Page 13 - "Mississippi in the 1st Person" - Michael James Stone (Demo/Free)

“MY MISSISSIPPI”

The Mississippi River has it’s own rooting section and experts that “feel” as though they know
more about the Miss than any others. THAT”S OK. It’s a Phenomenon already discussed by

people called ‘My Mississippi’ - it a phenomenon that people in each region or area of loca-
tion feels they know the entire river based on knowing a part of the river.

This book is about “My Mississippi” - the parts of the Miss I came to know by visiting.

The Mississippi River flows southwards for 2,320 miles (3,730 km) to the Mississippi River
Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. The river either borders or passes through the states
of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi

, and Louisiana. Many rivers dump into the Mississippi River making it’s “watershed” of
amount of water combined with other rivers to be fifteenth-largest river in the world by dis-

charge. The Mississippi River is the fourth longest river in the world.

Generally speaking and this is “very general” water flow for kayaking is: 1-3 miles per hour
and 3-5 claimed in the south. Obviously different sections have different flows. Before Bemidji

the River is more a Creek and marsh lands than a river, often shut down later in the summer
due to over growth. Even in some drought years mostly mud. Flood years are rare and some-
what controlled. A few large lakes occur in the North joined together by the Mississippi, sev-

eral locks and dams as well as dams with portages occur along it. There is no genuine “wild”
Mississippi River that hasn’t been changed, arranged, dredged, damned, moved or in some
way developed for some reason.

While many governing bodies influence the river, there is no one central controlling agency
though the Army Corp of Engineers dredges a channel annually and maintains many flood and
lock and dam functions.

There are many competing interests from farmlands and fishing in the north, to barging and

railroads in the mid sections and lower. Creeping housing developments are slow, cities have
waxed and waned in waterfronts, much of the idealism of the River in the North is ignored in

the South completely.

Pollution has regressed slowly, but is a constant issue.

Personally I found most people were doing what they wanted to on the river and allowed to.
Often crossing the river revealed prosperity on one side with abject poverty on the other.

Sometimes within miles of each other even on one side of the river cultural and economic
boundaries existed. People tended to genuinely care for each other on certain levels of commu-

nity but were often generational in living in the same area. The Mississippi River as a whole
from top to bottom was unlike anything I saw East Coast, West Coast, Northern States or East-
ern States. I grew fond of the people I met and enjoyed each in their own environment.