The Mighty Mississippi

I had always thought of the Mississippi River as a swirling river of turbid water with barges and tugboats carrying commerce between the Northern and Southern states reminiscent of the stories Mark Twain. I imagine most of us have that same image. However, I learned a great deal more during a recent vacation with my wife, Candy.

In preparation for our vacation to the Land of 10,000 Lakes, Candy and I read up on a variety of things. In our reading, we learned that the origin of the Mississippi River starts in Minnesota’s Itasca State Park. The birth of the river starts as an out flow of Lake Itasca and its surrounding water shed. We quickly marked this spot as one of our destinations for the vacation. It was a 1,850 drive to get there.
Upon arriving, we found that the water was as different from my impression of the Mississippi River as possible. It’s crystal clear, about knee deep and only 40’ wide. Candy and I took off our shoes and waded across the river through stones, wondering about all the things that would find their way into the river on its meandering 2,340 mile, 90-day trip to the Gulf of Mexico. The river drops 1,475 foot in altitude between where it begins in Lake Itasca, Minnesota and where it spills into the Gulf of Mexico.

After exiting the Park, the river flows to Lake Bemidji then on to Lake Cass. Lake Cass is unique in that it has an island in the middle of the lake with another 20+ acre lake in the middle of that island. Supposedly, this is the only place in North America with that geography.

On the remainder of the Mighty Mississippi’s trip south, it touches ten states and picks up the inflows of a great number of rivers including the Minnesota, Saulk, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas rivers to name a few.

Another interesting fact about the Mississippi River is that it’s only the 5th largest flowing river in the world with only 9% of the flow of the Amazon River. For you construction guys, the flow comparison would be if the Mississippi River was a 10” pipe then the Amazon River would be a 33” pipe (if such a thing existed).

Posted by Richard Frey

Richard began his long career with Hennessy in 1982. Fresh from school, he worked in the fields doing everything from shoveling dirt to concrete formwork. After a mere 6 months in the field, Richard was promoted to Project Engineer. He worked on three of the FPC 500kv substations in Central Florida. After that, he made his move into the main office where he did quantity surveys and started learning the ins and outs of Estimating. In 1990, Richard became our Chief Estimator; a position he’s held for nearly twenty years.