The Buffalo River is 150 miles long.
The Buffalo National River begins as a trickle in the Boston Mountains, where it flows north and then eastward through the Ozark Mountains until it merges 150 miles later with the White River at Buffalo City.
Also the Buffalo River was designated as the nation's first National River by Congress in 1972 to preserve its clean water and other outstanding values.
But today, a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation feeding 80,000 hogs per year generates waste equivalent to a city of 30,000 people along a Buffalo River tributary.
By 1828, Native Americans were moved to present day Oklahoma and Europeans began to hunt, trap and settle the area moving up the White River. A land grant in 1793 records the area as Cibolo (Spanish for American buffalo) providing the first recorded time the area was named Buffalo.
While the Buffalo is one of the cleanest rivers in America, you should always purify its water before drinking.
Wildlife watchers frequently spot elk, white-tailed deer, mink, river otters, beavers, raccoons, opossums, bobcats, black bears, turkey vultures, black vultures, bald eagles and osprey.
Unlike rivers that are fed by perennial springs, the Buffalo is largely rainfall dependent. In dry years, the paddling season is short and quickly moves down into the Middle and Lower Districts.