The Castor River is divided into the Upper Castor River and the Lower Castor River by the

Headwater Diversion Channel The Headwater Diversion Channel is a canal in southeast Missouri. Flowing west to east, it diverts the headwaters of the Castor and Whitewater rivers and Crooked Creek directly into the Mississippi River south of Cape Girardeau. It was built bet ...

. The Upper Castor rises in the southern corner of Ste. Genevieve County of southeast

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

about ten miles north-northeast of Fredericktown. The river flows south through eastern Madison County into the eastern edge of Wayne County to

Bollinger County Bollinger County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Missouri. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 10,567. The county seat is Marble Hill. The county was officially organized in 1851. Bollinger Co ...

where it empties into the

, which flows into the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

just south of

Cape Girardeau Cape Girardeau ( , french: Cap-Girardeau ; colloquially referred to as "Cape") is a city in Cape Girardeau and Scott Counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. At the 2020 census, the population was 39,540. The city is one of two principal citi ...

.''Missouri Atlas & Gazetteer,'' DeLorme, 1998, First edition, pp. 58 and 67 The Lower Castor River south of the Diversion Channel flows south where it joins the

Little River Little River may refer to several places: Australia Streams New South Wales *Little River (Dubbo), source in the Dubbo region, a tributary of the Macquarie River * Little River (Oberon), source in the Oberon Shire, a tributary of Coxs River (Haw ...

. Castor is a name derived from French meaning "beaver". The stream was mentioned by

Henry Schoolcraft Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (March 28, 1793 – December 10, 1864) was an American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his 1832 expedition to the source of the Mississippi R ...

in his 1818 report on his exploration of southern Missouri.

References

Rivers of Missouri Rivers of Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri Rivers of St. Francois County, Missouri Rivers of Bollinger County, Missouri Rivers of Wayne County, Missouri Rivers of Madison County, Missouri Rivers of Cape Girardeau County, Missouri {{Missouri-river-stub

See also

References