How Much Do You Know About U.S. Rivers?

They benefit people, wildlife, ecosystems, and economies—but many face serious threats

Quiz June 9, 2021

Projects: U.S. Public Lands and Rivers Conservation & U.S. Conservation

River systems—which include riverine wetlands—account for just .001% of all water on Earth but supply two-thirds of our drinking water in the U.S. What percentage of the planet’s rivers are both accessible by people and necessary for life?
Zach Collier/Northwest Rafting Co.
1. 50%
2. 10%
3. 1%
4. 5%
5. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, rivers and their associated wetlands supply 10% of all accessible (that is, not locked up in ice caps, glaciers, and permafrost) and necessary water.
This proposed dam, first considered in the 1930s, would have created a 12,000-acre, 37-mile-long lake on a river that runs through four states. The project, which would have been the eighth-largest undertaking by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was abandoned in the 1970s and officially deauthorized in 2002, and this waterway is now designated as a National Scenic and Recreational River and National Recreation Area. Where was the dam to be located?
George Pankewytch/Flickr Creative Commons
1. Cottonwood Island, Colorado River
2. Tocks Island, Delaware River
3. Bloody Island, Mississippi River
4. Roosevelt Island, Potomac River
5. The plan to dam the Delaware River was abandoned when the governors of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Delaware met with Congress and voted against the dam 3-1. You can read more about it in this 1975 New York Times article about the vote.
This Western state is home to the headwaters of the Snake River, which serves as a critical habitat for Pacific salmon. These salmon are a keystone species in a food web that sustains Southern Resident killer whales in the Pacific Ocean as well as wolves, bears, eagles, and myriad other species in the Columbia-Snake River Basin.
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1. Idaho
2. Washington
3. California
4. Wyoming
5. The Snake River headwaters are in Wyoming. Unfortunately, this river tops the list of American Rivers’ Most Endangered Rivers.
The movie “A River Runs Through It” is based on the true story of two boys growing up and fly-fishing along the Blackfoot River. But the film was shot on a different river. Where was it filmed?
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1. Flathead River
2. Clark Fork River
3. Gallatin River
4. Madison River
5. A 2019 Forbes article reports: “Travelers (both fly-fishers and land-lubbers alike) are still making a pilgrimage to Montana to find out if that river will give them the same transcendent experience that lifts the family in the film.”
The American writer, philosopher, and abolitionist Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote the oft-quoted phrase “the shot heard round the world” in a poem about events spanning which river, which in 1999 was designated as wild and scenic?
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1. Concord River
2. Charles River
3. Upper Delaware River
4. York River
5. The poem, “Concord Hymn,” commemorates the Battle of Concord, which occurred April 19, 1775. The battle was fought at Old North Bridge—now part of Minuteman National Historical Park—which spans the Wild and Scenic Concord River in Concord, Massachusetts. You can read the poem on the Poetry Foundation’s website.
What is the tallest U.S. waterfall ever run by a kayaker?
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1. 189-foot Palouse Falls on the Palouse River in Washington
2. 76-foot Great Falls on the Potomac River in Maryland
3. 30-foot Gluteal Mash on the North Fork of the Blackwater River in West Virginia
4. 80-foot Rainbow Falls on the Wailuku River in Hawaii
5. Palouse Falls is the tallest waterfall ever kayaked in the world. Two people have done it—Tyler Bradt in 2009 and Knox Hammack in 2019—and both emerged without injury.