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kmosiman t1_jb19exo wrote

Reply to comment by Hiiipower111 in TIL Until 1921 the Colorado River did not flow through the State of Colorado. It took an act of Congress to “move” the river into the state by renaming the Grand River and adding it to the Colorado River. by triviafrenzy

Ok so the Mississippi-Ohio-Missouri river has 3 main branches. The Mississippi runs mostly North-south the Missouri runs from the West and the Ohio from the East all committed g together on the Illinois border.

The Ohio is the largest by volume so if you were an explorer finding a brand new river on the coast you'd trace the river up sticking with the biggest one every time there were 2 streams coming together. This would mean that the end of the "new" river would be the Ohio River.

Now depending on the time of year and recent rains this could get tricky because the Mississippi might be bigger than the Ohio at the convergence some of the time, but on average the Ohio is the bigger river where they merge.

If you traced the river and wanted to get the longest river you'd have to follow the smaller branch and trace it up the Missouri River.

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