The article discusses the world’s shortest rivers, highlighting Montana’s Roe River, which measures 201 feet (61 meters) and was recognized as the shortest by Guinness World Records in 1989. Before Roe, the title was held by Oregon’s D River at 440 feet (134 meters). Due to disputes over measurements, Guinness eventually dropped the category in 2006. Other short rivers include Indonesia’s Tamborasi and Norway’s Kovasselva, both around 65.6 feet long. The definition of a river is broad, encompassing flowing water from upland sources to larger bodies. Geoscientist Arthur Newell Strahler developed a classification system for streams, ranking the Amazon River as a 12th order stream, while the Mississippi is classified as eighth order. This contrast emphasizes the enormity of larger rivers compared to the shortest ones.
