MISSISSIPPI RIVER

the largest river of North America, draining with its major tributaries an area of approximately 1,200,000 square miles (3,100,000 square km), or about one-eighth of the entire continent. The Mississippi River lies entirely in the United States. Rising in Lake Itasca in Minnesota, it flows almost due south across the continental interior, collecting the waters of its major tributaries, the Missouri and the Ohio, approximately halfway along its journey to the Gulf of Mexico. It enters the Gulf through a vast delta southeast of New Orleans, a total distance of 2,350 miles (3,780 km) from its source. With its tributaries, the Mississippi drains all or part of 31 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. Confluence of the (left) Mississippi and Ohio rivers at Cairo, Ill. The character and physical appearance of the Mississippi divide it into three stages. From its source to the head of navigation at St. Paul, Minn., it is a clear stream, winding irregularly through low countryside dotted with lakes and marshes. From St. Paul to the mouth of the Missouri it grows into the powerful, dominating river immortalized in Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn as it gathers in the streams and rivers of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa. Its union with the Missouri at St. Louis changes the Mississippi completely. The turbulent, sediment-laden Missouri, especially when in flood, adds impetus as well as enormous quantities of silt to the already muddy Mississippi. Beyond the junction with the Ohio at Cairo, Ill. (see photograph), the Mississippi swells to its full grandeur. Often a mile and a half from bank to bank, it becomes a brown flood, descending with deceptive quiet toward the Gulf of Mexico. Its annual average discharge rate is greater than 600,000 cubic feet per second (17,000 cubic m per sec), less than one-tenth that of the Amazon River and only about half that of the Congo River. As the central river artery of the United States, the Mississippi has become one of the busiest commercial waterways in the world. Leading cargoes, by bulk, are petroleum and petroleum products, coal and coke, iron and steel, chemicals, sand and gravel, and sulfur. Its role as a transportation route has been strengthened in the second half of the 20th century through the operation of a complicated flood-control system. The Mississippi's unique contribution to the history and literature of the United States has woven it like a bright thread through the folklore and national consciousness of North America. the largest river of North America, with its major tributaries draining an area of approximately 1,200,000 square miles (3,100,000 square kilometres), or about one-eighth of the entire continent. The Mississippi River lies entirely in the United States. Rising in Lake Itasca in Minnesota, it flows almost due south across the continental interior, collecting the waters of its major tributaries, the Missouri (to the west) and the Ohio (to the east), approximately halfway along its journey to the Gulf of Mexico through a vast delta southeast of New Orleans, a total distance of 2,350 miles (3,780 kilometres) from its source. With its tributaries, the Mississippi drains all or part of 31 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. The Mississippi River basin and its drainage network. As the central river artery of a highly industrialized nation, the Mississippi River has become one of the busiest commercial waterways in the world; and, as the unruly neighbour of some of the continent's richest farmland, it has been subjected to a remarkable degree of human control. Furthermore, the river's unique contribution to the history and literature of the United States has woven it like a bright thread through the folklore and national consciousness of North America, linking the names of two U.S. presidentsAbraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grantwith that of the celebrated author Mark Twain. Although the Mississippi can be ranked as the fourth longest river in the world by adding the length of the Missouri-Jefferson (Red Rock) system to the Mississippi downstream of the Missouri-Mississippi confluencefor a combined length of 3,710 milesthe 2,350-mile length of the Mississippi proper is comfortably exceeded by 19 other rivers. In volume of discharge, however, the Mississippi's rate of roughly 600,000 cubic feet (17,000 cubic metres) per second is the eighth greatest in the world. Confluence of the (left) Mississippi and Ohio rivers at Cairo, Ill. On the basis of physical characteristics, the Mississippi River can be divided into four distinct reaches. The headwaters reach, from the source to the head of navigation at St. Paul, Minn., is a clear, fresh stream winding its unassuming way through low countryside dotted with lakes and marshes. The upper Mississippi extends from St. Paul to the mouth of the Missouri River near St. Louis, Mo. Flowing past steep limestone bluffs and gathering in the streams and rivers of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa, the river in this segment assumes the character that led Algonkian-speaking Indians to name it the Father of Waters (literally Misi, Big; Sipi, Water). Below the Missouri River junction, the middle Mississippi follows a 200-mile course to the mouth of the Ohio River. The turbulent, flotsam-laden Missouri, especially when in flood, adds impetus as well as enormous quantities of silt to the clearer Mississippi. Beyond the confluence with the Ohio at Cairo, Ill., the lower Mississippi swells to its full grandeur. Often a mile and a half from bank to bank, it becomes a brown flood, descending with deceptive quiet toward the Gulf of Mexico. To geographers, the lower Mississippi has long been a classic example of a meandering alluvial river; that is, the channel loops and curls extravagantly along its floodplain, leaving behind meander scars, cutoffs, oxbow lakes, and swampy backwaters. More poetically, Mark Twain compared its shape to a long, pliant apple-paring. Today the sunlight glittering on the twisted ribbon of water remains one of the most distinctive landmarks of a transcontinental flight. Now curbed largely by an elaborate system of embankments (levees) and spillways, this lower section of the Mississippi was the golden, sometimes treacherous, highway for the renowned Mississippi steamboats, those palaces on paddle wheels that so fired public imagination. From the explosive master pilot Horace Bixby, portrayed by Mark Twain, down to the nostalgic lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein's song Ol' Man River, the creations of that era on the Mississippi have added colour to America's heritage. Additional reading Two early reports prepared for the Mississippi River Commission are of interest: Harold N. Fisk, Geological Investigation of the Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River (1945), a classic work, with an accompanying atlas of the geologic history; and D.O. Elliott, The Improvement of the Lower Mississippi River for Flood Control and Navigation, 3 vol. (1932), a detailed survey of history, physical characteristics, flood-control measures, and navigation improvements prior to 1930. Later developments are chronicled in Robert W. Harrison, Alluvial Empire: A Study of State and Local Efforts Toward Land Development in the Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River, Including Flood Control, Land Drainage, Land Clearing, Land Forming (1961), a nontechnical work; and John McPhee, Atchafalaya, in his The Control of Nature (1989), pp. 392, a fascinating description of attempts to manage and control the lower Mississippi in Louisiana. Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi (1883, available also in later editions), is a classic humorous account of river conditions and of the life of a river pilot in the mid-19th century; it remains invaluable for background detail on the river's history. Gerald M. Capers, The Mississippi River Before and After Mark Twain (1977), is a popular history. Robert A. Muller Richard H. Kesel