Alligator gar are found in the lower Mississippi River Valley and Gulf Coast states of the
Southern United States and Mexico as far south as
Veracruz, encompassing the following US states:
Texas,
Oklahoma,
South Carolina,
North Carolina,
Virginia,
Louisiana,
Kentucky,
Mississippi,
Alabama,
Tennessee,
Arkansas,
Missouri,
Florida, and
Georgia.
[4] They have also been known historically to come as far north as central
Kansas,
Nebraska,
Ohio,
Iowa, and west-central
Illinois, where the
most northerly verified catch was at
Meredosia, Illinois, in 1922 and an 8.5 ft (2.6 m) specimen, now preserved, was caught at nearby
Beardstown.
[5] Specimens at locations further south in Illinois have been verified as recently as 1976, with the Illinois Academy of Sciences verifying a total of 122 captures to that date.
[5]