White River

River flowing through Arkansas and Missouri, USA; length 1,160 km/720 mi. It rises in northwest Arkansas and flows through Beaver Lake, into Missouri, through Table Rock Lake and Bull Shoals Lake, back into Arkansas, and empties into the Mississippi opposite Rosedale, Mississippi.

The White River is the major river of the Ozark Plateau, and its lakes are popular recreational areas.

Course It rises on the north side of the Boston Mountains and flows northwest, to the east of Fayetteville, and northeast through dam-created (1965) Beaver Lake to the Missouri border, where it passes through Table Rock Lake, created by a dam (1959) southwest of Branson. It then winds generally southeast through Lake Taneycomo and Bull Shoals Lake (1957), back across the Arkansas border, and continues southeastwards. The Buffalo River joins it at Buffalo City, and the North Fork at Norfork. The White River passes Batesville (the head of shallow-draft navigation) on its way to Newport, where the Black River joins it. From Newport it flows south across the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, through the White River National Wildlife Refuge, to the Mississippi. A cutoff channel just above its mouth joins it with the Arkansas River.