Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
lutely worldly, and in fact there is a bar in Bagley that has a large world map full of push-
pins left by international visitors.
THE MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI
The Mississippi River takes the bronze medal at 2,350 miles, though some say the
Missouri River headwaters would jack that number up to 3,890 miles. It's impress-
ive anyway, its wildly tornado-shaped drainage basin spreading across 30 U.S. states
and creeping into two Canadian provinces, draining 41 percent of the United States'
water.
The Wisconsin-Minnesota Mississippi trench runs for more than 200 miles from
Prescott, Wisconsin, to East Dubuque, Iowa, with average widths ranging 1-6 miles
andblufflinesrisingtonearly600feetabovethefloodplain.TheUpperMississippi's
bluffs are the most salient features and distinguish the Mississippi from other major
rivers,whichlackavertiginousbackdrop.TheWisconsinbluffs,facingwestandthus
drier, are grassier and rockier, and the surrounding prairie can resemble regions of
the West.
EUROPEAN DISCOVERY
The Ojibwa called it Messippi—appropriately, “Big River.” Lookout Point in Wy-
alusing State Park, overlooking the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi
Rivers, was purportedly the first vantage point over the Ol' Miss for Father Mar-
quette and Louis Joliet, who wrote on July 17, 1673, of their “joy that cannot be ex-
pressed” at finally espying the rumored Great River. After exploring as far south as
Arkansas, the pair realized they had found the link-up with the Gulf of Mexico and
thus proved a waterway existed between Acadia and the Gulf. Nicholas Perrot laid
claim to all lands drained by the Mississippi for France in 1686 with the establish-
ment of a fur-trade outpost/fort near Pepin.
ThefirstpermanentsettlementcamenearPrairieduChien.Largerboatsdisplaced
Native canoes for transporting beaver and iron goods. The Chippewa, Buffalo, St.
Croix,andtributariesdrainmostofnorthernWisconsinviatheMississippi,and,fora
time,Wisconsinsawmillsandlogtransportationvillagescontrolledthevastindustry.
Between1837and1901,morethan40millionboardfeetwerefloateddowntheMis-
sissippi from Wisconsin.
