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The Platte River (on the left) enters the Missouri
River just south of Council Bluffs, Iowa and Omaha, Nebraska. Lewis noted
that it brought a great deal of sand into the Missouri. We know now that
the sand is actually eroded material from the Rocky Mountains. The Platte
is still a wide and shallow river, and the channel is braided around numerous
islands and sand bars. The Platte is the last braided river of any length
in the west. The Missouri has undergone a great deal more engineering, and
has been changed by dams, levees and deepening and straightening of the
channel for navigation. Of the original 160 islands in the Missouri, only
18 remain. |
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