Title: Information about the Upper Mississippi river system | Wisconsin DNR
Headings: INFORMATION ABOUT THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM
INFORMATION ABOUT THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM
Mississippi River watershed or basin
The Upper Mississippi River
Upper Mississippi River system
Transforming the Upper Mississippi River for navigation
The nine-foot navigation channel
Fast facts on commercial navigation
Natural resources of the Upper Mississippi River system
Fast facts on the natural resources of the Upper Mississippi River
Upper Mississippi River natural resource issues
Management of the Upper Mississippi River

Content: It is the world's third-largest drainage basin, with 250 tributaries and branches. The river basin drains 41% of the country's water from all or part of the 31 states. In addition, the Mississippi is the third-longest river in the world, flowing 2,340 (3,770 km) miles from its source in Lake Itasca in northwestern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. It takes three months for a drop of water to make this journey. The river is divided into the upper Mississippi, from its source at Lake Itasca south to the Ohio River and the lower Mississippi, from the Ohio to its mouth near New Orleans, Louisiana. The Upper Mississippi River
Lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi, is a small glacial lake, approximately 1.8 square miles (4.7 km) in area. The channel of the Mississippi as it emerges from the lake was actually moved in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, as part of a project to create a more pleasant experience for visitors. The project included the draining of the surrounding swamp, the digging of a new channel and the installation of man-made rock rapids. The headwater stretch of the Mississippi River meanders 400 miles through bogs, lakes and forests as it winds its way through northern Minnesota until it joins the larger Minnesota River at St. Anthony Falls in St. Paul. At this point, it becomes part of the Upper Mississippi River System, a dynamic, large floodplain river ecosystem.