Marias River - Definition and Overview

The Marias River

The Marias River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 210 mi (338 km) long, in the U.S. state of Montana. It is formed in the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Glacier County, in northwestern Montana, by the confluence of the Cut Bank Creek and the Two Medicine River. It flows east, through Lake Elwell, formed by the Tiber Dam, then southeast, receiving the Teton River at Loma, 2 mi. (3.2 km) above its confluence with the Missouri.

The river was explored in 1805 by the Lewis and Clark expedition, who mistook it for the main branch of the Missouri until their subsequent discovery of the Great Falls of the Missouri near Great Falls, Montana. The river was named by Meriwether Lewis after his cousin, Maria Wood.

The river was the scene of the 1870 Marias Massacre.

See List of Montana rivers

External links

• Lewis and Clark at Loma on the Marias (http://lewisandclark.state.mt.us/sites.asp?IDNumber=7)
• Marias River Massacre Site (http://www.edheritage.org/articles/studentessay/marias.htm)
• University of Montana: Marias River Watershed (http://water.montana.edu/watersheds/groups/details.asp?groupID=43)
• Marias River pictures (http://www.gtccmt.org/grants/lewis_clark/river_pictures.html)