WSP10478

• File Number: 8407.600
• Description: Platte River Basin - River Basin General Publications - Kansas General Publications
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 12/1/1942
• Author: Kansas Board of Agri
• Title: Report of the State Board of Agriculture - Volume LXI - Progress on a State Plan of Water Resources Development
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

1-

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THE REPUBLICAN RIVER BASIN

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

Some work has been done by the Division of Water Resources in
the Republican river basin incident to current investigations being
made by both the War Department and the Bureau of Reclamation.
The work was limited to the surveying and mapping of several
reservoir sites and the route of a possible irrigation canal, and was
done for the purpose of bringing the information to the attention of
the respective federal departments concerned. It is expected that
these projects will be given more detailed consideration as studies
are made in connection with the preparation of a state plan of water
resources development for the Kansas portion of the Republican
ri ver basin.
The Republican river drainage basin includes an area of 25,500
square miles, of which .31 percent is located in northeastern Colo-
rado, 39 percent in southern Nebraska and 30 percent in northwest
and north central Kansas. A map of the basin is shown in Figure 7.
The main stem of the river extends generally through the center of
the basin with tributaries entering from both sides. The somewhat
radial arrangement of tributaries above Republican City, Neb., re-
sults in a sort of fan-shaped watershed above that point constituting
83 percent of the area of the basin. The lower portion of the basin
is about 160 miles long between Republican City, Neb., and Junction
City, Kan., and averages only about 35 miles in width. The distance
by river from the mouth of Prairie Dog creek to the confluence of
the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers is 240 miles.
The headwater regions of the Republican river constitute the
western extremities of the Kansas river basin. It is of importance
to note that this area does not extend to the mountains where melt-
ing snows could provide at least a part of the summer water supply.
The most westerly point on the boundary of the watershed is in the
vicinity of Limon, Colo., some 90 miles southeast of the city of
Denver. This point is at an elevation of about 6,360 feet above sea
level, exceeding the elevation of Denver. It is at the east end of a
broad ridge extending northeastward over the plains from Palmer
Lake, between Colorado Springs and Denver and is common to the
boundaries of the Platte, Arkansas, and Republican river drainage

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