More river graphics.
The Missouri has such an eccentric course. Poor Lewis and Clark, thinking it was just going to flow tidily west into the Pacific and be a super-useful transportation route.
Missouri river basin (Wikimedia Commons)
West! North! West! North north north north! Westnorthwestnorthwest west west west SOUTH!
And then it breaks into three smaller ones and the Pacific is still way over on the other side of a lot of mountains.
And then look at the comparative volumes. I had NO idea the Ohio was 20 times the size of the other two.
Wikimedia
H/t Alex
The Mississippi is really the Ohio. Who knew??