Yellowstone River

Water run off from high in the Absaroka Mountain Range, in northwestern Wyoming, forms the beginning off the Yellowstone River. The river officially begins where the water flowing down from Younts Peak, the north fork, joins up with the water coming off of the southern slope of Thorofare Mountain, the south fork.

The river then flows into one end of Yellowstone Lake and out the other both feeding and draining the lake. It continues through and out the north side of Yellowstone National park and then meanders through Montana. On its way it is fed by several other rivers including the Gardner, Shields, Lamar, Boulder, Stillwater, Big Horn, Tongue and Powder Rivers. The Yellowstone ends when it flows into the Missouri River in Western North Dakota just north of Lake Sakakawea.

The Yellowstone River was originally called E-chee-dick-karsh-ah-shay by the Crow Indians who lived along the upper Yellowstone. Translated this means Elk River. The Minnetaree Indians who lived along the lower Yellowstone called the river Mitse a-da-zi which translates as Yellow Rock River. Mountain men who lived in the area called the river Roche Jaune, which is the French translation of the Minnetaree name that the French trappers used. In the early 1800s Lewis and Clark came across the river and recorded it as Yellow Stone which they translated from the Minnetaree name.