Many rivers have been named for the red color of their sediment,
among them:
-
A river that rises just south of Amarillo, Texas and flows
eastward for about 500 miles (320 km), forming the boundary between Texas
on the south and Oklahoma and Arkansas on the north. The river then
turns south, running through Arkansas and Louisiana. This river was
once a tributary of the Mississippi River, but as a result of human activity
(see Old River) all of its water now drains into the Atchafalaya instead.
The Red River has an extremely constrained drainage basin; the drainage
areas of major Texas rivers to the south (the Brazos, Trinity, and Sabine Rivers) come almost to the Red River's floodplain.
In addition, the Arkansas River system takes up most of the space to
the north.
The only large cities on the Red River are Shreveport
and Alexandria, Louisiana, but Wichita
Falls and Denison, Texas are nearby, as is Texarkana Texas/Arkansas.
A dam near Denison, Texas forms Lake Texoma. This is the
Red River the song "Red River Valley" is about.
-
The Red River of the North starts at the confluence of the Bois
de Sioux River and Otter Tail River near Breckenridge, MN. It
then flows northward, forming the border between Minnesota and North
Dakota, and then into Manitoba where it empties into Lake Winnipeg.
Major cities on the Red River are Fargo, North Dakota; Moorhead, Minnesota; Grand Forks, North Dakota, and
Winnipeg, Manitoba. The river valley is extremely flat, being the southern part of the former basin of Lake Agassiz.
-
In Kentucky, a river rising in eastern Wolfe
County and flowing westward through Wolfe and Powell
counties and empties into the Kentucky River. A stretch of the river
in Daniel Boone National Forest is home to a gorge
that is on the National Wild And Scenic Rivers list, and also a major
whitewater destination.
-
A very small river, running for about 20 miles west through Nez Perce
National Forest south of Elk City, Idaho, here it empties
into the South Fork of the Clearwater River.
-
Song Hong (Yuan Jiang), rising just south of Xiaguan in northwestern
Yunnan Province in China and flowing southeast into Vietnam where
it eventually flows into Vinh Bac Phan. Hanoi
lies at the apex of the river's delta, and Haiphong at the outflow
of the largest distributary. Near Hanoi, the Paul Doumer Bridge
was the most frequently-bombed (and rebuilt) target during the Vietnam
War. This is another river much constrained by larger rivers (in
this case, the Yangtze and Mekong).