Red River of the South in the context of "Distributary"

The Mississippi River System, also referred to as the Western Rivers, is a mostly riverine network of the United States which includes the Mississippi River and connecting waterways. The Mississippi River is the largest drainage basin in the United States. In the United States, the Mississippi drains about 41% of the country's rivers.

From the perspective of natural geography and hydrology, the system consists of the Mississippi River itself and its numerous natural tributaries and distributaries. The major tributaries are the Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio and Red rivers. Given their flow volumes, major Ohio River tributaries like the Allegheny, Tennessee, and Wabash rivers are considered important tributaries to the Mississippi system. Before the Mississippi River reaches the Gulf of Mexico, it runs into its distributary, the Atchafalaya River.

North Texas is a term used primarily by residents of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex to refer to a geographic area of Texas, generally considered to include the area south of Oklahoma, east of Abilene, west of Paris, and north of Waco. Definitions of the region typically do not include the sparsely populated Panhandle of Texas, which is the northernmost region of Texas bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east.

North Texas is centered upon the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the largest metropolitan area in Texas and the Southern United States. People in the Dallas and Fort Worth areas sometimes use the terms Metroplex, DFW, and North Texas interchangeably. However, North Texas refers to a much larger area that includes many northern rural counties along the Red River of the South border.

The Atchafalaya River (/əˌtʃæf.əˈlaɪ.ə/) is a 137-mile-long (220 km) distributary of the Mississippi River and Red River in south central Louisiana in the United States. It flows south, just west of the Mississippi River, and is the fifth largest river in North America, by discharge. The name Atchafalaya comes from Choctaw for 'long river', from hachcha, 'river', and falaya, 'long'.

The Trinity River is a 710-mile (1,140 km) river. It rises in extreme northern Texas, a few miles south of the Red River. The headwaters are separated by the high bluffs on the southern side of the Red River.

The Trinity River was previously identified as the stream that the Caddo called Arkikosa in Central Texas and Daycoa nearer the coast. However, in 2022, language preservationists from the Caddo Nation determined their ancestral language lacked the letter “R” sound. Arkikosa was likely a corruption or misspelling of the word Akokisa. In the vernacular of another tribe, the Atakapa who settled in the Gulf Coast woodlands, Akokisa means “river people.” French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, in 1687, named the river, Riviere des canoës ("River of Canoes"). In 1690 Spanish explorer Alonso de León named it, "La Santísima Trinidad" ("the Most Holy Trinity").

A ford is a shallow section of a river or stream where a it may be crossed by wading, on horseback, or inside a vehicle. A ford may occur naturally or be constructed. Fords may be impassable during high water. A low-water crossing is a low bridge that allows crossing over a river or stream when water is low but may be treated as a ford when the river is high and water covers the crossing.

The word ford is both a noun (describing the water crossing itself) and a verb (describing the act of crossing a ford).

The Red River (French: rivière Rouge), also called the Red River of the North (French: rivière Rouge du Nord) to differentiate it from the Red River in the south of the continent, is a river in the north-central United States and the Canadian Prairies. Originating at the confluence of the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail rivers between the U.S. states of Minnesota and North Dakota, it flows northward through the Red River Valley, forming most of the border of Minnesota and North Dakota and continuing into Manitoba. It empties into Lake Winnipeg, whose waters join the Nelson River and ultimately flow into Hudson Bay.

The Red River is about 885 kilometres (550 mi) long, of which about 635 kilometres (395 mi) are in the United States and about 255 kilometres (158 mi) are in Canada. The river falls 70 metres (230 ft) on its trip to Lake Winnipeg, where it spreads into the vast deltaic wetland known as Netley Marsh. Several urban areas have developed on both sides of the river, including the city of Winnipeg in Canada, as well as the Fargo-Moorhead and Grand Forks–East Grand Forks metropolitan areas, both of which straddle the North Dakota–Minnesota border. Long an important highway for trade, the Red River has been designated a Canadian Heritage River.

The Washita River (/ˈwɑːʃɪtɑː/) is a river in the U.S. states of Texas and Oklahoma. The river is 295 miles (475 km) long and terminates at its confluence with the Red River, which is now part of Lake Texoma (33°55′N 96°35′W / 33.917°N 96.583°W / 33.917; -96.583) on the Texas–Oklahoma border.

Grayson County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 135,543. The county seat is Sherman. The county was founded in 1846 and is named after Peter Wagener Grayson, an attorney general of the Republic of Texas. Grayson County is included in the Sherman-Denison metropolitan statistical area, which is also included in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, combined statistical area. Located on the state's border with Oklahoma, it is part of the Texoma region, with proximity to Lake Texoma and the Red River.