About 2,340 miles · 10 states · source Lake Itasca, MN · mouth Gulf of Mexico
Mississippi River map
The Mississippi runs about 2,340 miles from Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico below New Orleans, forming all or part of the border of ten states.
Where the Mississippi is
The river rises at Lake Itasca in Clearwater County, Minnesota, at about 1,475 ft above sea level, and flows roughly south for about 2,340 miles to the Gulf of Mexico, about 100 miles below New Orleans. On the map it is the long north–south line that splits the country: the only ten-state boundary river in the US, and the eastern edge of what was once the Louisiana Purchase. With the Missouri, its longest tributary, it forms the fourth-longest river system in the world; its drainage basin covers about 1.2 million square miles across 31 states.
States along the river
Only Minnesota and Louisiana have the river inside the state rather than on an edge. From north to south the ten states are:
- Minnesota — source, Minneapolis and Saint Paul, then the border with Wisconsin below Prescott.
- Wisconsin — western border from Prescott to the Illinois line; La Crosse and Prairie du Chien are on it.
- Iowa — the entire eastern border, with Dubuque, Davenport and Burlington.
- Illinois — the entire western border, from East Dubuque to Cairo.
- Missouri — eastern border; Hannibal, St. Louis and Cape Girardeau.
- Kentucky — short western border below the Ohio confluence, including the Kentucky Bend exclave.
- Tennessee — western border, with Memphis on the bluffs.
- Arkansas — eastern border, receiving the Arkansas River near Napoleon.
- Mississippi — western border, with Greenville, Vicksburg and Natchez.
- Louisiana — the lower river, Baton Rouge, New Orleans and the delta.
Key measurements
- Length: about 2,340 miles, second in the US only to the Missouri (about 2,341 miles).
- Drainage basin: about 1.2 million square miles, roughly 40 percent of the contiguous US.
- Major tributaries: the Missouri (joins just above St. Louis), the Ohio (joins at Cairo, Illinois, and carries more water than the Mississippi does at that point), the Illinois, the Arkansas and the Red.
- Head of commercial navigation: Minneapolis, kept open by 29 locks and dams on the upper river.
Cities on the river
Minneapolis and Saint Paul sit at the northern end of navigation. St. Louis, just below the Missouri confluence, is the largest city on the middle river. Memphis stands on the Chickasaw Bluffs in Tennessee, and Baton Rouge and New Orleans sit on the lower river in Louisiana. New Orleans is about 100 river miles from the Gulf; the port complex between Baton Rouge and the sea handles more tonnage than any other in the country.
How the river shaped the map
Congress used the river as a state boundary because it was the obvious line on early maps, which is why Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi have one wavy edge and several straight ones. The river has since moved: cut-off meanders left pieces of Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi on the "wrong" bank, because the legal border stayed where the channel was at statehood. The Old River Control Structure in Louisiana, built in 1963, keeps the river from switching to the shorter Atchafalaya course to the Gulf.
Related maps
- Longest US rivers — the ten longest with lengths and states.
- Missouri River and Ohio River — the two largest tributaries.
- Gulf of Mexico — where the delta is.
- Printable rivers map — trace the river on a blank sheet.
- All geography maps.