metres) in two spectacular waterfalls and enters the magnificent Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The name is widely believe to have been derived from the Minnetaree Indian name Mi tse a-da-zi (Yellow Rock River) Common lore states that the name came from the yellow-colored rocks along the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, but the Minnetaree never lived along the upper stretches of the Yellowstone. Some scholars think that the river was named after yellow-colored sandstone bluffs on the lower Yellowstone, instead.