Canadian

River in New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma, USA, flowing into the Arkansas River, Oklahoma; length 1,459 km/906 mi. It is formed east of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Colfax County, New Mexico, partly by headstreams flowing from Colorado. It flows south-southeast into the dam-created Conchas Reservoir, then east into the Texas Panhandle. There it winds east-northeast through Lake Meredith and into Oklahoma, where it continues east almost the width of the state. Along the way it flows through southwestern Oklahoma City, north of Ada, and into dam-created Eufaula Lake, near the city of Eufaula (McIntosh County; population (1990) 2,700), where it is joined by the North Canadian River (also known as the Beaver River). It then continues east-northeast to join the Arkansas River, 40 km/25 mi southeast of Muskogee. The river is not navigable, but is an important irrigation source.

The river's name is probably a corruption of a Caddoan word for ‘red stream’.