 Several efforts were made to determine the source of the Mississippi River . The true source was found in 1832 , when Henry Schoolcraft was guided by a group of Ojibwa headed by Ozaawindib ( " Yellow Head " ) to a lake in northern Minnesota . Schoolcraft named it Lake Itasca , combining the Latin words veritas ( " truth " ) and caput ( " head " ) . The native name for the lake was Omashkooz , meaning elk . Other explorers of the area include Zebulon Pike in 1806 , Major Stephen Long in 1817 , and George William Featherstonhaugh in 1835 . Featherstonhaugh conducted a geological survey of the Minnesota River valley and wrote an account entitled A Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor . 
