River
St. Francis River
686 km from source to mouth · United States.
United StatesFlows into Mississippi River
In numbers
Length
686km
Average flow
400m³/s
Basin
19,554km²
Drop
215m
from 261 m to 46 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
686 km of river and 4 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 261 m
- 63 kmFredericktown4,429 people
- 192 kmLake Wappapello24 km²
- 221 kmFisk312 people
- 404 kmSt. Francis River Bridge
- 686 kmMississippi Riverat 46 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Arkansas and Missouri in the United States
At the mouth it carries 399 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 6.3 seconds. It drops from 261 m to 46 m, 0.3 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 19,554 km², about the size of SI. 404,000 people live in it. Highest water: from December to January and from March to April. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (12% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- FredericktownLargest city on its banks · 4,429 people
- Cape Girardeau Regional Airport (CGI)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 74 km from the cityCar hire at STL airport (St Louis)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water79 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe2 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- April, June and from August to OctoberThe best months to visit
St. Francis River, month by month
Highest water: from December to January and from March to April
Best months to visit: April, June and from August to October.
From about 130 m³/s in the lowest month to 740 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
St. Francis River: the basin in numbers
20,876 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 404,000people live in the basin
- 19/km²people per km²
- 108maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,227mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 14.9°Caverage air temperature
- 3%protected areas
- 0.5%covered by lakes
- 1.5km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 25% Forest
- 66% Cropland
- 2% 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
St. Francis River: what you find on the way
- 2WaterfallsBig Drop, Cats Paw
- 2RapidsTiemann Shut-in, Mud Creek Shut-in
- 79Boat rampsSyenite Access, Roselle Access, James Clark Access and 76 more
- 2River beaches
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.0 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
St. Francis 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.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
40mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake Wappapellokm 15224km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (40)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Taum Sauk Mountain13 km away · prominence 156 m540m
- Russell Mountain12 km away526m
- Pilot Knob8.2 km away448m
- Shepherd Mountain8.8 km away487m
- Anderson Mountain9.0 km away447m
- Buck Mountain9.4 km away495m
- Bald Knob14 km away480m
- Hughes Mountain14 km away
32 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
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
St. Francis River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Mississippi RiverUnited States3,766 km12,700 m³/sTributaries (5)
Also: Big Creek, Stouts Creek, Bennett Creek, Little River, Little Saint Francis River
In the same basin
United States3,726 km2,500 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 States2,364 km240 m³/s106 km awayWhite RiverUnited States1,162 km740 m³/s87 km awayOhio RiverUnited States1,579 km8,000 m³/s294 km awayTennessee RiverUnited States1,049 km2,000 m³/s328 km awayCumberland RiverUnited States1,107 km860 m³/s339 km awayRed RiverUnited States2,189 km1,900 m³/s414 km awayMissouri RiverUnited States3,726 km2,500 m³/s467 km awayCanadian RiverUnited States1,458 km200 m³/s414 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1108022) · 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
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