MISSISSIPPI RIVER
MISSISSIPPI RIVER. One of the major rivers of North America, the Mississippi River has been a focal point in American history, commerce, agriculture, literature, and environmental awareness. The length of the Mississippi River from its source in Lake Itasca in northwestern Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico flows 2,348 miles; it is the second longest river in the United States behind the Missouri (2,466 miles). The Mississippi River system drains the agricultural plains between the Appalachian Mountains to the east and the Rocky Mountains to the west. This drainage basin (approximately 1,234,700 square miles) covers about 40 percent of the United States and ranks as the fifth largest in the world.
Mississippi River's Course
The Mississippi River actually begins as a small stream flowing from Lake Itasca, Minnesota. The river initially flows north and then east as the means of connecting several lakes in northern Minnesota. The river begins to flow southward near Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and is joined with the Minnesota River between the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The muddy waters of the Missouri River flow into the clear waters of the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis, Missouri. At this point, the Mississippi
becomes brown and muddy for the rest of the journey south.
At Cairo, Illinois, the Ohio River flows into the Mississippi, doubling its volume and creating the point that divides the Upper Mississippi from the Lower Mississippi. The Lower Mississippi Valley is a wide and fertile region. In this area, the river meanders its way south and over time has continuously changed its course, leaving behind numerous oxbow lakes as remnants of its past. As it flows in this southern region, the Mississippi deposits rich silt along its banks. In many areas, the silt builds up to create natural levees. South of Memphis, Tennessee, the Arkansas River junctions with the Mississippi River. Near Fort Adams, Mississippi, the Red River joins with the Mississippi, diverting with it about a quarter of the flow of the Mississippi into the Atchafalaya River.
As the Mississippi River nears the Gulf of Mexico it creates a large delta with its silt. The Mississippi River delta covers approximately 13,000 square miles. South of the city of New Orleans, the Mississippi creates several channels, known as distributaries, which then flow separately into the Gulf of Mexico. The most prominent of these are known as the North Pass, South Pass, Southwest Pass, and Main Pass. Annually, the Mississippi River discharges about 133 cubic miles of water (approximately 640,000 cubic feet per second).
History
The Mississippi River played an important role in the lives of many Native Americans who lived in the Upper Mississippi Valley, such as the Santee Dakota, the Illinois, the Kickapoo, and the Ojibwe, as well as those tribes in the southern valley, such as the Chicksaw, the Choctaw, the Tunica, and the Natchez. The name "Mississippi," meaning "great river" or "gathering of water," is attributed to the Ojibwe (Chippewa).
The first known European to travel on the Mississippi River was the Spaniard Hernando de Soto, who crossed the river near present-day Memphis in May 1541. Over a century later, in 1673, the French explorers Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette entered the Mississippi River from the Wisconsin River and traveled by canoe downriver to a point near the mouth of the Arkansas River. Less than a decade later, another Frenchman, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, explored the Mississippi River from the Illinois River to the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle declared on 9 April 1682 that the Mississippi Valley belonged to France, and he named the region Louisiana. It was not until 1718 that the French were actually established at New Orleans. They maintained control over the lower Mississippi until the end of the French and Indian War (1754–1763). In 1762 and 1763, the French made cessions that established the Mississippi River as an international boundary with Spanish territory to the west and British territory to the east.
During the American Revolution (1775–1783), the river served as the supply line for George Rogers Clark, allowing him to maintain control of the Illinois country. The Peace of Paris of 1783 outlined the new country of the United States as extending to the Mississippi River between Spanish Florida and the Canadian border. Additionally, the United States was entitled to free navigation of the Mississippi River. Spain, though not party to the treaty, controlled the mouth of the Mississippi and, through high duties, maintained actual power over the river and, in essence, over the entire Mississippi Valley. Not until Pinckney's Treaty with Spain in 1795 was the river truly free to American navigation. This freedom was short-lived, however, for when Spain ceded Louisiana back to France in 1800, the French again closed the Mississippi to American river traffic. Finally, the Louisiana Purchase (1803) made the Mississippi an American river, and it rapidly became a major route of trade and commerce for the entire Mississippi Valley.
Western settlers and traders traversed the Mississippi in flatboats (on which farmers floated their produce downstream to market) and keelboats (which could be pushed upstream with great effort). Certainly the most significant change in river transportation on the Mississippi came in 1811 when the steamboat New Orleans made its legendary trip from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. This event opened the Mississippi River to two-way traffic, essentially doubling the carrying capacity of the river. By 1860, more than 1,000 steamboats were actively engaged in transport along the Mississippi River system, and the cities of Cincinnati (Ohio), Louisville, (Kentucky), St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans became important cities in the movement west.
During the Civil War (1861–1865) both the Union and the Confederacy recognized the importance of the Mississippi River, and the fight over its control was a major part of the war. A decisive victory for the Union came with the fall of Vicksburg, Mississippi (1863), which essentially gave the Union full possession of the river, reopening the trade routes down the Mississippi from the Ohio Valley and splitting the Confederacy.
Following the war, life on the Mississippi did not return to the golden years so richly described in Mark Twain's writings. The faster and more convenient railroads replaced much of the commercial traffic on the Mississippi. In 1879, the U.S. Congress established the Mississippi River Commission as a means of maintaining and improving the river as a commercial waterway. In the years that followed, the commission deepened and widened several channels along the river, making it more navigable for larger boats and barges. These changes promoted increased transport on the Mississippi, particularly of heavy and bulky freight.
At the turn of the twenty-first century, the Mississippi River carried more than half of the freight transported on American inland water. Nearly 460 million short tons of freight were transported on the Mississippi River each year. Most of this freight was carried on large barges pushed by tugboats. The upper Mississippi traffic was predominantly composed of agricultural products such as wheat, corn, and soybeans. Coal and steel freight traveled down the Ohio River and onto the lower Mississippi River. At Baton Rouge, Louisiana, petroleum, petrochemical products, and aluminum joined the freight being moved south. It is at this point that the depth of the Mississippi River increases, allowing for larger ships to traverse upriver to this point.
Flooding
People living along the Mississippi River are well aware of the flooding potential of the river. During de Soto's exploration of the Mississippi, he noted much flooding. Evidence from Native American Mississippi Valley settlement locations (on higher land) and the creation of mounds on which they placed their dwellings indicate Native American awareness of and adaptation to flooding of the Mississippi. Significant flooding of the Mississippi Valley in 1927 prompted national discussion of flood control along the Mississippi. Other severe flooding events occurred in 1937, 1965, 1973, 1982, and 1993. The severe flooding in 1993 is considered to be the most devastating in recorded U.S. history. It affected the upper and middle Mississippi Valley from late June until mid-August 1993 with record levels on the Mississippi River and most of its tributaries from Minnesota to Missouri. At St. Louis, the river remained above flood stage for over two months and crested at 49.6 feet (19 feet above flood stage). Industry and transportation along the Mississippi were virtually at a standstill during the summer months of 1993. In all, over 1,000 of the 1,300 levees in the Mississippi River system failed, over 70,000 people were displaced, nearly 50,000 homes were either destroyed or damaged, 12,000 square miles of agricultural land was unable to be farmed, and 52 people died. Fortunately, larger cities along the Mississippi remained protected by floodwalls. The cost of the flood was enormous. Most estimates of total flood damage run to nearly $20 billion. Flood events are certain to remain a part of life along the Mississippi River.
Human Influence
Humans have influenced the flow of the Mississippi and the quality of its water. Historically, the river and its tributaries meandered across the floodplain, and erosion, sedimentation, and flooding were natural processes. During the twentieth century, however, humans interrupted these processes. In the 1930s, twenty-nine navigation dams were built between St. Louis and Minneapolis. These dams impound the water to improve navigation. One cost of damming, however, is increased retention of sediment in the river. Flood-control levees have been built in order to manage the seasonal flooding. Much of the Mississippi floodplain has been converted to agriculture. This change has two serious consequences for the Mississippi River. First, the loss of prairie wetlands and floodplain forest decreases the biodiversity of the region. Second, conversion of land to agriculture often leads to increased run off of fertilizers and pesticides. The presence of high rates of nitrogen and phosphorus can be directly attributed to farming practices in the Mississippi Valley. At the end of the twentieth century, many experts suggested that agricultural pollution in the Mississippi River was directly responsible for the creation of the "dead zone," an area in the Gulf of Mexico where there is little aquatic life due to abnormally low levels of oxygen.
Industrial pollution is also a concern along the Mississippi River. Industries have contributed significant amounts of oil, aluminum, lead, and other industrial wastes such as sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and benzene to the flow of the Mississippi. A study in 2000 estimated that 58 million pounds of toxic discharge travels down the Mississippi annually. At the turn of the twenty-first century, much of the river remained unswimmable and unfishable, despite the fact that it serves as the primary source of drinking water for 18 million people. Growing awareness of environmental processes and increased concern for the state of the Mississippi River system that began during the last decade of the twentieth century may prove to have a positive influence in the life of the great river.
