North Platte River

river, United States
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North Platte River, one of the two main arms of the Platte River, rising in north-central Colorado, U.S. It rises in several headstreams in the Medicine Bow and Park ranges and the Rabbit Ears Range and flows north into Wyoming, bends east-southeast at Casper, and continues into western Nebraska past Scottsbluff to North Platte city. There, after a 680-mile (1,094-kilometre) course, it joins the South Platte River to form the Platte River. On the Wyoming-Nebraska boundary the river flows through Goshen Hole, where its valley widens to 50 miles (80 km) in places.

The North Platte is part of a comprehensive, multipurpose (irrigation, power, flood-control) project of the Missouri River basin. It has large reservoirs and dams (including Pathfinder, 1909; Guernsey, 1927; Seminoe, 1939; Alcova, 1938; Kingsley, 1941; Kortes, 1951; and Glendo, 1958). The North Platte’s chief tributaries are the Sweetwater, Laramie, and Medicine Bow rivers.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.