Nishnabotna Township is a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

in Atchison County,

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') 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 border ...

, United States. At the 2020 census, its population was 129.

History

Nishnabotna Township was organized in 1845, taking its name from the

Nishnabotna River The Nishnabotna River () is a tributary of the Missouri River in southwestern Iowa, northwestern Missouri and southeastern Nebraska in the United States. It flows for most of its length as two parallel streams in Iowa, the East Nishnabotna R ...

which flows through it. Historically, Nishnabotna was thought to be a Native American name meaning "a river where boats were built". However, more recent research indicates that the name, which was adopted from the

Osage language Osage (; Osage: ''Wažáže ie'') is a Siouan language spoken by the people of the Osage Nation in northern Oklahoma. Their original territory was in the present-day Ohio River Valley, which they shared with other Siouan language nations. Slow ...

, means "spouting wellspring."

Geography

Nishnabotna Township covers an area of and contains one incorporated settlement, Watson. It contains two cemeteries: Addington and Sonora. The

enters the

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

in the northwest corner of the township. There is little physical relief, as the township lies almost entirely on the floodplains of the two rivers. The stream of High Creek runs through this township. Agriculture is the dominant land use. Evans Island is a land feature along the Missouri River that is located in the southwesternmost part of the township.

Transportation

Nishnabotna Township contains one airport, Garst Airport.

In the media

Nishnabotna Township is probably best known outside the immediate region for a reference by the ''

New Yorker New Yorker may refer to: * A resident of New York: ** A resident of New York City and its suburbs *** List of people from New York City ** A resident of the New York (state), State of New York *** Demographics of New York (state) * ''The New Yor ...

'' cartoonist George Booth, a native of Missouri. In a single-panel cartoon, one threadbare and addled character says to another as they cross a crowded street in New York City: "Mother always says that. Mother always says you have to be a little bit crazy to live in New York. Mother is a little bit crazy, but she doesn't live in New York. Mother lives in Nishnabotna, Missouri."

References

USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS)

External links

Townships in Atchison County, Missouri Townships in Missouri {{AtchisonCountyMO-geo-stub