Miles 364 (2940)
Two Lanes 308 (2421)
Top down 15 (2494)
Today we headed for the source of Old Man River, the Mighty Missisippi. Following the end of the Revolutionary War, the newly formed United States of America acquired all British lands east of the Mississippi River. But there was a problem. No one new where the Mississippi’s source was. So the boundary was defined on paper, but undefined in reality. So the search began.
Several explorers as early as 1798 went looking for the source. Claims were made, only to be proven wrong. Then 1832 an explorer named Schoolcraft ‘found’ the source at Lake Itasca, Minnesota. Schoolcraft was a modern man! He didn’t try to find it himself, as his predecessors did. He stopped and asked for directions! He hired a native guide from the Ojabwe Nation, who promptly took him upstream passed other lakes that were claimed to be the source to Lake Itasca. The natives knew all along where the source was. It was never ‘lost’.
For the next 50 years Schoolcraft’s claims were debated. Finally the debate ended with the adoption of a universal definition of a river’s source. For a body of water to be the source of a river, that source must continually feed that river during all seasons, even the dry ones. There are lakes that drain into Lake Itasca, but these creeks dry up in the summer. Lake Itasca is principally spring fed, so it has inflow at all times.
As tO the name, Itasca, it comes from conjoiner of two Latin words bestowed on it by Schoolcraft: veritas caput. This means “true head” of the river. The last four letters of veritas (itas) and the first two of caput (ca) were joined together to make the name Itasca.
As the Mississippi leaves Lake Itasca, it is about 10 feet wide and 6 inches deep! A few feet downstream it is a bit narrower and about a foot deep. I could not resist the temptation, and waded across the Mississippi!
We left the headwaters of the Mississippi and drove through light rain and onto Duluth and then up the along the northwest shore of Lake Superior. This is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful drives in the country. It was raining. Then it started pouring. We could only see about 30 yards ahead of us. Forget about trying to see he shoreline! We slowed to 30 mph and drove the last ten miles to our hotel peering through the front windshield looking for the double yellow line. Ten minutes after we arrived the rain slowed dramatically. The hotel, The Grand Superior Lodge, was wonderful, and soon the recent travails were forgotten.
Ah, That's the way to go out in style!
Wildflowers
And more wildflowers!
Lake Itasca, Minnesota is the Headwaters of the Mississippi River
The Headwaters
As the water crosses the rocks, the journey to the Gulf, 2500 miles and 90 days away, begins.
Steve walking across the Mississippi !
North Shore Lake Superior from our Balcony.
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