The Mississippi River’s source is Lake Itasca, Minnesota and it drains into the Gulf of Mexico at Pilottown, Louisiana, a distance of approximately 2,320 miles. It drops 1,475 feet in elevation and the majority of the drop is from the source to Minneapolis. From there to the Gulf the drop is only 725 feet so it is a gently flowing river. The Mississippi drains most of the area between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains, an area of 1,245,000 square miles, plus part of Canada. The basin covers 31 states and drains more than 41% of the 48 contiguous states.

The river is divided into the upper Mississippi, from its source to the Ohio River, and the lower Mississippi, from the Ohio to its mouth south of New Orleans. The upper Mississippi is further divided into three sections - 1) the headwaters from the source to Saint Anthony Falls 2) a series of man-made lakes between Minneapolis and St. Louis and 3) the middles Mississippi, a relatively free-flowing river downstream of the confluence with the Missouri River to St. Louis.

A series of 29 locks and dams on the upper Mississippi, most of which were built in the 1930's, is designed primarily to maintain a 9 foot deep channel for commercial barge traffic. Below St. Louis the Mississippi is relatively free-flowing and although it is controlled by numerous levees and wing damns, there are no dams across the river.

The Mississippi River discharges into the Gulf of Mexico at an average rate between 200,000 and 700,000 cubic feet per second and overwhelms the Gulf. There is so much water it does not completely mix with the salt water until it flows south and around the Florida Keys and up the Gulf Stream to the Georgia coast.

In 1811, the first steamboat (New Orleans) traveled from the Ohio River to New Orleans and today ocean going ships ply from the Gulf to as far north as Baton Rouge. Large barges, up to 42 tied together, transport oil, chemicals, gains and coal on the lower Mississippi while smaller barges haul cargo on the middle Mississippi. The upper river, due to no locks, is for recreational boating. Today about 400 million tons of cargo move in barges on the river every year.

The river was used to define the borders of eight states and it has changed its course many times and in many places, but the state borders have not changed. The natural flow of the river causes silt and sediment to fill the river bottoms and flowing water follows a new path of less resistance. Since the river was formed millions of years ago it constantly changed it course until the Corp of Engineers stepped in and built levees, flood walls, dams, side-water dams, dredged channels, dug land from U-shaped bends, etc. Still the old river attempts to change its route and the Corp takes action. In the 1950s the Mississippi River started changing its flow to the Atchafalaya River and bypassing New Orleans. By 1986 and after pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the project, the Corp of Engineers deterred Mother Nature so the Mississippi River still flows through New Orleans.

The Great River Road runs along both the east and west sides of the river and that is the roads we are traveling this summer. We started in New Orleans and plan to spend two and a half months on our northward journey to Lake Itasca, Minnesota. Traveling with us are my sister Gloria and her husband Don Martin.

My travel articles will not give the history of the river and towns along the way because volumes could be written and it has been. We will also skip cities like St. Louis, Missouri and Dubuque, Iowa because we have been there before. We look forward to having a relaxing trip.