The North Fork Ninnescah River is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

in the central

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. Its entire length lies within the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

. It is a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

of the

Ninnescah River The Ninnescah River is a river in the central Great Plains of North America. Its entire length lies within the U.S. state of Kansas. It is a tributary of the Arkansas River.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flow ...

Geography

The North Fork Ninnescah River originates in south-central Kansas in the

Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United Stat ...

Lowlands. Its source lies in extreme south-central Stafford County approximately south of

St. John, Kansas St. John is a city in and the county seat of Stafford County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 1,228. History The first settlement in what is today St. John was made in 1875 when William Bickerton o ...

. From there, it flows generally northeast before turning to the southeast near Plevna, Kansas. It then flows across a far eastern portion of the

High Plains High Plains refers to one of two distinct land regions: * High Plains (United States), land region of the western Great Plains *High Plains (Australia) The High Plains of south-eastern Australia are a sub-region, or more strictly a string of adja ...

into

Cheney Reservoir Cheney Reservoir is a reservoir on the North Fork Ninnescah River in Reno, Kingman, and Sedgwick counties of Kansas in the United States. Built and managed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for local water supply, it is also used for flood cont ...

in the Wellington Lowlands. From the reservoir's dam, the river continues southeast to its confluence with the

South Fork Ninnescah River The South Fork Ninnescah River is a river in the central Great Plains of North America. Its entire length lies within the U.S. state of Kansas. It is a tributary of the Ninnescah River. Geography The South Fork Ninnescah River originates in south ...

in southwestern Sedgwick County to form the

History

In 1965, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation completed a

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, a ...

on the river north of

Cheney, Kansas Cheney is a city in Sedgwick County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 2,181. History Cheney was founded in August, 1883. It was named for Benjamin P. Cheney, stockholder of the Atchison, Topeka and ...

for flood control and municipal water supply, creating

References

Rivers of Kansas {{Kansas-river-stub

Geography

History

See also

References