Talk:Mississippi River/Archive 2

message: :1. Well written? Fail
:2. Factually accurate? Pass
:3. Broad in coverage? Fail
:4. Neutral point of view? Pass
:5. Article stability? Pass
:6. Images? Pass
Additional comments :
* WP:LEAD does not comply with the guideline.
* There are no references for the non-inline cited material present in section Geography.
* Wikilinks are needed to help the reader, e. g. silt, plume ...
* A subsection cannot be named Present for it is time-dependant. Also, this section doesn't give much information except trivia.
* Can the Major cities along the river section be turned into prose in order to give a little information to the reader on why are these major cities and why should they be mentioned on an article talking of a river.
* The section Notable bridges should have its name changed as it is pov-oriented and the bullet-point information should also have a lot more to give to the reader as to why they are notable.
* Popular culture section should remove non-notable stuff. And Trivia section should be removed.
* I think the articles is missing a lot of inline citations and a lot of references (only encyclopedia or encyclopedia like books at present).
The most important comment the article should work on is citations and sources for the time being and to remove questionable facts. For more insight into the article, please contact me and come back to GAC once there is work done on the article. Good luck, Lincher 02:04, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  GA failed 

message: The Mississippi River is not the determining factor in scheduling sports contests, National Football League games for instance.  The actual deciding factor is the time zone.  Thus, Eastern and Central time zones have "early" games while Mountain and Pacific time zones have "late" games (except that some Eastern games are arbitrarily moved to a 4 p.m. schedule for the benefit of the television networks).
Consider, for instance, that games in Minnesota, St. Louis, Kansas City, Dallas, Houston, and New Orleans (as well as Oklahoma City and San Antonio in the wake of Hurricane Katrina) are scheduled "early" because all these localities are in the Central time zone.
I will remove the sports scheduling reference soon, as it is completely inaccurate (and, for that matter, unsourced).
Paul 03:24, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Scheduling of Professional Sports Contests 

message: It's good to see that "pollution" isn't mentioned in the article. It really isn't that important since the river is in such good shape after all the industrial use it has seen. The fish still taste great, despite the warnings not to eat it. Top job, guys.
:Now now, no need to hide behind sarcasm.  First of all, you could have signed your post; nobody's going to bite you.  Second, you could edit the article yourself, and add information about pollution.  Third, I notice that the Upper Mississippi River and Lower Mississippi River articles do mention pollution.  Finally, we generally add comments to the bottom of a discussion page, rather than the top (oops). -- Lorrette 15:56, 3 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: It couldn't have taken too long to copy and paste from here, even with some slight rearrangement. You can take information, but not text, and such slight rejiggering of the prose does not prevent it from being a copyright violation.  There are other problems aside from copyright with that text, too. The tone was all accusation with no source citations.  By "source" I mean scientifically reputable sources of hard data.  If I hadn't deleted the text as infringing I would probably have plastered it with  tags.  E.g., which schools' crew teams?  Typhoid is not caused by industrial pollution as the paragraph seemed to suggest, and can be a concern in any flood situation.  What does "centern" mean?  "Theoretically" is a weasel word –  we should know whose theory specifically.  In short, the tone was all advocacy and not encyclopedic.  This article certainly does need a proper section on pollution, though. Some of the links listed on that other page may actually prove useful as suitable sources of information (not prose).  --Kbh3rdtalk 02:28, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pollution 

message: Ok, I understand what they mean when they say "second longest named river", really I do.  But it is still confusing.  For a second, I was like, no, Mississippi has a longer name than Missouri, having 11 letters rather than 8.
Is there a better way to word that?
--24.5.74.101 19:31, 12 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  longest *named* river 

message: we should make a place for myths and what not becasue i saw no mention of the "phizzel gobblin" in this articleChessmaster3 12:17, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Myths 

message: shouldn't the article state "remaining" waterfall? at the keokuk, ia lock and dam #19 were "the falls of the mississippi". i don't know of any others.
"in Clearwater County, Minnesota, the river falls to 725 feet (220 m) just below Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the only waterfall along the river's course."
M3t00 16:41, 29 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The above has apparently become obsolete due to rephrasing in the article.  (SEWilco 18:39, 22 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  water falls 

message: The article states that the river only runs through two states, followed by mentioning that it formed the borders of several others, though the course has changed. Specifically, it runs through a small portion of Illinois, at Kaskaskia. So, really, it should say that it runs through at least three states. Right? Murderbike 06:01, 3 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Strictly speaking, yeah, and more than three. I recall numerous locations in Mississippi and perhaps Arkansas where the river has moved while the state boundary has not, creating "islands" of one state on the other state's side of the active channel. Maybe there should be wording to the effect that the river runs through two states proper, with numerous isolated cutoffs in other states... but I don't recall offhand where and how many.--Muffuletta 18:06, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  running through states 

message: Hello guys, what a great article this is! I have done an overhaul on the images in the article. All preset image sizes have been removed and all images in the article are aligned on the right side now according to the Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style#Images.  
You might find that extreme but here is my reasoning:
The article looked very cluttered with all the big images on the left and right on a smaller screen and Wikipedia should be compatible with that, too. It is not unusual for articles that attract so many readers and contributors, lots of editors contribute material and images and everyone has their own idea of what looks nice. If there is such a mix of (individually nice) ideas of formats and alignment it is hard to find the common denominator. That's why I chose the drastic measure to reset them all to zero: All the same size and all aligned to the right.
I don't want to say that this is the ultimate solution for the design of the article, if you don't like some of the re-arrangements, feel free to change them. If you don't like any, you can even undo it. I did the changes in one edit, so they are very easily reversible. 
There is no loss of information also, all the thumbnail images can be clicked for the large view, anyway. And I have not removed a single image nor a piece of information. I have added an image in the history secion.
I also added some subheaders in the history section for better readability and structure of the artcile. A nice side effect of the newly added subheaders is that the article gets streched a little to provide room for the abundant images.doxTxob \ talk 02:36, 14 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: In a second step I have re-arranged some of the content and applied subheaders to diverse paragraphs throughout the article. This should improve readability and make it easy for readers to find the information. I have tried to condense the information under the respective subheaders. doxTxob \ talk 04:12, 14 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Image re-arrangement 

message: Hello! The history section is quite long, it contains general history as well as navigational history. That is a lot of interesting material and certainly enough to deserve an article of its own.
What I am planning is to move the history section to a new article History of the Mississippi River and reduce the section in this article. In this article, I would refer to the new history article with the main article tag
and touch the topics in summary style. So the core information would still be present, just shorter. In the new article I would add an introduction. 
Any idea, suggestion or contribution is welcome. doxTxob \ talk 23:08, 15 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  New article for history section 

message: I have archived a whole lot of talk topics from this talk page. The archived topics can be found in one of the archives in the archive box at the top, the archives are dated, the dates refer to the date the topic was posted. I have tried to sort them in the arhcives by that date. I have also tried to leave topics with recent comments on the page. Should I have overlooked a topic that had recent comments, please take my apologies and move it back or revive the topic on the talk page. doxTxob \ talk 01:25, 28 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Archives for this talk page 

message: What are the "crossings" referred to in Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi"?
Mike Dallwitz (talk) 01:58, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Crossings" 

message: doxTxob asked me to provide a brief summary of some of the major things that this article needs done before nominating for WP:GAN. First, it wouldn't hurt to review the Good article criteria, which is a listing of six criteria that all GAs must meet in order to pass. The first three of these are the major ones: an article must be well written, with good prose, and mostly following the wikipedia manual of style; it must be reasonably complete, with most major topics covered; it must be verifiable, and information must be cited using inline citations. The last three are more minor, and usually easier to fix: adhere to WP:NPOV, be stable (no major edit wars, although random vandalism which can't be controlled is allowed), and the images must have appropriate image copyright tags (images should preferably be free use, as opposed to fair use -- licensed via GFDL, creative commons, or public domain; though fair use is still allowed, as long as they're tagged, and a fair use rationale is present).
With regards to the specifics of this article:
* The lead/intro is too short. There's a lot of short, choppy sentences and paragraphs, and it doesn't really summarize the content of the article. The lead should be a summary here, and almost be like a short version of the article itself. See WP:LEAD for tips on improving this section.
* The infobox looks good; the image looks a little under-exposed; perhaps a brighter one could be used? Take the photo on a sunny day? Although the image is sufficient for GA, this is just a suggestion for improvement.
* The first thing I notice is evident from the table of contents. Due to the long length of the TOC, it seems to be caused by a large number of sections, subheaderss, and subsubheaders. And reading the article text, I see a lot of subsection headers with very little content, which could probably be combined better into main sections. If you look at some of the best FAs and GAs, they don't use a whole lot of subsection headers, sticking mainly to good-sized, well written main sections (the headers with the lines beneath them). Subsection headers should be used very conservatively.
* Try to avoid listing content using bulleted lists, like the one with all the tributaries. Is this really the best way to present this information? Some alternatives to bulleted lists might be:
::Write it out as prose. Some very long lists started because editors found it easy to just add bullet points while effectively brainstorming a topic. But once the topic gets going, these ideas should be converted to good, well written prose, with citations where needed. Try to find something to talk about each item in the list and how they are related to each other.
::A figure or an image. In the case of the tributaries, listing them with the state that they are in doesn't exactly illustrate it best. What about an image of the central US, with all the tributaries drawn on it and labelled. The image to the right is a good start, but incomplete as it doesn't have all the rivers. Furthermore, the bulleted list is inaccurate -- the Ohio River isn't 'in Kentucky' -- it forms the northern border of Kentucky, and sits 'between' KY, IL, IN, OH, WV, & starts in PA.
::Use a category instead. The section with the list of 'cities along the river' might be best done linking to the Cities on the Mississippi River in the 'see also' section, instead of listing them in bullet form here. Trivial information like this might be to put in 'see also' anyway.
* Be careful with things like 'popular culture' and 'nicknames'. Sections like this tend to be heavily edited, because it doesn't take too many brain cells to hear some nickname of something (as minor as it might be), or see something mentioned on TV, and have the desire to go to wikipedia and make sure the world knows about it. Mentioning two or three of the more common nicknames in the lead is appropriate, and probably all that we need to include. Pop culture information should almost never be a bulleted list (because that's basically like putting a sign up saying "add to this list"), and should be written out as prose, with citations. For a good example of a well written pop culture section, see the 'media & popular culture' section of the Flagstaff, Arizona article.
* Again, make sure that information that you add is sourced using inline citations. The citation should also not just contain an external link -- include full citation information, such as author, title, publisher, date of publication, date URL was retrieved -- so that if the URL ever becomes a 404 not found, the citation is not rendered useless and it could still be used to locate the source (like if you had to go to a library), should someone want to do that. See WP:CITE for tips on formatting citations.
* Also, citations don't just have to be online sources; it's always good to include some material from offline, such as books, magazines, or journals, to provide a good, well-rounded article. Although a lot of legitimate and reliable sources are being found online these days, so this is less of an issue. But you should avoid citing personal websites and blogs, as these do not have the same editorial control as the professional sources.
* As far as the major sections are concerned, geography and history are good. Merge navigation history into history; it all seems related, and it seems kind of silly to separate the specific navigation stuff into a whole separate section. Nuke 'cities along the river' -- move it to a category (see above). Bridge crossings seems interesting; needs citations. Arts and culture also needs citations. I would also add a section dealing with wildlife (flora and fauna) of the Mississippi -- certainly there's a more natural component to the river than just the human parts,...
Ok, those are the big things to fix. Hope that helps to get you started. I think if you fix those major things, the article will be in much better shape, and then a little minor tweaking and it will be back to GA! Cheers! Dr. Cash (talk) 21:38, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: In terms of coverage, there's hardly any material here about the economic or industrial magnitude of shipping or trade, either historically or present day.  What is the typical transit time from St Louis to the gulf, if anything is still moved by this route?  Is it cost competitive with rail transport, or has it fallen into a secondary niche?  From my perch on the Pacific, I honestly couldn't guess the answer to these questions.  MaxEnt (talk) 19:15, 22 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  What this article needs to be a [[WP:GA|Good Article]] 

message: Under paragraph 2.4.1 Steamboat Commerce the first sentence says "Twain's book also extensively covered the steamboat commerce which took place from 1830 to 1870 on the river before more modern boating methods replaced the steamer." and yet there is no previous mention of Mark Twain in the article. It looks as if something has been removed earlier leaving this paragraph making no sense. Richerman (talk) 17:19, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for the note, I have re-formulated the paragraph. It looks like that part of the story stems from the arts sub-section. The article is in need of an overhaul and any input and contribution is welcome. doxTxob \ talk 22:14, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Orphan paragraph 

message: there is not a section on steamboats on the mississippi? most puzzling.
First thing that springs to mind.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sfsorrow2 (talk • contribs) 02:54, 19 July 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: There is a whole article about Steamboats of the Mississippi. doxTxob \ talk 19:04, 4 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Steamboats 

message: Shouldn't this be the Ohio-Missouri-Mississippi system? Theriddles (talk) 04:02, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: No, the Jefferson is a special case. It's actually part of the Missouri River, and basically indistinguishable from it except for a quirk of history. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_River . -- Otto 20:13, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Jefferson River?? 

message: I have been wondering what makes the river so dirty-looking.  Is it polution?  What is the ecological health of the river?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.199.189.180 (talk) 13:41, 4 September 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: *It's pretty clear before its confluence with the Minnesota River in St. Paul. It's probably always been sort of muddy/dirty, but not nearly as muddy and dirty as it is now due to the widespread alteration of landuse away from forest/prairie to agricultural crops.Minnecologies (talk) 20:51, 1 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ecology 

message: Wikipedia 0.7 is a collection of English Wikipedia articles due to be released on DVD, and available for free download, later this year. The Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team has made an automated selection of articles for Version 0.7. 
The Mississippi River is planned to be one of the articles. Should there be important additions or improvements on anyone's mind or something major needs to be fixed. Now is the time! 
For more information on the project, visit the Talkpage of the WikiProject of your state. October 20 is the deadline. doxTxob \ talk 21:41, 16 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wikipedia on DVD ... incl. the Mississippi River 

message: Mississippi Valley redirects to this article, but there is no discussion of the term here. Kaldari (talk) 18:17, 24 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mississippi Valley 

message: Would someone please create articles for Barfield, Arkansas, Tomato, Arkansas, and Reads landing, Minnesota? Having those redlinks there makes it confusing.72.2.214.33 (talk) 20:15, 2 March 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  New Articles 

message: From the Mississippi River page: "The Mississippi River[2] is the longest river in the United States, with a length of 2,320 miles (3,730 km)". From the Missouri River page: "The Missouri River[8] is a tributary of the Mississippi River, and the longest river in the United States of America[9]." "At 2,540 miles (4,090 km)[1] in length..." How can both of these rivers be the longest in the U.S., and how can the Mississippi River be the longest in the U.S. if it is shorter than the Missouri River? Desertdave79 (talk) 08:10, 14 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I vaguely remember someone doing an unexplained deletion of the word 'second' a few weeks ago. Although there seems to be some disagreement as to the exact length of the two rivers, I've added back the word 'second' for now and added a fairly straight-forward reference from the USGS. AlexiusHoratius 15:16, 14 March 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mississippi vs. Missouri River Length 

message: I bumped into these photos on flickr and although they are copyrighted, they are drawn by the Army Corps of Engineers, possibly making them usable for this article... Take a look.    --Travis Thurston+ 06:58, 6 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Maps - possible additions to article 

message: That phrase "and almost 6 times the volume of the Colorado River." appears in the Discharge section, but I don't see how that is possible. The Colorado River is dry at its mouth. Are we talking about the historic discharge of that river or the discharge somewhere else along the Colorado river's course? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shannon1 (usurped3) (talk • contribs) 16:36, 12 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  ...and almost 6 times the volume of the Colorado River. 

message: I would like to see a section regarding the current state of the Mississippi River and the pollution levels that the river is at. I've read things about it creating a deadzone in the Gulf of Mexico due to low oxygen levels?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.209.209.129 (talk) 21:57, 11 July 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pollution 

message: The 2011 flooding might be important enough to be included in the article.  Here is a small part of a Yahoo article:
"Forecasters and emergency officials said some of the high-water records set during the great floods of 1927 and 1937 could fall. On Wednesday, for example, the Mississippi eclipsed the 46-foot mark set in 1937 in Caruthersville, Mo., and the water was still rising, with a crest of 49.5 feet forecast for Sunday.
"But because of the system of levees and locks built since those disasters more than 70 years ago, the flooding this time is unlikely to be anywhere near as devastating as it was back then."  211.225.34.173 (talk) 05:47, 5 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Floods

message: We all need a project. I want to write an article on Paint Creek, (Iowa), a direct tributary to the Mississippi, but come on, it's just a creek in NE Iowa. See my article Butte Creek (California).
I put this up in the Missouri name section of the discussion but figure it should go here too.
The Mississippi  itself is misnamed and should by rights end at St. Louis and the Missouri should flow on to the Gulf. However due to history and such the river is named as it is. This is why there is confusion about the Missouri River not being a tributary to the Mississippi and this is simply an oddity of the naming of the river. The Mississippi is actually the tributary to the Missouri. 
A citation needed should be put there until I or someone can get one directly but I don't know how to put that remark in the edit. It is one of the Mississippi oddities and you can look it up that way and see that it is true. 12.214.61.17 02:39, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I think you have it backwards. The segment of the Mississippi from STL to the Gulf should stay the Mississippi; it had that name from the Eurpoeans since well before they ever came upon the Missouri. At STL, the Missouri River should be renamed the Mississippi, and the current segment of the Missippi which heads north should be renamed. Foofighter20x (talk) 00:12, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: No, he has it right. The word "Mississippi" is derived from the Ojibwe's word for the river in Minnesota.Minnecologies (talk) 21:09, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

text: Tributaries are described as left and right from the perspective of looking downriver (see Tributary), so the listing in the infobox is correct.  VerruckteDan (talk) 02:39, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

text: The lower Mississippi should be considered a continuation of the Ohio river if we want to be technically correct about it.--209.7.195.158 (talk) 15:05, 10 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Tributaries of the Mississippi 

message: Hi, I have noticed that the map entitled: Map of the course, watershed, and major tributaries of the Mississippi River, appears to have an incorrect scale displayed in it's title block. The scale of 200 miles is not in proportion to the map if, the over length of the mississippi is correctly quoted in the main article.
I have posted this in the hope that somebody who knows what they are doing will be able to edit the article.     
CB 07/10/2010 (UK date)  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.155.42.179 (talk) 10:31, 7 October 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: The scale is accurate enough as the crow flies. Keep in mind that there are a large number of bends in the river, especially in the South, which add a lot to its length but are not large enough to be shown on a map of that scale. AlexiusHoratius 02:01, 23 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Map Scale 

message: The statements "Flowing entirely in the United States" and "and even reaches into southern Canada" are contradictionary. Whch one is right? --Sigmundg (talk) 00:51, 23 October 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: The river flows only in the US, but the watershed/drainage basin/catchment/whatever extends into southern Canada. AlexiusHoratius 01:53, 23 October 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: So th canada statement should read something like the water reaches into southern Canada through drainage into the great lakes, or whatever the case may be. Millertime246 (talk) 02:04, 23 October 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Not really - the only connection with the Great Lakes that I know of is the Chicago River, which artificially flows out of Lake Michigan when it used to flow east. It's fairly small and Lake Michigan is not generally considered to be part of the Mississippi watershed. I think the current sentence in the lead (With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 31 U.S. states between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains and even reaches into southern Canada.) is fine, although "watershed" (or drainage basin) may need to be wikilinked as it seems to be causing confusion. AlexiusHoratius 02:20, 23 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Canada 

message: The lengths of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers have been transposed somehow and I cannot discern how to correct them..... Promiseto (talk) 04:13, 12 January 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  It looks like the length of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers have been transposed.   

message: The following coordinate fixes are needed for
The following coordinate fixes are needed for
To link to Google Maps, more precisely to the Mississsippi River Headwaters on Itasca State Park more decimals are needed
The coordinates should be: 47° 14' 23.15" N  95° 12' 27.15" W
and the Google Maps link should change to:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=47.239763889,-95.207541667
—189.190.83.8 (talk) 23:36, 26 May 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: . Wikipedia:WikiProject Geographical coordinates#Precision discourages overprecision, and a tenth of a second is a matter of only a few meters. The coordinates currently in the article seem as precise as necessary and, in fact, as precise as the proposed replacements. Deor (talk) 11:32, 27 May 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Coordinate error 

message: The article currently says "In 1815, the U.S. defeated Britain at the Battle of New Orleans, part of the War of 1812, securing American control of the river". I don't see how this last part can possible be true, nor any source in the article suggesting this. The Treaty of Ghent which ended the war was signed on the 24 December 1814, while the Battle of New Orleans took place on 8 January 1815 after the treaty was signed (news of the treaty had not arrived there yet). As the peace had already been signed before the battle, the battle could have no affect on who would control the river after the war - even if the result had been different the British would still have had to withdraw under the terms of the treaty already agreed.
Therefore unless someone can explain (or produce sources to show) how the battle could possibly secure control of the river that last part of the sentence should be removed. I added a fact tag to the sentence but that has been reverted so am bringing it here. Davewild (talk) 22:44, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Battle of New Orleans - securing American control of the river 

message: It is important to note that the Mississippi River floods, and this article should have images of the river in flood.  However, the river is not usually flooded, so an image of the river in flood does not present an accurate picture of what the river is likely to resemble at any given time.  As such, the first image in the article should be replaced with one that depicts the river in its usual, non-flooded state.  Tom (talk) 16:40, 15 February 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree as well. This was the one that had been used before. I haven't checked on Commons if there are better ones. AlexiusHoratius 03:23, 8 July 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Commons doesn't have much that would be suitable. There's this one, not very good quality though and there isn't anything else much better. I would be fine with the image that was used before. --RacerX11 Talk to meStalk me  03:49, 8 July 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Image of river in flood is inappropriate for use as header image of article 

message: Could Fevre Dream be added to 7.1 Literature?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.91.102.243 (talk) 16:57, 28 August 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Add Fevre Dream to Litterature? 

message: Why is :File:Mississipi River - New Orleans.JPG in the article twice - once in the infobox and once farther down in the article?  MathewTownsend (talk) 23:48, 20 November 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: The infobox image has been changed several times in the past and there have been discussions above about the most suitable available image for it. We seem to keep going back to the New Orleans image, but because it's not particularly aesthetically pleasing, many people are not completely satisfied with it. We can delete the second image and leave it only in the infobox for now so it doesn't appear twice. Then when we find a better image for the infobox, we could re-add the New Orleans image to the article body if desired. --RacerX11 Talk to meStalk me  16:01, 22 November 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Repeated image 

message: I found the mention of Manifest Destiny to be confusing, especially for those of us who aren't Americans. The fact that the river promoted the settlement of the west is an important a fact about the river. The fact that Manifest Destiny was an ideology that also promoted settlement doesn't seem to have much to do with the river. Better to drop the reference, or expand on it below.
The reference to the steamboat era in the context of agriculture us not clear. In y view, it should either be expanded to make the reference clear or dropped.
The reference to mound builders and herders in the context of native Americans and pre colonial times  seems extraneous . Some more info, briefly said in this section, about life along the river before European colonization would be helpful but this reference lacks any real informational value.
Wec2102 (talk) 15:40, 19 January 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Introduction 

message: Many almanacs and sources list the Mississippi's length as around 2,350 miles. The "source" for the 2,530 mile claim is not accesible through a direct link. This needs to be further researched to guard against "sneaky vandalism".Ryoung122 16:04, 11 April 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: footnote on the Encyclopedia Britannica.. It was founded in Edinbugh but they sold it to Americans in 1890 and EB has been based in Chicago ever since. Rjensen (talk) 13:56, 3 February 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: Length Information

message: Greetings. I was doing a bit of casual research on the Mississippi River yesterday and came across this wonderful Wikipedia article. Well done! But it seems to me that the photo that was in the article's info box really does not do the river justice. I lived in St. Louis, MO for 15 years, and during that time travelled extensively up and down the river, seeing first hand its awesome majesty, beauty and power. The photo of the river at New Orleans to which I am referring represents the river as a dirty, muddy, relatively small river that could be any'ole river in the U.S. Hence the reason why I changed the info box photo to the (Aerial view of Lock and Dam 12 on the Mississippi River at Bellevue, Iowa) photo. This is a beautiful photograph of the river and it accurately represents the river as the "Mighty Mississippi." 
I noticed that someone changed the info box photo of the river back to the photo of the river at New Orleans. I cannot imagine why. Let's compromise here. There is an amazing selection of photos in Wikimedia Commons under the search tag: "Mississippi River Lock and Dam," all of which capture breathtaking views of the river. Whoever changed the info box photo back to the photo of the river at New Orleans, if you do not like my current selection, then please consider one of the beatiful lock and dam photos; they depict the river much more accurately.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.134.220.37 (talk) 22:07, 23 December 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: If you have a question about why someone made an edit, check the article history for the edit summary.  They're there for that reason, and you should get into the habit of filling in the edit summary yourself for every edit.  As for "relatively small river that could be any 'ole river", that is a picture of an ocean-going cargo ship that is dwarfed by the size of the river in New Orleans, the size and depth of which there and for hundreds of miles upstream do not rely on artifices such as locks and dams.  It is the smaller, upper Mississippi with its more than a score of dams needed to keep it navigable that could be any old river, IMHO.  It isn't my article, however, and I'm open to discussion.  --Kbh3rdtalk 00:38, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
replies: text:  Replying to myself...  For reasons detailed above I believe the information content of the New Orleans photo is higher and more suited for the infobox, but I'll agree that it's not a particularly pretty picture.  My druthers would be for an image that is both striking and richly informative. --Kbh3rdtalk 04:30, 25 December 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I just changed the photo, and then found this discussion.  I changed it to a more scenic imae of the uppper Mississippi (although perhaps less informative on human uses) as the New Orleans image is also used below.  Kablammo (talk) 16:02, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mississippi River Info Box Photo 

message: I reworded the existing content of the intro paragraph in the Divisions section simply for style and easier reading.  I invite others to reword further to incorporate the concept of there being only an Upper and a Lower Mississippi in many (most?) references, with the division at Cairo and the Ohio River.  Such is the content of the Upper Mississippi River and the Lower Mississippi River articles, with which this article should align more closely. --Kbh3rdtalk 00:50, 24 July 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: In my opinion, the information on the Mississippi River page for divisions should just be a mention of the appropriate sections, such as Upper Mississippi River and Lower Mississippi River. Most additional information about each specific section should be contained within those article, not in this article. This article should contain the links to the division-specific pages, and any information that is concerning the combining of the two sections. I'd like to see the divisions sections trimmed extensively, with information removed or moved to the page for the upper/lower divisions. That's my thoughts. Anybody else have an opinion/comment? *Seen a Mike* 16:00, 13 August 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Divisions 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on Mississippi River. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20060613194952/http://www.nps.gov:80/miss/features/factoids/ to http://www.nps.gov/miss/features/factoids/
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20041215001640/http://www.nps.gov:80/miss/info/cmp/appendices/appendix_e.html to http://www.nps.gov/miss/info/cmp/appendices/appendix_e.html
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20110410053128/http://www.cec.org/naatlas/NA-Watersheds.gif to http://www.cec.org/naatlas/NA-Watersheds.gif
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20100528042135/http://www.nps.gov/ilmi/ to http://www.nps.gov/ilmi/
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20111224000803/http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20110512/NEWS01/105120319/Morganza-ready-flood?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Cimg%7CFRONTPAGE to http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20110512/NEWS01/105120319/Morganza-ready-flood?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Cimg%7CFRONTPAGE
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.
Cheers. —cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 05:09, 27 August 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified  on Mississippi River. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.mvd.usace.army.mil/mrc/mrt/Docs/Designing%20the%20Project%20Flood%20info%20paper.pdf
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).
Cheers.—cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 17:08, 2 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: I really think that the triple image (File:MississippiRiver GulfMex MODIS 2004jul-aug.jpg) should be removed.  It is nearly impossible for the average person to get any useful information from bottom two images, as most people have no idea what they are looking at.  Where are they? Unschool 05:15, 18 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Poor image 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified  on Mississippi River. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080828180824/http://www.caddohistory.com/great_raft.html to http://www.caddohistory.com/great_raft.html
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20101201051932/https://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org:80/pages/1437.html to http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1437.html
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 21:59, 12 September 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 3 external links on Mississippi River. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150610065909/http://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/Home/Projects/tabid/18156/Article/571138/upper-st-anthony-falls-lock-closure.aspx to http://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/Home/Projects/tabid/18156/Article/571138/upper-st-anthony-falls-lock-closure.aspx
*Corrected formatting/usage for http://biology.usgs.gov/s%2Bt/SNT/noframe/ms137.htm
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110208170052/http://fieldguide.fmr.org/ to http://fieldguide.fmr.org/
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 18:10, 12 June 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 3 external links on Mississippi River. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100627225013/http://www.semo.edu/sepr/programming/ay_episodes_14160.htm to http://www.semo.edu/sepr/programming/ay_episodes_14160.htm
*Added  tag to http://www.uark.edu/campus-resources/archinfo/atughostboats.html
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130408092708/http://sourcetosea.net/ to http://sourcetosea.net/
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20061207211641/http://sourcetosea.net/ to http://www.sourcetosea.net/
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 13:45, 26 July 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: This article defines the Upper Mississippi as the portion of the river as far as the Missouri River confluence. The article on the Upper Mississippi defines it as the portion as far as the Ohio confluence, and makes no mention of the Middle Mississippi River. One of these must be changed so that they match, or at least the article should mention that there are competing definitions. Joe Avins (talk) 18:35, 26 July 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Competing Definitions 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on Mississippi River. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090305045437/http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/riversofworld.html to http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/riversofworld.html
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 11:54, 2 August 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 2 external links on Mississippi River. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20160205234735/http://www.mvttc.com/news_details.php?id=182 to http://www.mvttc.com/news_details.php?id=182
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070610102737/http://www.alcnet.org/projects/overview/mississippi to http://www.alcnet.org/projects/overview/mississippi
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 13:47, 2 February 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified (February 2018) 

message: this section is a poorly sourced prediction of the future and violates the wp:Crystal rule. I moved it here for commentary or fixing'. Rjensen (talk) 22:10, 22 April 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: , I agree with removal of the uncited parts, but the first few paragraphs, with cites, and part of the last one, are salvageable, especially if shortened and copyedited.  There is a strong belief that the river "wants" to take a shortcut, and may suceed some day.  But the text above may be too strong, and the parade of horribles should not be present, unless condensed, neutrally worded, and well-cited.  Kablammo (talk) 19:46, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

text: I have now restored much of the cited text above, but have left out the uncited statements about the effects of a course shift. John McPhee's article in the New Yorker discusses the subject.  Kablammo (talk) 15:57, 19 September 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  speculating about the future 

message: Geologists consider the next major change in the course of the Lower Mississippi now overdue.  Either of two new routes – through the Atchafalaya Basin or through Lake Pontchartrain — might become the Mississippi's main channel if flood-control structures are overtopped or heavily damaged during a severe flood. However, the Mississippi returned to its present course following the great floods in 2011.
Failure of the Old River Control Structure, the Morganza Spillway, or nearby levees would likely re-route the main channel of the Mississippi through Louisiana's Atchafalaya Basin and down the Atchafalaya River to reach the Gulf of Mexico south of Morgan City in southern Louisiana.  This route provides a more direct path to the Gulf of Mexico than the present Mississippi River channel through Baton Rouge and New Orleans.  While the risk of such a diversion is present during any major flood event (such as those of 1973 or 2011), such a change has so far been prevented by active human intervention involving the construction, maintenance, and operation of various levees, spillways, and other control structures by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The first sentence of the next paragraph states a common misconception about Old River, overstating the size of the diversion from the Mississippi River.  Recommended correction:  The Old River Control Structure, between the present Mississippi River channel and the Atchafalaya Basin, regulates diversion of water from the Mississippi River so that 30% of the combined flow of the Red and Mississippi Rivers passes into the Atchafalaya River. 
--MississippiRiverRat (talk) 04:13, 26 April 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: , I agree with removal of the uncited parts, but the first few paragraphs, with cites, and part of the last one, are salvageable, especially if shortened and copyedited.  There is a strong belief that the river "wants" to take a shortcut, and may suceed some day.  But the text above may be too strong, and the parade of horribles should not be present, unless condensed, neutrally worded, and well-cited.  Kablammo (talk) 19:46, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

text: I have now restored much of the cited text above, but have left out the uncited statements about the effects of a course shift. John McPhee's article in the New Yorker discusses the subject.  Kablammo (talk) 15:57, 19 September 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: Future course changes

message: In Section 2.3: Divisions, Lower Mississippi, the 1st sentence of the 3rd paragraph states a common misconception about operation of the Old River Control Structure.  The fraction of the Mississippi River diverted is variable and depends on the relative flows of the Red and Mississippi Rivers.  30% of the combined flow of the Red and Mississippi Rivers is routed into the Atchafalaya River.  Recommended change:  Deliberate water diversion at the Old River Control Structure in Louisiana allows the Atchafalaya River in Louisiana to be a major distributary of the Mississippi River, with 30% of the combined flow of the Red and Mississippi Rivers flowing to the Gulf of Mexico by this route...
Reference:  
Also see related change to section 11.7
--MississippiRiverRat (talk) 04:35, 26 April 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Old River Control Structure 

message: Done
From "name and Significance" to "New Madrid Seismic Zone" please change the section headers by removing an equals sign from each.  === headers should be under == headers, but on all of these headers, there are too many equals signs. 208.95.51.53 (talk) 12:23, 13 May 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: Done. Thanks for noticing it and requesting the edit, 208.95.51.53. BlackcurrantTea (talk) 06:05, 18 May 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 13 May 2019 

message: "it transformed into a flourishing tourists trade" is not correct.  Please change "tourists" to "tourist" 208.95.51.53 (talk) 17:35, 22 May 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: Done aboideautalk 17:41, 22 May 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 22 May 2019 

message: I apologize if I have done this incorrectly i dont often interact with Wikipedia like this.
However I thought it was highly unusual to compare the drainage basin of a singular river system to the multiple river drainage basin of a bay. shouldn't the Hudson bay drainage basin be compared to the entirety of the gulf of mexico drainage basin?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:500:C280:441A:DD8:5D33:A0C0:AD01 (talk) 22:16, 15 September 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Why is the Mississippi river drainage basin compared to the entire Hudson bay drainage system? 

message: When listing names of the river in Native languages, add the name from the Ho-Chunk People, which is Nįįxéte. Meaning "Great Water" or "Great River". Source: Hocąk Teaching Materials Volume 1  Elements of Grammar/Learner's Dictionary, on Page 453. Edited by Johannes Helmbrecht and Christian Lehmann 184.59.7.67 (talk) 06:12, 2 February 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: Not done for now: We prefer to have sources that are online. Printed sources are allowed, but they are hard to come by. Please make a request at WP:RX (click the link) to request a link for the source online. Thank you,  Interstellarity (talk) 22:09, 13 February 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 2 February 2020 

message: Moved (trimmed) over-abundance of links here for consideration for incorporating into the article or deleting. This is per guidelines (WP:ELPOINTS and WP:ELMIN) and policy (WP:NOTREPOSITORY), and inclusion should be according to WP:ELBURDEN: 
* Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (MN) from the NPS
** Mississippi River Facts from the NPS
* "Mark Twain's Mississippi", from the digital library of Northern Illinois University
* Interactive detailed satellite photos and zoomable USGS topographic quad maps of the lower Mississippi, the alternative course for the river, and the various control structures and floodways
* Lower Mississippi Valley – Engineering Geology Mapping Program – PDF files of publications about and maps of the geology of the Mississippi River Valley and its tributaries.
* Ecoregions of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain Map
*  "Old Man River Loses His Kinks" , April 1942, Popular Science article on 1930-40s project to improve barge navigation between Helena and Natchez
* 
* 
* 
* 
* Roundtable discussion on Imagining the River, University of Minnesota, 2009
* MRTIS – Mississippi River Traffic Information System
---  Otr500 (talk) 22:57, 16 February 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links 

message: Please add the fact that Interstate 55 largely parallels it and Memphis is the largest city along it. Thanks. 104.246.113.199 (talk) 20:11, 10 August 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: . It's not clear what changes you want to make.  Moreover, please provide reliable source(s) to support any claims made. –Deacon Vorbis (carbon • videos) 00:27, 11 August 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 10 August 2020 

message: The usage of "Mississippi" is under discussion, see Talk:Mississippi (disambiguation)#Requested move 30 September 2020. Crouch, Swale (talk)  19:06, 30 September 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Mississippi" 

message: The word "at" needs to be changed to "to" in the Depth section of this article. As well as adding a comma for clarity. 
Specifically, the third sentence of the Depth section currently reads:
"Between Saint Louis, Missouri, where the Missouri River joins at Cairo, Illinois, the depth averages 30 feet (9 m)."
but it should read:
"Between Saint Louis, Missouri, where the Missouri River joins, to Cairo, Illinois, the depth averages 30 feet (9 m)."
The way it is currently worded the article sounds like the Missouri River joins the Mississippi river at both Saint Louis and at Cairo. It appears the word "at" was simply used incorrectly instead of "to".
Thanks! Daddydawg (talk) 15:18, 25 October 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: Slightly different rewording than the suggested ("Between where the Missouri River joins the Mississippi at Saint Louis, Missouri, and Cairo, Illinois, ..."), but the text is clearer. —Carter (Tcr25) (talk) 15:23, 25 October 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 25 October 2021