Chariton River

The Chariton River is a 218-mile-long tributary to the Missouri River in southeast Iowa and northeast Missouri. The river forms in southeastern Clarke County, Iowa. It is dammed at 11,000-acre Rathbun Reservoir in Appanoose County, Iowa and then flows 30 miles before entering Missouri where it forms the boundary between Putnam and Schuyler counties. It enters the Missouri River in Chariton County near Keytesville. 112 miles are in Missouri and 106 miles are in Iowa. The river has been called Missouri's "Grand Divide" because streams west of the Chariton flow into the Missouri and streams east of it flow into the Mississippi River.
The river is believed to have been named for Joseph Chorette, who drowned while swimming in the river as he accompanied the French Jean Baptiste Trudeau expedition up the Missouri in 1795. Variations of the name are Choret, Care and Carrette. Human occupation of the Chariton River valley dates back at least 1,500 years. Petroglyphs found at Thousand Hills State Park near the Chariton in Adair County featuring ceremonial carvings by Native Americans indicate early habitation as do a number of burial mounds found not far from the riverbanks. The petroglyph site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Chariton the Confessor was a 4th-century CE Christian saint from Asia Minor.

Wikipedia