Missouri National Recreational River preserves rare free-flowing reaches of the Missouri River along the Nebraska-South Dakota border, including stretches between Gavins Point Dam and Ponca State Park, Fort Randall Dam and Niobrara, plus parts of the Niobrara River and Verdigre Creek. These are the only remaining undammed or unchannelized sections between Montana and the Missouri’s mouth, retaining braided channels, sandbars, backwaters, and floodplain forests that support rich wildlife, including threatened and endangered species. Long inhabited by Indigenous communities, this corridor later served traders, the Lewis and Clark expedition, steamboats, and settlers. Its protection reflects the need to preserve the historic lower Missouri after major twentieth-century dam construction reshaped the river.