Social and political background of the river

History:

There are records of human habitation along the Mississippi river that date back more than five thousand years. Four thousand years ago, American Indians in the Lower Mississippi Valley began establishing communities with large, elaborate earthen architecture. Much later around 1000 A.D., larger and more elaborate complexes of mounds were constructed by a culture referred to as Mississippian. Typically, these towns contained anywhere from 1 to 20 mounds, which often were used as platforms for temples or the residence of leaders.

The Ojibway Indians of northern Minnesota called it "Messipi" or "Big River," and it was also known as the "Mee-zee-see-bee" or the "Father of Waters." European explorers who mapped all the river's channels and backwater areas called it a "gathering of waters." The Native Americans of different tribes who originally lived near the Mississippi and used it for canoe transportation, hunting and fishing often viewed the great river as the center of the universe.

source : http://cgee.hamline.edu/rivers/Resources/river_profiles/mississippi.html

Delta Switching :

The delta of lower Mississippi River has shifted its final course to the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico every thousand years or so due to the natural process called the delta switching. This occurs because the deposits of silt and sediment begin to clog its channel, raising the river's level and causing it to eventually find a steeper, more direct route to the Gulf of Mexico.

The abandoned distributary diminishes in volume and forms what are known as bayous. This process has, over the past 5,000 years, caused the coastline of south Louisiana to advance toward the Gulf from 15 to 50 mi (25 to 80 km).

The currently active delta lobe is called the Birdfoot Delta, after its shape, or the Balize Delta, after La Balize, Louisiana, the first French settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi

Sequence of NASA MODIS images showing the outflow of fresh water from the Mississippi (arrows) into the Gulf of Mexico (2004)

source : http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/MississippiRiver_GulfMex_MODIS_2004jul-aug.jpg

Bird's foot Delta

source : http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/riverswater/riverfeaturesrev4.shtml

Changes in the courses of the river:

Other changes in the course of the river have occurred because of earthquakes along the New Madrid Fault Zone, which lies near the cities of Memphis and St. Louis. There have been three earthquakes in 1811 and 1812, estimated at approximately 8 on the Richter Scale, were said to have temporarily reversed the course of the Mississippi. These earthquakes also created Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee from the altered landscape near the river. The faulting is related to an aulacogen (geologic term for a failed rift) that formed at the same time as the Gulf of Mexico.

source : http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/usaweb/factfile/Unique-facts-USA3.htm

The name of the river :

The word Mississippi comes from the Ojibwe name for the river, "Messipi", which means "big river," or from the Algonquin Missi Sepe, "great river," literally, "father of waters." On May 8, 1541 Hernando de Soto became the first recorded white man to reach the Mississippi River, which he called "Rio de Espiritu Santo" (River of the Holy Spirit). French explorers Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette began exploring the Mississippi, which they knew by the Sioux name "Ne Tongo" (which, like the Ojibwe name, means "big river"), on May 17, 1673. In 1682, René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle and Henri de Tonty claimed the entire Mississippi River Valley for France, calling it Louisiana, for King Louis XIV.

Hernando De Soto approaching the Mississippi River (1849)

source : http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/usaweb/factfile/Unique-facts-USA3.htm

War :

In 1815, America defeated Britain at the Battle of New Orleans, part of the War of 1812.
The river played a decisive role in the American Civil War. The Union's Vicksburg Campaign called for Union control of the lower Mississippi River. The Union victory at the Battle of Vicksburg in Warren County, Mississippi in 1863 was pivotal to the Union's final victory of the Civil War.

Battle of Vicksburg (ca. 1888)

source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_River#Bridge_crossings

21st Century :

In 2002, Slovenian long-distance swimmer Martin Strel swam the entire length of the river, from Minnesota to Louisiana, over the course of 68 days.

In 2005, the Source to Sea Expedition paddled the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers to benefit the Audubon Society's Upper Mississippi River Campaign.

On August 1, 2007, the I-35W Mississippi River bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota collapsed during the evening rush hour.

Also in 2007, it is expected that more than 150 pleasure boats will travel down the river from Grafton to Cairo while participating in the Great loop, which is circumnavigation of Eastern North America by water.

Campsite at the river in Arkansas (2007)

source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_River#Bridge_crossings