Mississippi River, The

The, the largest river of North America. The Indian name, Michi Sepe, means "The Great River." It is also translated to mean "The Father of Waters." The Mississippi rises in Lake Itasca, Minnesota, at an elevation of 1,575 feet above the sea level. At its source it is a stream of clear water, twenty feet in width, and perhaps a foot in depth, a mere brook. Its general course is southward. For the first 175 miles, to Pokegama Dam, the fall is but 150 feet. The first tributary usually shown on the map is the Minnesota. The Mississippi's principal tributaries, however, are the Ohio, the Missouri, the Arkansas, and the Red. Its waters remain comparatively clear until they are joined by the turbulent yellow flood of the Missouri. At New Orleans, the Mississippi is 3,100 feet wide and sixty feet deep. One third of the river water of the United States passes New Orleans. The volume is sufficient to cover forty acres twenty-one feet deep each minute. The Mississippi empties into the Gulf of Mexico by five principal channels. It is navigable for steamboats to the Falls of St. Anthony, about 2,200 miles. The total length of the Mississippi proper is 2,960 miles. The length in combination with its greatest branch, the Missouri, which is really the larger stream, is 4,200 miles--the longest stream in the world. In point of area, healthfulness, and food-producing capacity, the Mississippi Valley leads the world.

The Mississippi was discovered by De Soto in 1541. It was explored by Marquette and Joliet in 1673 and by La Salle in 1682. Up to the time of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 it formed the western boundary of the United States. The valley already contains a population of 65,000,000 and yields farm products to the value of $4,000,000,000 a year. When we reflect that the region extends from the headwaters of the Missouri to those of the Ohio we need not be surprised to learn that the Mississippi Valley produces four-fifths of the wealth of the Union. The chief cities on its banks are Minneapolis, St. Paul, Dubuque, Quincy, St. Louis, Memphis, Vicksburg, and New Orleans.

See River; Delta; Itasca; Jetty