page_title: Big Blue River (Kansas)
section_title: River course
hierarchical_section_title: Big Blue River (Kansas) / River course
caption_attribution_description: Picture facing south of the big blue River above Manhattan, Kansas
context_page_description: The Big Blue River is the largest tributary of the Kansas River. The river flows for approximately 359 miles from central Nebraska into Kansas, until its confluence with the Kansas River at Manhattan.
  It was given its name by the Kansa tribe of Native Americans, who lived at its mouth from 1780 to 1830, and who called it the Great Blue Earth River.
context_section_description: The river passes through mostly agricultural land.  Some of the larger towns along its course, in addition to Manhattan, Kansas, include Beatrice, Nebraska; Crete, Nebraska; and Seward, Nebraska.
  Shortly before intersecting with the Kansas River, the Big Blue discharges its waters into a reservoir called Tuttle Creek Lake, which lies slightly northeast of Manhattan.  The reservoir is a man-made flood-control measure, held back by a dam composed of the limestone, silt, and gypsum dredged out of the floodplain by bulldozers left to rust underneath the flooded area.  The land surrounding the reservoir is a state park area, although the Great Flood of 1993 decimated much of the northern area.
  The river continues as the outflow from Tuttle Creek Lake for approximately five miles before intersecting with the Kansas River east of Manhattan.
caption: Big Blue River south of Tuttle Creek Lake
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "OLYMPUS OPTICAL CO.,LTD", "Image Model": "C4100Z,C4000Z", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Microsoft Windows Photo Gallery 6.0.6001.18000", "Image DateTime": "2011:04:10 17:37:03", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2372", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "96", "Thumbnail YResolution": "96", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5830", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "2249", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1000", "EXIF FNumber": "16/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "0000:00:00 00:00:00", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "0000:00:00 00:00:00", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "191/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2288", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1712", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "5672", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "6E6F39FEB5AE40EE89F37DF1997D343E", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "3914"}