Where Is The Mississippi River?

By (author) Anastasio Dina; By (author) Who HQ; Illustrated by Hammond, Ted
Description
Discover the history and culture of one of the most famous waterways in the world: the mighty Mississippi!

The most famous river in America runs like a spine between the eastern and western parts of the country, flowing through ten states before it empties into the Gulf of Mexico. The mighty Miss also flows through the history of America, giving rise to great stories about the people who lived on it and used it as a watery highway, from Native Americans and European explorers to skillful riverboat captains and colorful gamblers traveling on luxurious steamboats. And of course it was the first truly American writer, Mark Twain, who grew up along its banks and made the Mississippi River famous around the world.

This book, part of the New York Times best-selling series, is enhanced by eighty illustrations.
Biographical note
Dina Anastasio is the author of Where Is the Super Bowl?, Who Was Steve Irwin?, and many other books.
Excerpt
Where Is the Mississippi River?
 

On July 4, 2002, a forty-seven-year-old man named Martin Strel took a swim in a small lake—Lake Itasca—in northern Minnesota. Lake Itasca is where the Mississippi River begins. It is the top of the river, which ends 2,350 miles farther south in the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
Martin Strel had always loved being in the water. As a child in the Central European country of Slovenia, he had spent most of his time swimming in streams and lakes and rivers. When he wasn’t swimming, he spent his time reading. He loved to read about rivers. He was fascinated by faraway rivers like the Danube in Europe, the Yangtze in China, the Amazon in South America, and the Mississippi River in the United States.
 
One of his favorite books was called The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. It was about a boy growing up beside the Mississippi River in Missouri. Huckleberry Finn takes a trip down the river on a raft. Someday I will swim in that river, Martin Strel thought.
 
Martin Strel never forgot his dream. Someday he would swim the entire length of the world’s great rivers, from the top to the bottom. Martin kept training. In the year 2000, he swam the Danube River, through ten European countries. One thousand eight hundred sixty-six miles in fifty-eight days. No one had ever swum so far in such a short time.
 
After that, Martin was determined to swim the Mississippi. No one had ever done that before, either.
 
Martin learned all he could about the river. Like all rivers, the Mississippi twists and turns and shifts and changes as it flows south, so it is hard to pinpoint its exact length, but Martin knew he would be swimming about 2,350 miles. He was hoping to swim from five to twelve hours a day.
 
Martin began his swim at noon on July 4, 2002. People cheered him on from the banks of the river. He swam through or around in ten states—Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Martin didn’t quite finish in as short a time as he had hoped. He swam for sixty-eight days instead of sixty-six. 
 
Today, as Martin Strel swims the world’s rivers, he works to help people understand the importance of clean water.
 
“My target is to see happy fish swimming in the water,” he says.
  
 
Chapter 1: The Mighty Mississippi
 
 
The Mississippi River is not the longest river in the United States. (The Missouri River is longer.) But it is the most famous and it has played a large and exciting part in United States history. Many Americans think of the Mississippi as dividing the eastern and western halves of the country. They describe it as having three parts—the upper, middl