The New Student's Reference Work/Mississippi (river)

Mississippi (mĭs-i-sĭp′ĭ), the largest river in North America and, from its mouth to the source of the Missouri (its largest branch), the longest river in the world. It rises in Minnesota, in Lake Itasca, is 2,960 miles long or, with the Missouri, 4,200 miles, and drains all the country between the Allegheny and Rocky Mountains, a region nearly as large as half of Europe. It has about 16,000 miles of navigable waters. The largest tributaries are the Missouri, Arkansas, Red, White, Yazoo and Ohio Rivers. Besides these there are about 240 smaller ones. There are falls at Minneapolis, Rock Island and the Des Moines Rapids. The river begins with a width of 12 feet, widening to 4,700 feet below the mouth of the Ohio, and measuring 2,500 feet at New Orleans. It flows, in the lower part of its course, through lowlands, often below the level of the river and protected by embankments for over 1,600 miles. After receiving the waters of the Red River, the Mississippi divides into many separate channels, called bayous, each making its way to the Gulf of Mexico, where it forms what is called the delta. The water of the Upper Mississippi is clear, but gradually grows dark and muddy as the great rivers along its course pour their turbid currents into it. It yearly carries enough earth into the Gulf to make a square mile of land 263 feet thick. These great deposits obstruct the mouth, and the government has expended large sums in providing a system of jetties or walls to protect the channel. (See Breakwater.) The river from the mouth of the Ohio is subject to extensive floods, the water stretching for miles over the lowlands, many of which are uncultivated because of this danger. The levees or embankments to prevent floods have been extensively built by the United States, and cost a large amount yearly for repairs. The first white man to discover the waters of the Mississippi was De Soto in 1541, and in 1673 Marquette and Joliet descended it nearly to its mouth, while La Salle sailed to the Gulf and took possession of the country for his king in 1682. See Physics and Hydraulics of the Mississippi River by Humphrey and Abbot.