Mississippi River facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Mississippi River |
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![]() Mississippi River near Fire Point in Effigy Mounds National Monument, Iowa
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![]() Mississippi River basin
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Country | United States |
State | Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana |
Cities | Saint Cloud, MN, Minneapolis, MN, St. Paul, MN, La Crosse, WI, Quad Cities, IA/IL, St. Louis, MO, Memphis, TN, Greenville, MS, Vicksburg, MS, Baton Rouge, LA, New Orleans, LA |
Physical characteristics | |
Main source | Lake Itasca (traditional) Itasca State Park, Clearwater County, MN 1,475 ft (450 m) 47°14′23″N 95°12′27″W / 47.23972°N 95.20750°W |
River mouth | Gulf of Mexico Pilottown, Plaquemines Parish, LA 0 ft (0 m) 29°09′04″N 89°15′12″W / 29.15111°N 89.25333°W |
Length | 2,340 mi (3,770 km) |
Discharge (location 2) |
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Discharge (location 3) |
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Basin features | |
Basin size | 1,151,000 sq mi (2,980,000 km2) |
Tributaries |
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system on the North American continent, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it flows generally south for 2,340 miles (3,770 km) to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. The main stem is entirely within the United States; the total drainage basin is 1,151,000 sq mi (2,980,000 km2), of which only about one percent is in Canada. The Mississippi ranks as the thirteenth-largest river by discharge in the world. The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
Native Americans have lived along the Mississippi River and its tributaries for thousands of years. Most were hunter-gatherers, but some, such as the Mound Builders, formed prolific agricultural and urban civilizations. The arrival of Europeans in the 16th century changed the native way of life as first explorers, then settlers, ventured into the basin in increasing numbers. The river served first as a barrier, forming borders for New Spain, New France, and the early United States, and then as a vital transportation artery and communications link. In the 19th century, during the height of the ideology of manifest destiny, the Mississippi and several western tributaries, most notably the Missouri, formed pathways for the western expansion of the United States.
Formed from thick layers of the river's silt deposits, the Mississippi embayment is one of the most fertile regions of the United States; steamboats were widely used in the 19th and early 20th centuries to ship agricultural and industrial goods. During the American Civil War, the Mississippi's capture by Union forces marked a turning point towards victory, due to the river's strategic importance to the Confederate war effort. Because of the substantial growth of cities and the larger ships and barges that replaced steamboats, the first decades of the 20th century saw the construction of massive engineering works such as levees, locks and dams, often built in combination. A major focus of this work has been to prevent the lower Mississippi from shifting into the channel of the Atchafalaya River and bypassing New Orleans.
Since the 20th century, the Mississippi River has also experienced major pollution and environmental problems – most notably elevated nutrient and chemical levels from agricultural runoff, the primary contributor to the Gulf of Mexico dead zone.
Transportation
The Mississippi has been very important for transportation in the history of the United States. In the 1800s, many steamboats traveled on the Mississippi River. St. Louis, Missouri, Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans were important port cities.
Tributaries
The Mississippi has many large tributaries, or rivers that flow into it. The watershed of the Mississippi covers much of the United States. This means that the Mississippi and its tributaries drain much of the United States.
Some important tributaries of the Mississippi are (listed from the source to the mouth of the river):
River |
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the Minnesota River |
the St. Croix River |
the Wisconsin River |
the Illinois River |
the Missouri River |
the Ohio River |
the Arkansas River |
The Mississippi River in books
A big part of the book Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is set on the Mississippi River. Twain also wrote a book called Life on the Mississippi, which had some stories about how he used to work on a steamboat.
Images for kids
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The source of the Mississippi River at Lake Itasca
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Confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers, viewed from Wyalusing State Park in Wisconsin
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The confluence of the Mississippi (left) and Ohio (right) rivers at Cairo, Illinois, the demarcation between the Middle and the Lower Mississippi River
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View along the former riverbed at the Tennessee/Arkansas state line near Reverie, Tennessee (2007)
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In Minnesota, the Mississippi River runs through the Twin Cities (2007)
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Community of boathouses on the Mississippi River in Winona, MN (2006)
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The Stone Arch Bridge, the Third Avenue Bridge and the Hennepin Avenue Bridge in Minneapolis (2004)
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The Hernando de Soto Bridge in Memphis, Tennessee (2009)
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Towboat and barges at Memphis, Tennessee
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Lock and Dam No. 11, north of Dubuque, Iowa (2007)
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Lock and Dam No. 2, near Hastings, Minnesota (2007)
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Lock and Dam No. 15, is the largest roller dam in the world Davenport, Iowa; Rock Island, Illinois. (1990)
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Soldiers of the Missouri Army National Guard sandbag the River in Clarksville, Missouri, June 2008, following flooding.
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Shifting sand bars made early navigation difficult.
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Battle of Vicksburg (ca. 1888)
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Mississippi River from Eunice, Arkansas, a settlement destroyed by gunboats during the Civil War.
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The Old River Control Structure complex. View is to the east-southeast, looking downriver on the Mississippi, with the three dams across channels of the Atchafalaya River to the right of the Mississippi. Concordia Parish, Louisiana is in the foreground, on the right, and Wilkinson County, Mississippi, is in the background, across the Mississippi on the left.
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Great River Road in Wisconsin near Lake Pepin (2005)
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The American paddlefish is an ancient relict from the Mississippi
See also
In Spanish: Río Misisipi para niños
![]() | Severo Ochoa |
![]() | Sarah Stewart |
![]() | Mario J. Molina |
![]() | Rodolfo Llinás |
![]() | F. J. Duarte |