River
Osage River
444 km from source to mouth · United States.
United StatesFlows into Missouri River
In numbers
Length
444km
Average flow
310m³/s
Basin
39,627km²
Drop
63m
from 222 m to 159 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
444 km of river and 11 stops on the way: 6 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmMarais des Cygnes Riverat 222 m
- 11 kmMarais des Cygnes Rivertributary
- 11 kmLittle Osage Rivertributary
- 75 kmSac Rivertributary
- 142 kmHarry S. Truman Reservoir187 km²
- 147 kmWarsaw2,209 people
- 183 kmRiverview3,014 people
- 265 kmOsage Beach4,433 people
- 296 kmLake of the Ozarks176 km²
- 296 kmLake Ozark2,077 people
- 323 kmTuscumbia188 people
- 400 kmWardsville1,599 people
- 444 kmMissouri Riverat 159 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Missouri, United States
At the mouth it carries 308 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 8.1 seconds. It drops from 222 m to 159 m, 0.1 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 39,627 km², about the size of CH. 11.9 million people live in it. Highest water: from May to June. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 151% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- Osage BeachLargest city on its banks · 4,433 people
- Waynesville-St. Robert Regional Airport-Forney Field (TBN)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 62 km from the cityCar hire at SGF airport (Springfield)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water452 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to OctoberThe best months to visit
Osage River, month by month
Highest water: from May to June
Best months to visit: from June to October.
From about 1,500 m³/s in the lowest month to 4,700 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
Osage River: the basin in numbers
1,311,334 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 11.9millionpeople live in the basin
- 9/km²people per km²
- 1,002maverage altitude of the basin
- 507mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 7.4°Caverage air temperature
- 4%protected areas
- 0.7%covered by lakes
- 134km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 12% Forest
- 37% Cropland
- 44% 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
Osage River: what you find on the way
- 2Waterfalls
- 433Boat rampsTaberville Access, Sac RIver Access, Crowe's Crossing Access and 430 more
- 17MarinasTruman State Park Marina, Hiawatha Beach Resort, Patriot Point Marina and 14 more
- 1River beachesGrand Glaize Beach
From OpenStreetMap, within 3.1 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Osage 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.
2lakes on its wayLakeyas
5mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (2)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Harry S. Truman Reservoirkm 135187km²
- Lake of the Ozarkskm 280176km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (5)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Pepper Hill4.3 km away
- Timber Hill7.4 km away
- Blue Mound3.5 km away
- Deer Mound5.8 km away
- Hammer Hill11 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
Osage River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Missouri RiverUnited States3,726 km2,500 m³/sTributaries (6)
Also: Marais des Cygnes River, Little Osage River, Pomme de Terre River, Sac River, Bois Brule Creek, Clear Creek
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 States432 km660 m³/s133 km awayDes Moines RiverUnited States845 km250 m³/s200 km awayKansas RiverUnited States238 km210 m³/s239 km awayOhio RiverUnited States1,579 km8,000 m³/s305 km awayTennessee RiverUnited States1,049 km2,000 m³/s340 km awayIowa RiverUnited States520 km280 m³/s293 km awayCumberland RiverUnited States1,107 km860 m³/s348 km awayWabash RiverUnited States960 km1,000 m³/s351 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1619907) · 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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