, image = James River in Jamestown, N.D.jpg , image_caption = Flowing through

Jamestown, North Dakota Jamestown is a city in Stutsman County, North Dakota, United States. It is the county seat of Stutsman County. The population was 15,849 at the 2020 census, making it the ninth largest city in North Dakota. Jamestown was founded in 1883 and i ...

, image_size = 300 , map = JamesCourseWatershed1.png , map_size = 300 , map_caption = The course and watershed of the James River. , pushpin_map = , pushpin_map_size = 300 , pushpin_map_caption= , subdivision_type1 = Country , subdivision_name1 =

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, subdivision_type2 = State , subdivision_name2 =

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

, subdivision_type3 = , subdivision_name3 = , subdivision_type4 = , subdivision_name4 = , subdivision_type5 = Cities , subdivision_name5 =

Jamestown, ND Jamestown is a city in Stutsman County, North Dakota, Stutsman County, North Dakota, United States. It is the county seat of Stutsman County. The population was 15,849 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities i ...

Aberdeen, SD Aberdeen (Lakota: ''Ablíla'') is a city in and the county seat of Brown County, South Dakota, United States, located approximately northeast of Pierre. The city population was 28,495 at the 2020 census, making it the third most populous city ...

, Huron, SD,

Mitchell, SD Mitchell is a city in and the county seat of Davison County, South Dakota, Davison County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 15,660 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census making it the List of cities in South Dakota, sixth mos ...

, Yankton, SD , length = , width_min = , width_avg = , width_max = , depth_min = , depth_avg = , depth_max = , discharge1_location= Scotland, SD , discharge1_min = , discharge1_avg = , discharge1_max = , source1 = Unnamed pond , source1_location = Wells County,

, source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , mouth = Missouri River , mouth_location = Yankton County, near Yankton,

, mouth_coordinates = , mouth_elevation = , progression = , river_system = , basin_size = , tributaries_left = , tributaries_right = , custom_label = , custom_data = , extra = The James River (also known as the Jim River or the Dakota River) is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 710 miles (1,140 km) long, draining an area of 20,653 square miles (53,490 km²) in the U.S. states of

and

. About 70 percent of the drainage area is in South Dakota. The river provides the main drainage of the flat lowland area of the Dakotas between the two

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ha ...

regions known as the

Missouri Coteau The Missouri Coteau, or Missouri Plateau, (french: Coteau du Missouri) is a large plateau that stretches along the eastern side of the valley of the Missouri River in central North Dakota and north-central South Dakota in the United States. In t ...

and the

Coteau des Prairies The Coteau des Prairies is a plateau approximately 200 miles in length and 100 miles in width (320 by 160 km), rising from the prairie flatlands in eastern South Dakota, southwestern Minnesota, and northwestern Iowa in the United States. ...

. This narrow area was formed by the James lobe of the

Laurentide Ice Sheet The Laurentide Ice Sheet was a massive sheet of ice that covered millions of square miles, including most of Canada and a large portion of the Northern United States, multiple times during the Quaternary glacial epochs, from 2.58 million years a ...

during the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

, and as a consequence the watershed of the river is slender and it has few major tributaries for a river of its length. The James drops approximately per , and this low gradient sometimes leads to reverse flow. Reverse flow occurs when high inflow from tributaries leads to James River water flowing upstream for several miles above the joining water. This happens most frequently north of

Huron, South Dakota Huron is a city in Beadle County, South Dakota, United States. It is the county seat of Beadle County. The '' Huron Daily Plainsman'', also referred to as the ''Plainsman'', is the newspaper. The first settlement at Huron was made in 1880. The ci ...

. The river arises in

Wells County, North Dakota Wells County is a county in the U.S. state of North Dakota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,982. Its county seat is Fessenden. History The Dakota Territory legislature created the county on January 4, 1873. Its government was not ...

, approximately 10 mi (16 km) northwest of

Fessenden Fessenden may refer to: People * Fessenden (surname) * Larry Fessenden (born March 23, 1963), an American actor, producer, writer, director, film editor, and cinematographer * Fessenden Nott Otis (1825-c. 1900), American pioneer in the medical fie ...

. It flows briefly east towards New Rockford, then generally SSE through eastern North Dakota, past Jamestown, where it is first impounded by a large reservoir (the

Jamestown Dam The Jamestown Dam is a rolled-earth dam spanning the James River in Stutsman County in the U.S. state of North Dakota, serving the primary purpose of flood control. It is north of the city of Jamestown, North Dakota. Built from April 1952 to Septe ...

), and then joined by the

Pipestem River The Pipestem River is a short river in east-central North Dakota. The river is also referred to as "Pipestem Creek". It flows briefly from Wells County into reservoir formed by Pipestem Dam north-northwest of Jamestown, North Dakota North ...

. It enters northeastern South Dakota in Brown County, where it is impounded to form two reservoirs northeast of

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

. At Columbia, it is joined by the Elm River. Flowing southward across eastern South Dakota, it passes Huron and

Mitchell Mitchell may refer to: People *Mitchell (surname) *Mitchell (given name) Places Australia * Mitchell, Australian Capital Territory, a light-industrial estate * Mitchell, New South Wales, a suburb of Bathurst * Mitchell, Northern Territo ...

, where it is joined by the Firesteel Creek. South of Mitchell, it flows southeast and joins the Missouri just east of Yankton. The James River flows fully across the state of South Dakota, the only river other than the Missouri to do so. River conditions during normal years include still water on both the James and its tributaries as well as flooding. Floods occur after snowmelt or heavy rains, as water easily breaches the James' low banks, and such floods tend to cover a significant portion of the floodplain. When the river is still, water quality drops.

History

Originally called ''E-ta-zi-po-ka-se Wakpa'' ("unnavigable river") in the

Sioux language Sioux is a Siouan language spoken by over 30,000 Sioux in the United States and Canada, making it the fifth most spoken indigenous language in the United States or Canada, behind Navajo, Cree, Inuit languages, and Ojibwe. Regional variation Si ...

, the river was given the name ''Riviere aux Jacques'' in 1794 by Jean Trudeau, a French trader. This name was subsequently anglicized to James River, which was the name used by local whites at the time

Dakota Territory The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of No ...

was incorporated. However, the Dakota Territory

Organic Act In United States law, an organic act is an act of the United States Congress that establishes a territory of the United States and specifies how it is to be governed, or an agency to manage certain federal lands. In the absence of an organ ...

of 1861 renamed it the ''Dakota River''. The new name failed to gain popular usage and the river retains its pre-1861 name. Unrelated to the name of the river, the settlement of

was named by

Thomas L. Rosser Thomas Lafayette "Tex" Rosser (October 15, 1836 – March 29, 1910) was a Confederate major general during the American Civil War, and later a railroad construction engineer and in 1898 a brigadier general of volunteers in the United States Army ...

, a former Confederate general who helped to build the

Northern Pacific Railroad The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by 38th United States Congress, Congress in 1864 and given ...

across what became North Dakota, after the English colony of Jamestown in his native Virginia.

References

{{Authority control Rivers of North Dakota Rivers of South Dakota Tributaries of the Missouri River Bodies of water of Wells County, North Dakota Bodies of water of Eddy County, North Dakota Bodies of water of Stutsman County, North Dakota Rivers of Brown County, South Dakota Rivers of Beadle County, South Dakota Rivers of Davison County, South Dakota Rivers of Yankton County, South Dakota Rivers of Spink County, South Dakota

History

See also

References