Many of you will recognize the title of this post being from the musical The Music Man. In this particular case I am referring to those cities, towns, and villages named after the river that flows through or by them.

The following list shows those rivers with the most communities in the United States and Canada named after them. It does not include townships, counties, states, or provinces. I also limited the list to those with at least three communities named after the river.

As you can see from the list below, there were not that many – certainly not as many as I expected to find. What was particularly surprising is how few cities, towns, and villages are named after major rivers. Certainly state, province, and county names are derived from a well-known river, but try and find many smaller places with the name Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Rio Grande, etc. incorporated. If I missed any, please pass them along so they can be added.

The winning river turned out to be one nearly outside my backdoor – the Grand River in Michigan. Guess we must be really proud of the Grand River or we severely lacked imagination when we were naming places here. Enjoy!

Big Sioux River (4)

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Sioux City, Iowa

North Sioux City, South Dakota

South Sioux City, Nebraska

–

–

Grand River (5)

– Grand Rapids, Michigan

East Grand Rapids, Michigan

Grand Haven, Michigan

Grandville, Michigan

Grand Ledge. Michigan

–

–

Hudson River (4)

Hudson, New York

Hudson Falls, New York

Croton-on-Hudson, New York

Hastings-on-Hudson, New York-

–

Kansas River (3)

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Kansas

North Kansas City, Missouri

–

–

Muskegon River (3)

Muskegon, Michigan

Muskegon Heights, Michigan

North Muskegon, Michigan

–

–

Niagara River (3)

Niagara Falls Ontario

Niagara Falls, New York

Niagara on the Lake, Ontario

Platte River (4)

North Platte, Nebraska

Plattsmouth, Nebraska

La Platte, Nebraska

Platteville, Colorado

–

Rock River (4)

Rockford, Illinois

Rock Island, Illinois

Rock Falls, Illinois

Rockton, Illinois