Title: Minnesota River - Wikipedia
Headings: Minnesota River
Minnesota River
Contents
Commercial significance
Tributaries
Cities and towns
See also
Notes and references
Sources
External links

Content: Minnesota River - Wikipedia
Minnesota River
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River in Minnesota, United States
Minnesota River
The Mendota Bridge crossing the Minnesota River, just above its mouth
Map of the Minnesota River
Native name
Watpá Mnísota
Location
Country
United States
State
Minnesota
Cities
Bloomington, MN, Eden Prairie, MN, Mankato, MN, Shakopee, MN, Burnsville, MN, Eagan, MN, Le Sueur, MN
Physical characteristics

Source
Big Stone Lake
• location
Big Stone Lake, Big Stone County, MN
• elevation
964 ft (294 m)

Mouth
Mississippi River
• location
Near Fort Snelling in Minnesota, Hennepin County, MN
• elevation
690 ft (210 m)
Length
370 mi (600 km)
Basin size
17,000 sq mi (44,000 km 2)

Discharge

• location
Fort Snelling State Park
• average
8,356 cubic feet (236.6 m 3) per sec. The Minnesota River ( Dakota: Mnísota Wakpá) is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 332 miles (534 km) long, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It drains a watershed of nearly 17,000 square miles (44,000 km 2 ), 14,751 square miles (38,200 km 2) in Minnesota and about 2,000 sq mi (5,200 km 2) in South Dakota and Iowa . It rises in southwestern Minnesota, in Big Stone Lake on the Minnesota–South Dakota border just south of the Laurentian Divide at the Traverse Gap portage. It flows southeast to Mankato, then turns northeast. It joins the Mississippi south of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, near the historic Fort Snelling. The valley is one of several distinct regions of Minnesota. The name Minnesota comes from the Dakota language phrase, "Mnisota Makoce" which is translated to "land where the waters reflect the sky", as a reference to the many lakes in Minnesota rather than the cloudiness of the actual river. For over a century prior to the organization of the Minnesota Territory in 1849, the name St. Pierre (St. Peter) had been generally applied to the river by French and English explorers and writers.