ITASCA, LAKE

lake regarded as the main source of the Mississippi River, in Clearwater county, northwestern Minnesota, U.S. Of glacial origin, it covers an area of 1.8 square miles (4.7 square km) and has an average depth of 2035 feet (611 m). From the lake's surface, which is 1,475 feet (450 m) above sea level, the Mississippi flows southward 2,340 miles (3,770 km) to the Gulf of Mexico. The fur trader William Morrison was reputedly the first white man to visit the lake in 1803. It was Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, the U.S. superintendent of Indian affairs for Michigan Territory, however, who proposed Lake Itasca as the true source of the Mississippi in 1832. The French explorer Joseph Nicollet surveyed the area in 1836 and confirmed Schoolcraft's claim. Many geologists, however, believe that other glacial lakes in the region also supply the headwaters of the river. Schoolcraft is generally credited with originating the name Itasca from the Latin words veritas (truth) and caput (head, or source). Indian legend, however, mentions I-tesk-ka, the daughter of Hiawatha, whose tears of anguish at being spirited away to the netherworld reputedly formed the source of the Mississippi. The 32,000-acre Itasca State Park was established around the Itasca basin in 1891. The lake is stocked with muskellunge and other game fish and is popular with boaters.