# Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Mississippi River

Edition of 1921; disclaimer.
​MISSISSIPPI RIVER (from an Indian word signifying Great Water, or Father of Waters), a river of the United States, forming with its tributaries one of the great water systems of the world. ​From the headwaters of the Missouri, which is now recognized as the parent stream (the upper Mississippi being really a tributary), to the mouth of the Mississippi is a distance of 4,200 miles, the longest river course in the world. It drains an area of 1,246,000 square miles, occupied by the States lying between the Appalachian mountains on the E., the Rocky Mountains on the W., the Great Lakes on the N., and the Gulf of Mexico on the S. The Mississippi forms the boundary between the States of Minnesota (in part), Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana (in part) on the W. bank, and Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi on the E. bank. There are several cataracts, the best known being the Falls of St. Anthony at Minneapolis, Minn., marking the headwaters of navigation. The principal affluents above the entrance of the Missouri are the St. Peter's, St. Croix, Chippewa, Wisconsin, Rock, Des Moines and Illinois. Below the junction of the Missouri, the character of the river, which is here about one and a half miles broad, and of a muddy nature, is due to its tributary. The united waters have only, from their confluence to the mouth of the Ohio, a medial width of about three-quarters of a mile. The junction of the Ohio seems also to produce no increase, but rather a decrease, of surface; and the river, in its natural state, is still narrower at New Orleans, which is only 120 miles from its mouth. About 190 miles below the confluence of the Missouri, the Mississippi receives the Ohio, flowing, with its light-green stream, from the E., bringing with it also the waters of its tributaries. About 380 miles below the influx of the Ohio, is the junction of the Arkansas and White rivers, which enter the main stream close to each other on the W. bank. Thence to the confluence of the Red river is a distance, S. by W., of 360 miles, measured along the stream; and below this latter point the river trends S. E., and enters the Gulf of Mexico, after a course of 335 miles from the Red river.
The lower part of the Mississippi is so much flooded after the rainy season that there is often a space of inundated woodland from 30 to 100 miles in width; large swamps and bayous, also, are found, during the whole year, on both sides the river. The Mississippi is subject to inundations, often destructive in their effects. To secure the land from these inundations, immense embarnkments, or levees, as they are generally called, have been formed along the Mississippi, and the canals or bayous through which its waters overflow. The white waters of the Mississippi do not readily mix with the sea, and may be distinguished from 9 to 14 miles from Balize. The facilities afforded by the Mississippi and its various tributaries for internal navigation are unsurpassed. De Soto, 1541, was the first European who explored the Mississippi. He died upon it, and was buried in it. Marquette and Joliet in 1673. and La Salle in 1682, made explorations, the latter descending to its mouth.
A VIEW OF MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE, ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER :
© Ewing Galloway :
A MISSISSIPPI RIVER STEAMER AND A DOCK FOR RICE, NEW ORLEANS :
© Ewing Galloway :
HIDES FROM ARGENTINA, UNLOADED FROM A JAPANESE STEAMER AT NEW ORLEANS :