Republican River

The Republican River is formed by the confluence of the North Fork Republican River and the Arikaree River just north of Haigler in Dundy County, Nebraska. It joins with the South Fork Republican River immediately southeast of Benkelman, Nebraska. All three tributaries originate in the High Plains of northeastern Colorado.{{cite gnis|id= 183028 |name=North Fork Republican River|access-date=2011-02-01}}{{cite gnis|id= 833592 |name=South Fork Republican River|access-date=2011-02-01}}{{cite gnis|id= 835484 |name=Arikaree River|access-date=2011-02-01}} From the confluence, the river flows generally eastward along the southern border of Nebraska, passing through Swanson Reservoir and Harlan County Reservoir before curving southward into the Smoky Hills region of Kansas. The Republican River joins the Smoky Hill River at Junction City, Kansas to form the Kansas River.

Some cities along the river are McCook, Nebraska, Clay Center, Kansas, Concordia, Kansas and Junction City, Kansas. Near Concordia is the Republican River Pegram Truss, a bridge that goes over the Republican River that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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The river was named after a branch of Pawnee Indians known as "the Republicans".Stewart, George R. (1967) Names on the Land. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 223.

As early as 1785, the Spanish and French had identified one of the villages of the Pawnee people as aldea de la Republica (little village of the Republic). A French traders' custom was to name rivers for the tribal villages located on their banks. In this way, the north fork of the Kansas River was named Fourche des Republiques or Fork of the Republics.{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/2003627086/ |title=Carte du Missouri : levee ou rectifiée dans toute son etendue |author=François-Marie Perrin du Lac |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |date=1802 |access-date=2017-01-01}}

The Kitkehahkis Pawnee villages farmed corn, beans, and pumpkin in the fertile Republican valley floor but seasonally left to hunt buffalo in the plains to the west and south.{{cite book|author= Hyde, George E. |title= The Pawnee Indians |publisher= University of Oklahoma Press |year= 1951 |pages= 104, 126, 174–175}}

The Kitkehahkis, or Republican Pawnee, occasionally abandoned and relocated various villages along the Republican River. In 1806, first the Spanish and then the Americans journeyed to the large Kitkehahkis village on Republican River, the Pike-Pawnee Village Site then near the present Guide Rock, Nebraska. Both parties were seeking the tribe's assistance in enforcing competing claims to the Louisiana Territory. Leading the much smaller American expedition, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike convinced the Kitkehahkis to accept the American Flag in place of the Spanish.

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|Description=Perrin du Lac’s "Map of the Banks of the Missouri River" (1802), locates the Pawnee Republic (Village des Republic) on the Republican Fork of the Kansas River}}In 1853, Fort Riley was established at the junction of the Republican with the Smoky Hill and Kansas Rivers. American settlement of the lower Republican River in began in the 1860s.{{cite book|author= Isaac O. Savage |title= A History of Republic County, Kansas |publisher= Jones & Chubbic |url= https://archive.org/details/historyofrepubli02sava |year= 1901 |page= [https://archive.org/details/historyofrepubli02sava/page/35 35] |access-date= 2017-01-08 }}

Prior to 1864, the Kansas River was publicly navigable under Kansas law. A side-wheel steamboat of 125 tons burden, Financier No. 2, reached the Republican River in 1855 and ascended it some 40 miles.{{cite journal |author= George A. Root |title= Ferries in Kansas, Part IV, Republican River |journal= Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains |volume= 3 |number= 3 |date= August 1934 |pages= 246–288|url= https://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-historical-quarterly-ferries-in-kansas-part-iv-republican-river/17901 |access-date= 2017-01-20 }} However, in 1864, railroad interests passed a bill through the Kansas Legislature entitled, "An act declaring the Kansas, Republican, Smoky Hill, Solomon, and Big Blue rivers not navigable, and authorizing the bridging of the same." Railroads were thus permitted to bridge or dam the Republican as if it were never declared navigable.{{cite book|author= Perl W. Morgan |publisher= The Lewis Publishing Company |title= History of Wyandotte County Kansas and its people |volume= 1 |chapter= Chapter XII. In the Old Steamboat Days. |chapter-url= http://www.ksgenweb.com/archives/wyandott/history/1911/volume1/ |year= 1911 |access-date= 2017-01-08 }}

The Kansas Pacific Railway reached the fork of the Republican in 1866, crossing into the Junction City town site. The Junction City and Fort Kearney Railroad was constructed up the valley of the Republican to Clay Center in 1873.{{cite web|title= The Junction City and Fort Kearney Railroad |url = http://www.abandonedrails.com/Junction_City_and_Fort_Kearney_Railroad |access-date= 2017-01-08}}

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|Description= The Kansas Pacific Railway bridge across the Republican River and behind that, a pontoon bridge. [ Alexander Gardner (photographer), 1867]{{cite AV media |author=Alex. Gardner, photographer |title=Crossing of the Republican, in Kansas, 136 miles west of Missouri River |work= Across the continent on the Kansas Pacific Railroad: route of the 35th parallel |publisher= 1869 (approximate) }} The present Union Pacific Railroad and Custer Road/Grant Road (previously U.S. Route 40) still bridge the Republican River at the same locations. Public access to the Kansas River National Water Trail is between the two bridges.}} {{clear}}

The 1864 law was repealed in 1913;{{cite journal |author=Edgar Langsdorf |title=A Review of Early Navigation on the Kansas River |journal= Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains |volume= 18 |number= 2 |date= May 1950 |pages= 140–145 |url= https://www.kshs.org/p/a-review-of-early-navigation-on-the-kansas-river/13091 |access-date= 2017-01-20 }} however, under Kansas Law, public access, whether for transport or recreation, is permitted only on publicly owned rivers. The State of Kansas owns only the Kansas and Arkansas Rivers as well as the portion of the Missouri River adjoining the northeastern corner of the state.{{cite web |title= Rivers and Streams Access |website= Kansas Outdoors |publisher= Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism |url=http://ksoutdoors.com/KDWPT-Info/Locations/Rivers-and-Streams-Access |access-date= 2017-01-20 }} As such, the limit of public river access is at the mouth of the Republican River. A public boat access ramp was opened on the mouth of the Republican River in 2009 just upstream of the railroad bridge,{{cite web |title= The Recreational Kaw |website= Friends of the Kaw |url= http://kansasriver.org/learn/life-on-the-kaw/the-recreational-kaw/ |access-date= 2017-01-20 }} providing access to the upper end of the Kansas River National Water Trail, a part of the National Water Trail program.{{citation |title= Kansas River Trail |publisher= Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism |url= http://www.recpro.org/assets/Conference_Proceedings/2016/2016_development_kansas_river_water_trail-wolfe.pdf |access-date= 2017-01-20 }}

Milford Lake, the largest man-made lake in Kansas, was completed on the Republican in 1967.

Allocation of the water from the Republican River is governed through an agreement called the Republican River Compact, involving the states of Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado, as modified by the settlement{{cite web |title=Final Settlement Stipulation, Kansas v. Nebraska |date=December 15, 2002 |url=http://dnr.ne.gov/Republican/SettlementDocs/FinalSettlement.pdf |access-date=2012-08-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528063332/http://jlear@dnr.ne.gov/Republican/SettlementDocs/FinalSettlement.pdf |archive-date=May 28, 2010}} of a United States Supreme Court case (Kansas vs. Nebraska and Colorado) involving a water-use dispute under the Compact.Kansas v. Nebraska, 538 U.S. 720 (2003) (per curiam order approving settlement).

File:RepublicanRiver1947.jpg and Webber, Kansas.]]

On July 9, 1902, the river flooded near Concordia, Kansas, breaking a dam and re-routing the river by a quarter-mile (about half a kilometer).A Proud Past... A Pictorial History of Concordia, Kansas, by Bell, Rachel Lowrey (1998), Marceline, Missouri: D-Books Publishing.

The storm of May 31 and June 1, 1935, (called "Nebraska's Deadliest Flood") dumped an average rainfall of {{convert|9|in|mm}} on the river's watershed. This storm was also unique in that it moved in the same direction as the drainage basin. As a result, the Frenchman, Red Willow, Medicine, Deer, Muddy, and Turkey creeks all reached their flood peaks at the same time as the crest passed on the Republican River.

According to witness accounts, the roar of the water could be heard coming down the Republican Valley {{convert|5|mi|km|0}} away. Many survivors also reported that there were two crests - the water came up on May 28, then receded slightly, but the second crest on June 1 greatly exceeded the first. At one point, the water rose {{convert|6|ft|m}} in 30 minutes and was {{convert|10|to|15|ft|m|0}} higher than the previous record crest. One eyewitness said the water level rose in some places at 10 miles per hour or more.The Republican River (2018), {{ISBN|978-1-7329009-0-5}} p. 74 Another account states that the Republican rose {{convert|10|ft|m|0}} in 12 minutes in McCook, destroying the structures in its path. Water was {{convert|20|ft|m|0}} deep in some places, and the discharge was {{convert|280000|cuft/s|m3/s}}, more than 320 times the normal flow today.

Estimates show 113 people killed. From 11,400 to 41,500 head of cattle were killed; one report said that carcasses littering the roads made them impassable. A total of {{convert|341|mi|km}} of highway and 307 bridges were destroyed, and {{convert|74500|acre|km2}} of farmland were inundated.[http://www.dnr.state.ne.us/floodplain/mitigation/1935flood.html Nebraska State Historical Society] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716143901/http://www.dnr.state.ne.us/floodplain/mitigation/1935flood.html |date=2011-07-16 }} "Republican Flood of 1935-Nebraska's Deadliest Flood"

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• List of Kansas rivers
• List of Nebraska rivers

{{reflist|30em}}

{{commons category|Republican River}}

• [http://water.state.co.us/SurfaceWater/Compacts/RepublicanRiver/Pages/RepublicanRiverHome.aspx Republican River Compact Compliance], State of Colorado
• [http://therepublicanriver.com The Republican River], A 2018 survey of the political and social ecology of the Republican River by Denis Boyles

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Category:Rivers of Kansas

Category:Rivers of Nebraska

Category:Bodies of water of Nuckolls County, Nebraska

Category:Bodies of water of Webster County, Nebraska

Category:Bodies of water of Franklin County, Nebraska

Category:Bodies of water of Harlan County, Nebraska

Category:Bodies of water of Furnas County, Nebraska

Category:Bodies of water of Red Willow County, Nebraska

Category:Bodies of water of Hitchcock County, Nebraska

Category:Bodies of water of Dundy County, Nebraska

Category:Tributaries of the Kansas River

Category:Bodies of water of Clay County, Kansas

Category:Bodies of water of Cloud County, Kansas

Category:Rivers of Geary County, Kansas