Republican

River flowing through southern Nebraska and northeastern Kansas, USA; length 716 km/445 mi. It is formed by the confluence of the short North Fork and Colorado's Arikaree River at Haigler, Nebraska, and joins the Smoky Hill River at Junction City, Kansas, to form the Kansas River.

Dams on the Republican, including the Harlan Dam, near Alma, Nebraska, and the Milford Dam, near Junction City, are part of the Missouri River Basin project.

Course From Nebraska, the river flows generally east past McCook and along the southern edge of the High Plains, north of the Kansas border, then turns southeast near Superior and across Kansas, passing Concordia and Clay Center and through Milford Reservoir before joining the Smoky Hill River.

The Republican's tributaries, also dammed in places, include its South Fork, which joins it from the southwest, 32 km/20 mi east of its formation, near Benkelman, Nebraska; the Frenchman River, Red Willow Creek, and Medicine Creek (from the north); and the Beaver, Sappa, and Prairie Dog creeks (from the southwest).