Mississippi River
Mississippi River | |
---|---|
| |
Origin | Lake Itasca |
Mouth | Gulf of Mexico |
Basin countries | United States (98.5%) Canada (1.5%) |
Length | 3,733 km (2,320 mi) |
Source elevation | 450 m (1,476 ft) |
Avg. discharge | Minneapolis [1] : 210 m³/s (7,460 ft³/s) Saint Louis [1] : 5,150 m³/s (182,000 ft³/s ) Vicksburg [2] : 17,050 m³/s (602,000 ft³/s) Baton Rouge [3] : 12,740 m³/s (450,000 ft³/s) |
Basin area | 2,980,000 km² (1,151,000 mi²) |
The Mississippi River, derived from the old Chippewa Indian word misi-ziibi meaning 'great river' (gichi-ziibi 'big river' at its headwaters), is the second-longest named river in North America, with a length of 2320 miles (3733 km) from Lake Itasca, Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico in Lousianna. The longest named river in North America is its tributary, the Missouri River, with a length of 2341 miles (3767 km) from the confluence of the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin to the Mississippi River. Taken together, the Jefferson, Missouri, and Mississippi form the largest river system in North America.
If measured from the source of the Jefferson to the Gulf of Mexico, the length of the Mississippi-Missouri-Jefferson combination is approximately 3900 miles (6275 km), making the combination the 3rd longest river in the world. The uppermost 207 mi (333 km) of this combined river are called the Jefferson, the lowest 1352 mi (2175 km) are part of the Mississippi, and the intervening 2341 mi (3767 km) are called the Missouri.
Apart from the Missouri, the longest of the many long Mississippi tributaries is the Arkansas River. Measured by water volume, the largest of all Mississippi tributaries is the Ohio River.
Geography
The Mississippi's source begins at Lake Itasca, 1,475 feet (450 m) above sea level in Itasca State Park, Minnesota. The river falls to 725 feet (220 m) just below Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis. This is the only waterfall along the river's course.This pure, clear, little stream mixes with the organic acids in the bog vegetation and turns a reddish brown. The Mississippi passes through several glacial lakes, pine forests, lush vegetation of wildrice, and cattail marshes, before it is joined by its many tributaries.tc.eng.wisc.edu/Steuber/paper/1996/river.html. Its tributaries are the Minnesota River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Illinois River and the Missouri River, near St. Louis, Missour. The Missouri River is the Mississippi's s second largest tributary by volume. It is also joined by the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois and the Arkansas River in Arkansas. The Atchafalaya River in Louisiana. is a major distributary of the Mississippi.
The Mississippi drains most of the area between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains, except for the areas drained by Hudson Bay via the Red River of the North, the Great Lakes and the Rio Grande. It runs through two states — Minnesota and Louisiana — and was used to define the borders of eight states (the river has since shifted, but the state borders have not) — Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi] — before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles (160 km) downstream from New Orleans. In Aitkin County Minnesota the river channel meanders for 200 kilometers over a straight distance of 64 kilometers. Measurements of the length of the Mississippi from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico vary, but the Environmental Protection Agency's number is 2,320 miles (3,733 km). The retention time from Lake Itasca to the Gulf is about 90 days.[4]
The river is divided into the Upper Mississippi River, from its source, south to the Ohio River, and the lower Mississippi, from the Ohio, to its mouth, near New Orleans. The upper Mississippi is further divided into three sections: the headwaters, from the source to Saint Anthony Falls; a series of man-made lakes between Minneapolis and St. Louis, Missouri; and the middle Mississippi, a relatively free-flowing river downstream of the confluence with the Missouri River at St. Louis.
A series of 29 locks and dams on the upper Mississippi, most of which were built in the 1930s, is designed primarily to maintain a 9 foot (2.7 m) deep channel for commercial barge traffic.[5][6] The lakes formed are also used for recreational boating and fishing. The dams make the river deeper and wider but do not stop it. During periods of high flow, the gates, some of which are submersible, are completely opened and the dams simply cease to function. Below St. Louis, the Mississippi is relatively free-flowing, although it is constrained by numerous levees and directed by numerous wing dams. There are no locks or dams in the headwaters.
Through a natural process known as deltaic switching the lower Mississippi River has shifted its final course to the ocean every thousand years or so. This occurs because the deposits of silt and sediment raise the river's level causing it to eventually find a steeper route to the Gulf of Mexico. The abandoned distributary diminishes in volume and forms what are known as bayous. This process has, over the past 5,000 years, caused the coastline of south Louisiana to advance toward the Gulf from 15 to 50 miles (25-80 km).
U.S. government scientists determined in the 1950s that the Mississippi River was starting to switch to the Atchafalaya River channel because of its much steeper path to the Gulf of Mexico, and eventually the Atchafalaya River would capture the Mississippi River and become its main channel to the Gulf of Mexico. As a result, the U.S. Congress authorized a project called the Old River Control Structure, which has prevented the Mississippi River from leaving its current channel that drains into the Gulf via New Orleans. Because of the large scale of high energy water flow through the Old River Control Structure threatening to damage the structure, an auxiliary flow control station was built adjacent to the standing control station. This US$300 million project was completed in 1986 by the Army Corp Of Engineers.
Course changes
The Illinoian Glacier, about 200,000 to 125,000 years before present, blocked the Mississippi near Rock Island, Illinois, diverting it to its present channel farther to the west (current western border of Illinois). The Hennepin Canal roughly follows the ancient channel of the Mississippi downstream from Rock Island to Hennepin. South of Hennepin, Illinois, the current Illinois River is actually following the ancient channel of the Mississippi River to Alton, Illinois before the Illinoian glaciation.
Other changes in the course of the river have occurred because of earthquakes along the New Madrid Fault Zone, which lies between the cities of Memphis, Tennessee and St. Louis, Missouri. Three earthquakes in 1811 and 1812, estimated at approximately 8 on the Richter Scale, were said to have temporarily reversed the course of the Mississippi. These earthquakes also created Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee from the altered landscape near the river. The faulting is related to an aulacogen (geologic term for a failed rift) that formed at the same time as the Gulf of Mexico.
Watershed
The Mississippi River has the third largest drainage basin ("catchment") in the world, exceeded in size only by the watersheds of the Amazon River and Congo River. It drains 41% of the 48 contiguous states of the United States. The basin covers more than 1,245,000 square miles (3,225,000 km²), including all or parts of 31 states and two Canadian provinces,(Manitobe and Ontario) or one-eighth of North America.http://www.visitbemidji.com/location/mississippi.html
Major tributaries of the Mississippi:
- Big Black River in Mississippi
- Red River in Louisiana
- White River in Arkansas
- Arkansas River in Arkansas
- Ohio River in Illinois and Kentucky
- Big Muddy River in Illinois
- Kaskaskia River in Illinois
- Missouri River in Missouri
- Illinois River in Illinois
- Des Moines River in Iowa
- Skunk River in Iowa
- Rock River in Illinois
- Maquoketa River in Iowa
- Wisconsin River in Wisconsin
- Chippewa River in Wisconsin
- St. Croix River in Wisconsin
- Minnesota River in Minnesota
Major sub-tributaries include the Tennessee River (a tributary of the Ohio River) and the Platte River (a tributary of the Missouri River).
Outflow
Fresh river water flowing from the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico does not mix into the salt water immediately. The images from NASA's MODIS to the right show a large plume of fresh water, which appears as a dark ribbon against the lighter-blue surrounding waters.
The images demonstrate that the plume did not mix with the surrounding sea water immediately. Instead, it stayed intact as it flowed through the Gulf of Mexico, into the Straits of Florida, and entered the Gulf Stream. The Mississippi River water rounded the tip of Florida and traveled up the southeast coast to the latitude of Georgia before finally mixing in so thoroughly with the ocean that it could no longer be detected by MODIS.
The Mississippi river discharges at an annual average rate of between 200,000 and 700,000 Cubic Feet per Second.[7] It also releases about 400 million yards of mud, sand, and gravel per year. Although it is the 5th largest river in the world by volume, this flow is a mere fraction of the output of the Amazon, which moves nearly 7 million cfs during wet seasons. On average the Mississippi has only 1/11th the flow of the Amazon River, but is nearly twice that of the Columbia River and almost 6 times the volume of the Colorado River.
History
Nomenclature
The word Mississippi comes from the Ojibwa name for the river, "Messipi" (or Misi-ziibi in contemporary spelling), which means great river, or from the Algonquin Missi Sepe, "great river," poetically, "father of waters." The Ojibwe called Lake Itasca Omashkoozo-zaaga'igan (Elk Lake) and the river flowing out of it Omashkoozo-ziibi (Elk River). After flowing into Lake Bemidji, the Ojibwe called the river Bemijigamaa-ziibi (River from the Traversing Lake). After flowing into Cass Lake, the name of the river again changed to Miskwaawaakokaa-ziibi (Red Cedar River) and then to Gichi-ziibi (Big River) after flowing into Lake Winnibigoshish. The Ojibwe name Misi-ziibi applied only to the portion below the Crow Wing River. The ever-changing names of the river seemed illogical to the English speakers, so after the expedition by Giacomo Costantino Beltrami and Henry Schoolcraft, the longest stream above the juncture of the Crow Wing River and Gichi-ziibi was named "Mississippi River".
Early American
On May 8, 1541, Hernando de Soto became the first recorded European to reach the Mississippi River, which he called "Rio de Espiritu Santo" (River of the Holy Spirit). This name is currently the name of the river in the Spanish speaking world. French explorers Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette began exploring the Mississippi. In 1673, they met and traveled with a Sioux named "Ne Tongo" (which in Sioux language means big river). In 1682, René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle and Henri de Tonty claimed the entire Mississippi River Valley for France. They called the river Colbert River after Jean-Baptiste Colbert.
France lost all its territories on the North American mainland as a result of the French and Indian War. The Treaty of Paris (1763) gave the Kingdom of Great Britain rights to all land in the valley east of the Mississippi and Spain rights to land west of the Mississippi.
In the second Treaty of Paris (1783), Spain had control over the river south of 32°30' north latitude and, in what is known as the Spanish Conspiracy, hoped to gain greater control of Louisiana and all of the west. These hopes ended when Spain was pressured into signing Pinckney's Treaty in 1795. France reacquired 'Louisiana' from Spain in the secret Third Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800. The United States bought the territory from France in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.
The river was noted for the number of bandits which called its islands and shores home, including John Murrell who was a well-known murderer, horse stealer and slave "re-trader". Murrell was rumored to have an island headquarters on the river at Island 37.
![](/d/images/thumb/e/ea/Mississippi_River-sand_bars.jpg/300px-Mississippi_River-sand_bars.jpg)
19th century
The first steamboat to travel the full length of the Mississippi from the Ohio River to New Orleans, Louisiana, was the New Orleans in December 1811. Its maiden voyage occurred during the series of New Madrid earthquakes in 1811–12.The "New Orleans" had a passenger and a cargo route by 1814. This route ran between New Orleans, Louisiana, and Natchez, Mississippi. Its speed was about 8 mph downstream and 3mph upstream. Other forms of transportation preceding the more modern means were called keel boats and were rough rafts made of logs. These rafts where hauled to shore by ropes and pulled back up the river by various forms of locomotion. This process could take as long as 9 months. The invention of the combustable engine, in the mid 19th century, greatly speeded up river travel. Along with it came the invention and use of barge tow-boats. The amount of cargo that one 15-barge tow could move, for example, was equal to approximately what 900 semi-trucks could haul and with only 10% of the fuel used.http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsteamship.htm
The river played a decisive role in the American Civil War. The Union's Vicksburg Campaign called for Union control of the lower Mississippi River. The Union victory at the Battle of Vicksburg in 1863 was pivotal to the Union's final victory of the Civil War.
In 1848, the Illinois and Michigan Canal was built to connect the Mississippi River to Lake Michigan via the Illinois River near Peru, Illinois. In 1900, the canal was replaced by the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The canal allowed Chicago to address specific health issues (typhoid, cholera and other waterborne diseases) by sending its waste down the Illinois and Mississippi river systems rather than polluting its water source of Lake Michigan. The canal also provided a shipping route between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi.
20th century
The sport of water skiing was invented on the river in a wide region between Minnesota and Wisconsin known as Lake Pepin. Ralph Samuelson of Lake City, Minnesota, created and refined his skiing technique in late June and early July 1922. He later performed the first water ski jump in 1925 and was pulled along at 80 miles per hour (128 km/h) by a Curtiss flying boat later that year.
In the spring of 1927, the river broke out of its banks in 145 places during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and inundated 27,000 square miles (70,000 km²) to a depth of up to 30 feet (10 m).
On October 20, 1976, the automobile ferry MV George Prince was struck by a ship traveling upstream as the ferry attempted to cross from Destrehan, Louisiana, to Luling, Louisiana. Seventy-eight passengers and crew died; only eighteen survived the accident.
The Great Flood of 1993 was another significant flood, although it primarily affected the Mississippi above its confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois.
Two portions of the Mississippi were designated as some of the American Heritage Rivers in 1997: The lower portion around Louisiana and Tennessee, and the upper portion around Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Missouri.
21st Century
In 2002 the Slovenian long-distance swimmer Martin Strel swam the entire length of the river, from Minnesota to Louisiana, over the course of 68 days.
In 2005, the Source to Sea Expedition paddled the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers to benefit the Audubon Society's Upper Mississippi River Campaign.[8][9]
In 2007 over 150 pleasure boats will travel down the river from Grafton to Cairo doing the Great loop, and circumnavigation Eastern North America.
Approximately 12 million people live in the 125 counties along the Mississippi River. It is a great source of income in that about $7 billion dollars in agriculture and forest products come from the Mississippi Valley and about $29 billion in manufacturing per year is recorded produced there. The Mississippi is also a great place for fishing and waterfowl hunting. Those industries bring in about $58 and $100 million respectively per year. Cargo vessels transports 472 million tons of cargo per year. The major shippings producsts are petro-chemicals from the gulf of Mexico and wheat from the midwestern United States.http://www.visitbemidji.com/location/mississippi.html
The Mississippi,its tribuaties and waterways are also visited by 40% of all ducks, geese, swans and eagles of the United States. The "National Scenic Byway" of the Mississippi allows visititors to travel on its roadways to view 500 miles of scenic spendor. It includes 10 Great River Road State Parks in 6 regions of Minnesota.
The barges and other vessels that make the Mississippi one of the great commercial waterways of the world require a clear channel. The task of maintaining a navigation channel is the responsibility of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which was established in 1866. Earlier projects began as early as 1829 to remove snags, close off secondary channels and excavate rocks and sandbars. In 1829, there were surveys of the two major obstacles on the upper Mississippi, the Des Moines Rapids and the Rock Island Rapids, where the river was shallow and the riverbed was rock. The Des Moines Rapids were about 11 miles (18 km) long and just above the mouth of the Des Moines River at Keokuk, Iowa. The Rock Island Rapids were between Rock Island and Moline, Illinois. Both rapids were considered virtually impassable.
On a side note, it is at this Quad Cities area of the Mississippi River that the river flows East to West as opposed to its normal course North to South.
The Corps recommended excavation of a 5 foot (1.5 m) deep channel at the Des Moines Rapids, but work did not begin until after Lieutenant Robert E. Lee endorsed the project in 1837. The Corps later also began excavating the Rock Island Rapids. By 1866, it had become evident that excavation was impractical, and it was decided to build a canal around the Des Moines Rapids. The canal opened in 1877, but the Rock Island Rapids remained an obstacle.
In 1878, Congress authorized the Corps to establish a 4.5 foot (1.4 m) deep channel to be obtained by building wing dams which direct the river to a narrow channel causing it to cut a deeper channel, by closing secondary channels and by dredging. The channel project was complete when the Moline Lock, which bypassed the Rock Island Rapids, opened in 1907.The Mississippi River Commission was established in 1897 to aid in the building of these dams.
To improve navigation between St. Paul, Minnesota, and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, the Corps constructed several dams on lakes in the headwaters area, including Lake Winnibigoshish and Lake Pokegama. The dams, which were built beginning in the 1880s, stored spring run-off which was released during low water to help maintain channel depth.
In 1907, Congress authorized a 6 foot (1.8 m) deep channel project on the Mississippi, which was not complete when it was abandoned in the late 1920s in favor of the 9 foot (2.7 m) deep channel project.
In 1913, construction was complete on a dam at Keokuk, Iowa, the first dam below St. Anthony Falls. Built by a private power company to generate electricity, the Keokuk dam was one of the largest hydro-electric plants in the world at the time. The dam also eliminated the Des Moines Rapids.
Lock and Dam No. 1 was completed in Minneapolis in 1917 and Lock and Dam No. 2 at Hastings, Minnesota, was completed in 1930.
Prior to the 1927 flood, the Corps' primary strategy was to close off as many side channels as possible to increase the flow in the main river. It was thought that the river's velocity would scour off bottom sediments, deepening the river and decreasing the possibility of flooding. The 1927 flood proved this so wrong that communities threatened by the flood began to make their own levee breaks to relieve the tension of the rising river.
The Corps now actively creates floodways to divert periodic water surges into backwater channels and lakes. The main floodways are the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway; the Morganza Floodway, which directs floodwaters down the Atchafalaya River; and the Bonnet Carré Spillway which directs water to Lake Pontchartrain. The Old River Control structure also serve as a major floodgates that can be opened to prevent flooding. Some of the pre-1927 strategy is still in use today; the Corps actively cuts the necks of horseshoe bends, allowing the water to move faster and reducing flood heights.
The Rivers and Harbors Act of 1930 authorized the 9-foot channel project, which called for a navigation channel 9 feet deep and 400 feet (120 m) wide to accommodate multiple-barge tows.[10][11] This was achieved by a series of locks and dams, and by dredging. Twenty-three new locks and dams were built on the upper Mississippi in the 1930s in addition to the three already in existence. Two new locks were built north of Lock and Dam No. 1 at Saint Anthony Falls in the 1960s, extending the head of navigation for commercial traffic several miles, but few barges go past the city of Saint Paul today.
Beginning in the 1970s, the Corps applied hydrology transport models to analyze flood flow and water quality of the Mississippi. The use of computers have greatly aided in predicting and controlling the flow of water in the Mississippi.
Until the 1950s, there was no dam below Lock and Dam 26 at Alton, Illinois. Lock and Dam 27, which consists of a low-water dam and an 8.4 mile (13.5 km) long canal, was added in 1953 just below the confluence with the Missouri River, primarily to bypass a series of rock ledges at St. Louis. It also serves to protect the St. Louis city water intakes during times of low water.
Dam 26 at Alton, Illinois, which had structural problems, was replaced by the Mel Price Lock and Dam in 1990. The original Lock and Dam 26 was demolished.
There are four types of flood control. One is the use of embankments which include concrete or various walls to stop errosion and block the flood waters. This has proved to be one of the cheaper means of flood control. The second is by flood water storage techniques. The third is by the water diversion methods and the last is by controling the rivers carrying capacities.tc.engr.wise.edu/Steuber/paper/1996/river.html
Notable cities along the river
- Bemidji, Minnesota
- Minneapolis, Minnesota
- St. Paul, Minnesota
- La Crosse, Wisconsin
- Dubuque, Iowa
- Bettendorf, Iowa
- Davenport, Iowa
- Rock Island, Illinois
- Moline, Illinois
- Burlington, Iowa
- Quincy, Illinois
- Hannibal, Missouri
- St. Louis, Missouri
- Cairo, Illinois
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Greenville, Mississippi
- Vicksburg, Mississippi
- Natchez, Mississippi
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- New Orleans, Louisiana
Notable bridges
The first bridge across the Mississippi River was built in 1856. It spanned the river between Arsenal Island at Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa. Steamboat pilots of the day, fearful of competition from the railroads, considered the new bridge "a hazard to navigation". Two weeks after the bridge opened, the steamboat Effie Afton rammed part of the bridge and started it on fire. Legal proceedings ensued - with a young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln defending the railroad. The lawsuit went all the way up to the Supreme Court, and was eventually ruled in favor of Lincoln and the railroad.
- Stone Arch Bridge - a former Great Northern Railroad (now pedestrian) bridge in Minneapolis and National Historic Engineering Landmark.
- Black Hawk Bridge, connecting Lansing, Allamakee County, Iowa to rural Crawford County, Wisconsin, locally referred to as the Lansing Bridge and documented in the Historic American Engineering Record.
- Julien Dubuque Bridge - A bridge connecting Dubuque, Iowa and East Dubuque, Illinois that is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
- Interstate 74 Bridge connecting Moline, Illinois to Bettendorf, Iowa is a twin suspension bridge, also known historically as the Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge.
- Rock Island Government Bridge connecting Rock Island, Illinois to Davenport, Iowa. Located just southwest of the site of the first bridge across the Mississippi River, it is one of only two bridges in the world with two sets of railroad tracks above the auto lanes. It also co-located with Lock and Dam #15 - the largest roller dam in the world.
- Rock Island Centennial Bridge connecting Rock Island, Illinois to Davenport, Iowa.
- Santa Fe Bridge - in Fort Madison, Iowa, the largest double-deck swing-span bridge in the world; It is the last operating swing bridge over the Mississippi River for automobile traffic and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
![](/d/images/thumb/c/c9/Minn04.jpg/300px-Minn04.jpg)
- Clark Bridge also known as the Super Bridge as the result of an appearance on PBS program Nova. This cable-stay bridge constructed in 1994 connects Alton, Illinois to Black Jack, Missouri. It is the northernmost river crossing in the St. Louis metropolitan area and is named after explorer William Clark.
- Chain of Rocks Bridge - A bridge on the northern edge of St. Louis, Missouri; famous for a 22-degree bend halfway across and the most famous alignment of Historic US 66 across the Mississippi.
- Eads Bridge - A bridge connecting St. Louis, Missouri and East St. Louis, Illinois; the first major steel bridge in the world, and also a National Historic Landmark.
- Hernando de Soto Bridge - carries Interstate 40 to connect Memphis, Tennessee and West Memphis, Arkansas; listed in Guinness Book of World Records for its unique structural "letter" shape.
- Frisco Bridge - was the first crossing of the Lower Mississippi and the longest cantilever truss steel railroad bridge in North America when it opened on May 12, 1892. It connects Memphis, Tennessee and West Memphis, Arkansas and is listed as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.
- Memphis-Arkansas Memorial Bridge - the longest Warren truss- style bridge in the United States which carries Interstate 55 to connect Memphis, Tennessee and West Memphis, Arkansas; also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
- Huey P. Long Bridge - Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, the first Mississippi River span built in Louisiana.
- Crescent City Connection - connects the east- and westbanks of New Orleans, Louisiana; the 5th-longest cantilever bridge in the world.
Popular culture
The Mississippi River is a commonly cited natural boundary for purposes of dividing the United States into eastern and western sections, with places often being described as east or west "of the Mississippi".
Nicknames
Due to its size and historical significance, the Mississippi has many nicknames. Among these are:
- The Father of Waters
- The Gathering of Waters
- The Big Muddy (more commonly associated with the Missouri River)
- Big River
- Old Man River
- The Great River
- Body of a Nation
- The Mighty Mississippi
- El Grande (de Soto)
- The Muddy Mississippi
- Old Blue
- Moon River
Literature and music
Many of the works of Mark Twain deal with or take place near the Mississippi River. One of his first major works, Life on the Mississippi, is in part a history of the river, in part a memoir of Twain's experiences on the river, and a collection of tales that either take place on or are associated with the river. Twain's most famous work, Huckleberry Finn, is largely a journey down the river. The novel works as an episodic meditation on American culture with the river as the central metaphor.
Herman Melville's novel The Confidence-Man portrayed a Canterbury Tales-style group of steamboat passengers whose interlocking stories are told as they travel up the Mississippi River. The novel is written both as cultural satire and a metaphysical treatise. Like Huckleberry Finn, it uses the Mississippi River as a metaphor for the larger aspects of American and human identity that unify the otherwise disparate characters. The river's fluidity is reflected by the often shifting personalities and identities of Melville's "confidence man."
The 2nd chapter ("The Master of the Mississippi") of Don Rosa's famous comic book The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck about the "Last of the Clan McDucks" is set on the Mississippi. Scrooge works here for his Uncle Angus "Pothole" McDuck on a wheel steamer and has his first encounter with The Beagle Boys.
The stage and movie musical Show Boat's central musical piece is the Blues-influenced ballad Ol' Man River.
Ferde Grofe composed a set of movements for symphony orchestra based on the lands the river travels through in his Mississippi Suite.
The Johnny Cash song Big River is about the Mississippi River.
The song 'When the Levee Breaks', made famous in the version performed by Led Zeppelin on the album Led Zeppelin IV, was composed by Memphis Minnie McCoy in 1929 after the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.
On May 29, 1997 Singer/Guitarist Jeff Buckley drowned when he was swept away by the undertow of a passing boat in the Mississippi River.
Moon River from the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's refers to the Mississippi River.
See also
- Mississippi River Delta
- Mississippi embayment
- Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge
- Atchafalaya Basin
Notes
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Median of the 7,305 daily mean streamflows recorded by the USGS for the period 1978-1998.
- ↑ Median of the 7,305 daily mean streamflows recorded by the USGS for the period 1978-1998 at Vicksburg. The discharge is probably even higher farther downstream at Natchez, but data for Natchez were not recorded. Farther downstream from Natchez, approximately 25 percent of the water discharge of the Mississippi is diverted into the Atchafalaya River, and further discharge is lost as the river becomes a delta in Louisiana.
- ↑ Median of the 1,826 daily mean streamflows recorded by the USGS for the period 1978-1983 at Baton Rouge.
- ↑ General Information about the Mississippi River. Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. National Park Service (2004). Retrieved 2006-07-15.
- ↑ Mississippi River. USGS: Status and trends of the nation's biological resources. Retrieved 2007-02-03.
- ↑ U.S. Waterway System Facts, December 2005 (PDF). USACE Navigation Data Center. Retrieved 2006-04-27.
- ↑ Americas Wetland: Resource Center [1]
- ↑ Upper Mississippi River Campaign. National Audubon Society (2006). Retrieved 2006-11-29.
- ↑ Paddling the Mississippi River to Benefit the Audubon Society. Source to Sea: The Mississippi River Project. Source to Sea 2006 (2006). Retrieved 2006-11-29.
- ↑ The Mississippi and its Uses. Natural Resource Management Section, Rock Island Engineers. Retrieved 2006-06-21.
- ↑ Appendix E: Nine-foot navigation channel maintenance activities. National Park Service, Mississippi National River and Recreation Area Comprehensive Management Plan. Retrieved 2006-06-21.
Further reading
- Penn, James R. (2001). Rivers of the World. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1-57607-042-5.
- Bartlett, Richard A. (1984). Rolling Rivers: An encyclopedia of America's rivers. R. R. Donnelley and Sons. ISBN 0-07-003910-0.
External links
- General Information about the Mississippi River
- Life on the River with David Estrada - a view .2508|(Lake Itasca)|47.2397|-95.2074}}
- 1911 Britannica article
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