Headwaters of the Mississippi River, Minnesota

The official origin of the great river of the USA, the Mississippi, is Lake Itasca, in northern Minnesota, 120 miles from the Canadian Border. From there, at an elevation of 1,475 feet above sea level, it is downhill, flowing 2,552 miles to the Gulf of Mexico. The three-mile long lake is in a state park, and has an island in it, Schoolcraft Island, named after the American explorer and ethnographer who was part of a team dispatched by the federal government to find the source of the river, and who did so in 1832. The shoreline of the river has been altered by logging and dams over the years. The Civilian Conservation Corps built the current 45 foot long dam in the 1930s, a low barrier of stones, scenically cemented in place, allowing an even, flat flow of water over it, and a place for people to wade along it, before the water flows into a narrow, constructed, stream channel. From that point, the occasional kayaker or canoeist begins their long adventurous journey to the Gulf. The dam is reached along a well traveled path from a large visitor center, celebrating the river, and its headwaters. Displays include a sizable diorama of the whole river’s passage, draining 2/3 of the continental USA.