Mississippi River

MISSISSIPPI RIVER

The Mississippi River is a principal United States river. It originates in central Minnesota and flows southeast and then south, eventually reaching Louisiana where it pours into the Gulf of Mexico. States lying west of the Mississippi are Iowa, Missouri, and Arkansas, Louisiana, and Minnesota; to the east are Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi. The river is 2,340 miles (3,765 kilometers) long. With the Missouri River, the Mississippi forms the world's third-longest river system. It is navigable by ocean-going vessels from the Gulf to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. North of that location, it is navigable by barges and towboats as far as Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The mighty Mississippi was first sighted by explorers in 1540–41 when Spaniard Hernando de Soto (1500?–42) ventured through the southern region. In 1672–73 the Mississippi's upper reaches were seen by French-Canadian explorer Louis Jolliet (1645–1700) and French missionary Jacques Marquette(1637–75). In 1682 French explorer Sieur de La Salle (1643–87) investigated the lower part and claimed the entire region for France, naming it Louisiana in honor of King Louis XIV (1638–1715).

After 1763, at the end of the French and Indian War, (1754–63), the river became the boundary between British possessions to the east and Spanish possessions to the west, and the river itself was ceded to Spain. Disputes between Spain and the United States over the waterway were settled in the Pinckney Treaty (1795). With the Louisiana Purchase (1803), the river passed into American control.

In 1811 the steamboat era began on the Mississippi River. Traffic along the Mississippi sped the development of the nation by providing access to the interior territories. St. Louis, Missouri; Memphis, Tennessee; and New Orleans, Louisiana, all flourished as a result of riverboat traffic. In the imagination of most U.S. citizens, the romance of the Mississippi as a steamboat waterway is probably best captured by Missouri-born writer Mark Twain (1835–1910) in his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).

See also: Louisiana, Missouri River, Natchez Trace, New Orleans, Pinckney Treaty, Steamboats, Steamboat Act of 1852