Life on the Mississippi

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The Remarkable Mississippi

The Mississippi is not a commonplace river. On the contrary, it is in all ways remarkable. If we consider the Missouri as its main branch, it is the longest river in the world, spanning four thousand three hundred miles. But what makes it truly spectacular is its winding path and its sheer, colossal volume.

No other river has so vast a drainage basin. It draws water from twenty-eight states and territories, spanning forty-five degrees of longitude from near the Atlantic seaboard all the way to Idaho. Let's visualize this immense network of subordinate rivers pouring into a single giant channel.

Strangely, instead of widening as it nears the ocean, the Mississippi actually grows narrower and deeper. At the junction of the Ohio, it is about a mile wide and eighty-seven feet deep. By the time it reaches the passes near the Gulf, it narrows to just half a mile, but plunges down to a depth of one hundred and twenty-nine feet.

The river is also a massive earth-moving machine, dumping four hundred and six million tons of mud into the Gulf of Mexico every single year. To picture this, if you solidified all that mud into a single block, it would make an absolute mountain a mile square and two hundred and forty-one feet high!

Finally, the Mississippi has a wild habit of straightening itself. Over time, loops in the river get closer and closer until the water cuts right through the narrow neck of land. In a single moment, the river can make a jump, instantly shortening its course by up to thirty miles!

Lessons in this 233-part set

  • The Remarkable Mississippi
  • The Eccentricities of the Mississippi
  • The Forgotten River: Time and the Mississippi
  • The Rediscovery of the Mississippi
  • The Solitude of the Mississippi
  • Mapping the Mississippi: Marquette and La Salle
  • The Ironies of Mississippi Exploration
  • The Era of the Keelboatmen
  • Huck Finn's Raft Adventure
  • The Art of the American Tall Talk
  • The Anatomy of a Frontier Bluff
  • Folklore of the Mississippi
  • The Mystery of the Haunted Barrel
  • The Ghost Barrel of the Mississippi
  • Mark Twain's Tall Tales: Deconstructing the Ghost Barrel
  • A Close Call on the Mississippi
  • The Boys' Ambition on the Mississippi
  • Mark Twain's Steamboat Ambition
  • The Allure of the Mississippi: Mark Twain's River Ambition
  • Mark Twain's Journey on the Paul Jones
  • Contrasting Characters on the Mississippi
  • A Cub-Pilot's Awakening
  • The Brutal Reality of Steamboat Piloting
  • The Art of River Piloting
  • Learning the Mississippi
  • Mark Twain's Mississippi: The Two-Way River
  • The Mind of a Mississippi River Pilot
  • The Terror of Hat Island: Mark Twain's Steamboat Dilemma
  • The Art of River Navigation
  • Steering by Shadows: The Shape of the River
  • The Ever-Changing Shape of the River
  • Learning the River's Shape
  • Learning the River: Mark Twain's Hardest Lesson
  • Reading the Face of the Water
  • Mark Twain's Lessons on the River
  • Reading the Face of the Water
  • The Pilot's Dilemma: Mark Twain on the Cost of Knowledge
  • Reading the River: The Art of Mississippi Piloting
  • Steamboat Piloting and the Secrets of the River Chutes
  • Navigating the Changing Mississippi
  • Close Shaves and Pranks on the Mississippi
  • Navigating High-Water Chutes
  • Navigation in the Gloom: Mississippi Steamboats and Somnambulism
  • The Art of Blind Piloting
  • The Art of River Sounding
  • Sounding the River in the Steamboat Era
  • The Near-Disaster of the Sounding-Boat
  • Escape from the Paddle Wheel
  • The Pilot's Memory
  • The Pilot's Memory
  • The Burden of Total Recall
  • The Pilot's Mind: Memory, Judgment, and Courage
  • The Illusion of Danger: Mark Twain's Lesson in Confidence
  • The Rank and Dignity of Piloting
  • The Gilded Age of River Pilots
  • Steamboat Prestige and the Reckless Pilot
  • The Price of Knowledge: A Pilot's Revenge
  • The Rise of the Pilots' Association
  • The Pilot Association's Paradox
  • The Power of the Pilots' Association
  • The Pilot's Network: Information Sharing on the Mississippi
  • The Power of the Pilots' Association
  • The Rise of the Tightest Monopoly
  • The Rise and Fall of the Pilots' Association
  • The Chaos and Glory of Steamboat Departure
  • The Golden Age of Steamboat Racing
  • The Art of Steering and the Paradox of Speed
  • The Incredible Shrinking Mississippi
  • The Absurdity of Extreme Extrapolation
  • The Violence of a Mississippi Cut-off
  • The Art of the Debtor: Mark Twain's Comedy of Persistence
  • Alphabetical Debts and River Tyrants
  • Meeting Pilot Brown: A Lesson in Characterization
  • The Cub Pilot's Nightmare
  • Mark Twain's Trial by Fire
  • Mutiny in the Pilot-House
  • A Mighty Deliverance
  • The Explosion of the Pennsylvania
  • The Tragedy of the Pennsylvania
  • The Death-Room and the Mate's Will
  • Mark Twain's Return to the Mississippi
  • Mark Twain's Mississippi: Geography of Habits
  • Mark Twain's St. Louis: Mud, Smoke, and Change
  • The Ghost Town on the Levee: Mark Twain's Return to St. Louis
  • The Rise and Fall of Mississippi Steamboating
  • Mark Twain's Changing Mississippi
  • The Eccentric Mississippi and the Pilot's Lies
  • The Art of the Tall Tale
  • Mark Twain's Mississippi Myths
  • Mark Twain's Mississippi: Tall Tales and River Marks
  • Uncle Mumford's Mississippi Paradoxes
  • Superstitions and Shipwrecks on the Mississippi
  • The Shifting Mississippi
  • A Pilot's First Battle
  • The Anatomy of a Southern Feud
  • A Divided Congregation and the Dulled Ear
  • Mark Twain's Changing Mississippi
  • The Many Faces of the Mississippi
  • Two Faces of the Mississippi
  • La Salle and the Great River
  • The Death of Romance on the Mississippi
  • Taming the Mississippi: Mark Twain and the River Commission
  • Taming the Untamable Mississippi
  • Mark Twain and the Mississippi River Commission
  • The Contagious Economics of the Mississippi
  • Rivers, Chutes, and Outlaws of the Mississippi
  • The Dark Mechanics of the Murrell Gang
  • The Downfall of the Murel Gang
  • Outlaws of the Frontier & River Battles of Memphis
  • The Resurrection of Memphis
  • Mark Twain's Changing Mississippi
  • Life on the Mississippi: Movement and Human Nature
  • Mark Twain's Steamboat Prank
  • Dawn on the Mississippi
  • Mark Twain's Helena and the Cotton-Seed Oil Trick
  • The Munich Deadhouse and the Sunk Cost Fallacy
  • A Dying Man's Confession: Analyzing Karl Ritter's Story
  • A Clue in the Dark: Narrative Analysis
  • The Science of the Thumb-Print
  • The Power of the Thumbprint
  • The Dead-House Vengeance
  • Irony and Vengeance in Mark Twain's 'A Dying Man's Confession'
  • The Secrets of the Corpse-Watch
  • The Slippery Slope of Generosity
  • The Disappearing Town: Mark Twain's Napoleon
  • The Shifting Mississippi
  • The Cotton Economy and the Calhoun Experiment
  • The Post-Bellum Plantation Economy: Debt, Cotton, and Steamboat Culture
  • Mark Twain's Tall Tales: The Mosquitoes of Lake Providence
  • Vicksburg and the Changing Mississippi
  • The Siege of Vicksburg: Anatomy of a Cave City
  • The Psychology of Habituation
  • Vicksburg: Under Siege
  • The Professor's Yarn
  • The Gore Land Plot
  • The Traps of Persuasion
  • The Sting of the 'Gold Dust'
  • The House Beautiful and the Floating Palace
  • The Anatomy of a 19th-Century Parlor
  • Mark Twain's Anatomy of a Gilded Age Parlor
  • The Floating Palace vs. The Frontier Home
  • Mark Twain's Two Worlds: Natchez and the Magic of Ice
  • Industrial Evolution on the Mississippi
  • The Art of the 19th-Century Counterfeit
  • Castles and Culture: Mark Twain's Southern Critique
  • Mark Twain's Irony: The Southern Ideal vs. Reality
  • Southern Violence and Plantation Contrast
  • Mark Twain's Return to the South
  • Mark Twain's New Orleans: Progress and Preservation
  • Hygiene, Sentiment, and Structure in Old New Orleans
  • Mark Twain on the Grotesque Reality of Graveyards
  • The Hidden Cost of the Grave
  • The Economics of the Undertaker Business
  • Mark Twain on the Business of Mourning
  • Mark Twain's New Orleans: A Literary Tour
  • Mark Twain's New Orleans: Flavors, Drills, and Ambiguous Art
  • Mark Twain on Language and Labels
  • Mark Twain's New Orleans: Lagniappe and the Shadow of War
  • The Magnetic Pull of War Talk
  • Mark Twain's Southern Observations
  • Mark Twain on Journalism: The Artificial-Flower Complaint
  • Mark Twain's Comedy of Speed
  • Enchantments, Romance, and Mardi Gras
  • Mark Twain's Critique of Sir Walter Scott
  • Mark Twain's Critique of Southern Literature
  • The Danger of Real Names & The Ageless Captain
  • Mark Twain's Mississippi: Technology, Irony, and Sugar
  • Mark Twain's River Discoveries
  • Mark Twain's Anatomy of a Seance
  • Mark Twain's Pilot-Farmers: The Illusion of Serenity
  • The Pilot's Code: Honor Above Life
  • Steamboat Gossip & The Bear on Deck
  • The Patriarch of the Mississippi
  • The Legend of Captain Isaiah Sellers
  • The Origin of the Name 'Mark Twain'
  • Mark Twain's Return to the River
  • Mark Twain's Mississippi Tempest
  • The Apprentice Blacksmith's Promotion
  • Mark Twain's St. Louis Memories
  • A Tale of Redemption in St. Louis
  • The Anatomy of a Thief's Letter
  • A Story of Redemption and Trust
  • The Eloquence of a Changed Life
  • The Anatomy of a Perfect Literary Swindle
  • The Convict's Letter & The Trap of Internal Evidence
  • The Anatomy of a Prison Hoax
  • Mark Twain's Return to Hannibal
  • Mark Twain's Return: The Unforgiving Flow of Time
  • Mark Twain's Irony and the St. Louis Market
  • Mark Twain and the Law of Special Providence
  • The Anatomy of a Storm-Induced Reform
  • The Tragedy of Dutchy
  • Mark Twain's Return to Hannibal
  • Mark Twain's Return: The Model Boy and the Saddler
  • The Carpenter's Dark Secrets
  • The Rise and Fall of a Romantic Hero
  • Mark Twain's Return to Hannibal
  • The Weight of a Guilty Conscience
  • Guilt and the Supposititious Case
  • Towns on the River: Why One Flourishes While Another Fades
  • Mark Twain's Keokuk and the Legend of Henry Clay Dean
  • The Transformation of Dean
  • Mark Twain's Upper Mississippi
  • Mark Twain's Upper Mississippi: The Towns That Sprang Up in the Night
  • Mark Twain's Upper Mississippi
  • The Gilded Age on the Mississippi: Boats vs. Trains
  • Industrialization of the Mississippi
  • Mapping the Upper Mississippi: A Journey of Landmarks
  • Mark Twain's Satire of the Indian Legend
  • The Allegory of Winter and Spring
  • The Battle of the Seasons: Winter and Spring
  • Mark Twain's St. Paul: A Study in Rapid Growth
  • Mark Twain's Anatomy of Frontier Civilization
  • The Geography and Legends of White-Bear Lake
  • Mark Twain vs. The Legend of White Bear Lake
  • Anatomy of a Mississippi Flood
  • The Great Flood of the Black River
  • The Great Flood on Black River
  • The Flood of 1882: General York's Rescue System
  • The Great Flood of Black River
  • The Great Flood of 1882
  • Taming the Mississippi
  • The Physics of Rivers & The Psychology of Nations
  • The Reception of Captain Basil Hall's Travels
  • Domestic Manners vs. Native Legend
  • The Legend of the Severed Head and the Ten Brothers
  • The Theft of the Sacred Wampum
  • The Chase of the Giant Bear
  • The Flight from the Giant Bear
  • The Origin of Black Bears
  • The Quest for the Brother's Head
  • The Rescue of the Brother's Head
  • The Resurrection of Iamo

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