Along the Mississippi River

VOICE ONE:

(MUSIC)

The Mississippi flows from near the northern border of the United States south into the Gulf of Mexico. The river flows for more than three thousand seven hundred kilometers through the center of the country. It is the one of the longest rivers in the world. Only four rivers in the world are longer. They are the Nile in Africa, the Amazon in South America, the Yangtze in China and the Missouri in the United States.

Modern maps show that Little Elk Lake in the north central state of Minnesota is the true beginning of the Mississippi River. Little Elk Lake is only about four kilometers long.

At its beginning, the Mississippi does not look like much of a river. But it grows as it starts moving slowly north before turning west and then south.

It is easy to see how the Upper Mississippi has flowed through the land. It has cut its way through mountains of rock, pushing and pushing its waters slowly south.

The Lower Mississippi begins south of Cairo. It is often higher than the land along it. The land is protected by man-made levees, which are walls of earth. These levees prevent the river from flooding. Some of these levees are higher and longer than the Great Wall of China. If you stand behind some of the levees you look up at the river and boats sailing on it.

VOICE TWO:

United States government engineers work hard to keep the river safe. They destroy islands built by the river to keep it clear for ships and trade. They also work to keep the levees strong so that the river does not break through them. Still, Old Man River does not like to be controlled. Every few years the Mississippi River changes its path or floods many thousands of hectares.

VOICE ONE:

About two-thousand kilometers south along the river is the city of Saint Louis, Missouri. The city is just a few kilometers south of where the huge Missouri River joins the Mississippi. A French trader first established a business there in Seventeen-Sixty-Four. A few years later settlers named their new town after the Thirteenth Century French King, Louis the Ninth, who had been made a Christian saint. The city of Saint Louis was a popular starting point for settlers traveling to the American west.

The most famous city on the Mississippi is at the river's southern end. It is the port city of New Orleans, Louisiana. French explorers first settled there, naming the town after the French city of Orleans (Or-lay-onh). From its earliest days, New Orleans was an important center for national and international trade. During the War of Eighteen-Twelve a great battle was fought there against British forces.

(MUSIC)

Indians had lived in the Mississippi Valley for a very long time when Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto arrived around Fifteen-Forty.

De Soto died on the edge of the river in Fifteen-Forty-Two. He was forty-two years old.

VOICE TWO:

La Salle failed to reach his goal of building forts and trading towns along the Mississippi from Canada south to the Gulf of Mexico. Instead, he was murdered by one of his soldiers.

By the end of the Seventeenth Century, stories about Louisiana were spreading across France and other parts of Europe. Ships that were sailing to the new world were crowded with people. Many of them died of hunger and sickness. However French people kept coming. They began settling the Mississippi Valley. They established control along the river, from New Orleans to as far north as Illinois.

In Eighteen-Three, France sold the territory of Louisiana to the United States. What became known as "The Louisiana Purchase" included more than two-million square kilometers. It was the largest land purchase in history.

VOICE TWO:

During this time, a boy living in a town next to the Mississippi fell in love with steamboats and the river. He grew up to become a captain on one of those boats. Then he began writing stories and books, using the name Mark Twain. Mark Twain's most famous book is "Huckleberry Finn". It tells the story of a boy who runs away with a slave and their adventures as they drift on a raft down the Mississippi.

VOICE ONE:

Human activities on and along the Mississippi River have changed through history. But the great river just keeps flowing through the center of America. As the song "Old Man River" says: "It must know something. It don't say nothing. It just keeps rolling along."

VOICE TWO:

VOICE ONE: