| Photographs of the Arkansas River by Tamara Pittman Breckinridge |
| This site is dedicated to displaying artifacts and fossils from the Arkansas River and its tributaries. However, the river itself is a thing of great beauty and interest; and as such deserves to be represented here as well. Prairie rivers, such as the Arkansas, Missouri, Platte, Kansas, Blue, Republican and the Canadian, just to name a few are very different from rivers on the west and east coasts. For one thing, they tend to have sandy bottoms with intermittent gravel bars composed of colorful stones. Also, the river beds themselves are generally quite broad with meandering channels snaking and braiding from bank to bank. Of course, after heavy rains they can fill up their beds quickly...prairie rivers drain large flat areas. |
| Prairie river gravel bars contain an astounding variety of multicolored rocks, fossils, artifacts both ancient and modern...as well as exotic and beautiful plants and animals. |
| Spending time in the Arkansas River bed is like travelling to a distant habitat . It can be very windy and exhibit temperature extremes. In the winter it is often ten to twenty degrees colder than the higher and drier surrounding air. In the summer it can be ten to twenty degrees hotter because the sand holds heat, there is no shade and it is more humid. Since our Oklahoma summer temperatures are frequently over 100 degrees that makes for a very inhospitable environment. You have to be highly motivated and in good physical shape to withstand year-round river excursions. |
