River
James River
1,143 km from source to mouth · United States.
United StatesFlows into Missouri River
In numbers
Length
1,143km
Average flow
18m³/s
Basin
53,491km²
Drop
422m
from 772 m to 350 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
1,143 km of river and 11 stops on the way: 4 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmNebraskaat 772 m
- 32 kmEdward Arthur Patterson Lake1.8 km²
- 36 kmDickinson23,765 people
- 132 kmLake Tschida10 km²
- 250 kmMandan21,382 people
- 300 kmLake Robinson0.4 km²
- 635 kmLake Oahe1,093 km²
- 645 kmPierre14,091 people
- 772 kmLake Sharpe228 km²
- 1,053 kmLewis and Clark Lake85 km²
- 1,054 kmLake Yankton0.9 km²
- 1,061 kmYankton14,557 people
- 1,143 kmMissouri Riverat 350 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in North Dakota and South Dakota in the United States
At the mouth it carries 18 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 139 seconds. It drops from 772 m to 350 m, 0.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 53,491 km², about the size of BA. 1.4 million people live in it. Highest water: from June to July; lowest: from December to March. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 326% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- DickinsonLargest city on its banks · 23,765 people
- Dickinson Theodore Roosevelt Regional Airport (DIK)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 9 km from the cityCar hire in DickinsonDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water98 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
James River, month by month
Highest water: from June to July
Lowest water: from December to March. Freezing months (average below −4 °C): from December to February. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 340 m³/s in the lowest month to 2,200 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
James River: the basin in numbers
706,392 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1.4millionpeople live in the basin
- 2/km²people per km²
- 1,135maverage altitude of the basin
- 402mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 5.9°Caverage air temperature
- 5%protected areas
- 0.8%covered by lakes
- 97km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 14% Forest
- 25% Cropland
- 57% Pasture
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
James River: what you find on the way
- 1Weirs
- 94Boat rampsFox Island Boat Ramp, Little Heart Boat Ramp, Kimball Bottoms Boat Ramp and 91 more
- 3MarinasLewis & Clark Marina
- 2River beachesPebble Beach, Hobie Cat Beach
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.9 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
James River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
7lakes on its wayLakeyas
3mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (7)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Edward Arthur Patterson Lakekm 321.8km²
- Lake Tschidakm 13110km²
- Lake Robinsonkm 2970.4km²
- Lake Oahekm 628 · 62 m deep1,093km²
- Lake Sharpekm 764228km²
- Lewis and Clark Lakekm 1,041 · 14 m deep85km²
- Lake Yanktonkm 1,0430.9km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (3)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Peck Hill8.3 km away875m
- Buck Hill5.8 km away
- Saddle Butte8.1 km away
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
James River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Missouri RiverUnited States3,726 km2,500 m³/sTributaries (1)
Also: Elm River
In the same basin
United States3,766 km12,700 m³/sOhio RiverUnited States1,579 km8,000 m³/sArkansas RiverUnited States2,364 km240 m³/sTennessee RiverUnited States1,049 km2,000 m³/sRed RiverUnited States2,189 km1,900 m³/sYellowstone RiverUnited States1,114 km390 m³/sPlatte RiverUnited States500 km200 m³/sCanadian RiverUnited States1,458 km200 m³/sIllinois RiverUnited States432 km660 m³/sAllegheny RiverUnited States523 km560 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
United States915 km1,000 m³/s65 km awayPlatte RiverUnited States500 km200 m³/s232 km awayWhite RiverUnited States933 km990 m³/s202 km awayNorth Platte RiverUnited States1,152 km38 m³/s342 km awayCheyenne RiverUnited States475 km65 m³/s350 km awayMinnesota RiverUnited States534 km120 m³/s401 km awaySmoky Hill RiverUnited States925 km69 m³/s424 km awayKansas RiverUnited States238 km210 m³/s472 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1542610) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
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