The Shortest River In The World
And why measuring rivers is so controversial
The largest rivers in the world are famous for their lengths and their girths. Everyone knows their names. Nile. Amazon. Mississippi. Yangzte. These rivers have dominated history for thousands of years. But what about the world’s shortest river?
You would think that it would be easy to point to the shortest river and say “yep, that’s it” but it is actually more complicated than that. No one can really agree on what the shortest river in the world actually is. Many rivers, especially streams, short rivers, and stumpy tributaries, are unnamed. Unnamed rivers are given no consideration when it comes to measuring official river lengths.
A perfect example of this problem is the race to gain the title of shortest river in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Roe River, USA
The Roe River is a short spit of water that resides in Montana and flows into the Missouri River. The river was unnamed until 1987 when school children from the area petitioned to have the river named so they could submit it to Guinness as a contender for the world’s shortest river. In 1987, the Guinness Book of World Records named D River the shortest.
