Medora, ND
Theodore Roosevelt National Park North Unit

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Ox Bow Bend Overlook This river, the Little Missouri, flowed northward a million years ago. Broad, gentle warping and uplift of this region just before the Ice Age caused streams east of here to erode more rapidly. Eventually one of these streams cut into this valley diverting the river eastward. Today it empties into the Missouri River about 50 miles to the east. Note the "Ox bow Bend" in the valley below, formerly part of the river channel, it has been "cut off by erosion and contains water only when the river is in flood.

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View from the Painted Canyon Visitor Center

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