River
Neosho River
745 km from source to mouth · United States.
United StatesFlows into Arkansas River
In numbers
Length
745km
Average flow
280m³/s
Basin
32,800km²
Drop
261m
from 415 m to 154 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
745 km of river and 15 stops on the way: 5 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 415 m
- 30 kmCouncil Grove Lake10 km²
- 62 kmHarris Bridge
- 95 kmEmporia24,649 people
- 109 kmCottonwood Rivertributary
- 134 kmNeosho River Bridge
- 161 kmJohn Redmond Reservoir33 km²
- 234 kmIola5,470 people
- 275 kmChanute9,252 people
- 450 kmMiami12,969 people
- 476 kmSpring Rivertributary
- 506 kmElk Rivertributary
- 561 kmGrand Lake o' the Cherokees102 km²
- 623 kmLake Hudson16 km²
- 707 kmFitzgerald-Soldier Creek Site 1 Reservoir67 km²
- 719 kmFort Gibson4,083 people
- 745 kmArkansas Riverat 154 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in the United States of America
At the mouth it carries 285 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 8.8 seconds. It drops from 415 m to 154 m, 0.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 32,800 km², about the size of MD. 663,000 people live in it. Highest water: from May to June and November. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 75% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- EmporiaLargest city on its banks · 24,649 people
- Manhattan Regional Airport (MHK)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 92 km from the cityCar hire at MHK airport (Manhattan)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water75 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From April to May and from August to OctoberThe best months to visit
Neosho River, month by month
Highest water: from May to June and November
Best months to visit: from April to May and from August to October.
From about 130 m³/s in the lowest month to 460 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
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The basin
Neosho River: the basin in numbers
32,423 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 663,000people live in the basin
- 21/km²people per km²
- 328maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,028mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 13.6°Caverage air temperature
- 1%protected areas
- 1.2%covered by lakes
- 6.8km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 16% Forest
- 45% Cropland
- 27% Pasture
- 1% Towns and cities
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
Neosho River: what you find on the way
- 8WeirsPensacola East Spillway 2 Dam, Pensacola East Spillway 1 Dam and 6 more
- 1Waterfalls
- 74Boat ramps
- 1MarinasCypress Cove Marina
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.1 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Neosho 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.
5lakes on its wayLakeyas
Lakes and reservoirs (5)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Council Grove Lakekm 2210km²
- John Redmond Reservoirkm 11533km²
- Grand Lake o' the Cherokeeskm 402102km²
- Lake Hudsonkm 44616km²
- Fitzgerald-Soldier Creek Site 1 Reservoirkm 50667km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
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
Neosho River in pictures

Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Arkansas RiverTributaries (4)
Also: Elk River, Spring River, Cottonwood River, Indian Creek
In the same basin
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q516393) · 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 — 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?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.