Longest River Quiz

Port Townsend, today. For the past week, we have been running a quiz, asking readers to pick "the longest river." Their choices were:

• Colorado (3)
• Columbia (0)
• Mississippi (8)
• Missouri (5)
• Yukon (5)
  

Reader "votes" are contained in the brackets.

However, based on "official" records from the United States Geological Survey, the longest rivers, in descending order are:



Named after the North American Indian Tribe, Missouria, the Missouri River's place in American history begins, as you recall from your high school history class, with explorers Jaques Marquette and Louis Joliet.

They discovered the Missouri in 1673, naming it the "Peki-tan River" on early French maps.


The Missouri became part of the American conversation with the Lewis and Clark "Voyage of Discovery," which began in St. Louis on May 14, 1804.

Testimony once again that "Oil-Electric" goes beyond the headline "to edify and elucidate."