Where Is the Mississippi River? Mapping North America's Greatest Waterway

The Mississippi River drains the heart of North America, flowing 2,340 miles (3,766 km) from its source at Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico.

Course and Key Locations

• Source: Lake Itasca, Itasca State Park, Minnesota (elevation 1,475 ft).
• Upper Mississippi: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri—marked by locks, dams, and bluffs.
• Middle Mississippi: From the Missouri River confluence at St. Louis to the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois.
• Lower Mississippi: Broad, meandering channel through Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana.
• Delta: Birds-foot delta southeast of New Orleans, discharging into the Gulf.

Watershed Context

The Mississippi Basin covers 1.2 million square miles (3.2 million km²)—41% of the contiguous U.S.—touching 31 states and 2 Canadian provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan via the Milk River tributary). Major tributaries: Missouri, Ohio, Arkansas, Red, Tennessee.

Human Geography

Major cities along its banks: Minneapolis, St. Louis, Memphis, Vicksburg, Baton Rouge, New Orleans. The river has shaped commerce, culture, and settlement patterns for millennia, from Indigenous trade networks to modern barge traffic moving 500 million tons of cargo annually.

The Mississippi is not just a line on a map—it's a continental circulatory system.