Charles Klingler, age 9, of University City, Mo., for his question:
WHY IS THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER CALLED THE FATHER OF WATERS?
Forty percent of the freight that is transported over U.S. inland waterways each year moves on the Mississippi River. This adds up to more than 300 million tons of goods. Most of it moves on large barges pushed by tugboats. The greatest volume of traffic moves between New Orleans and Southwest Pass, the leg of the Mississippi that meets the Gulf of Mexico.
That king of American rivers, the Mississippi, is called the Father of Waters and Old Man River because it is the longest in the United States. It stretches 2,348 miles. The Mississippi and its tributaries drain almost all of the plains that lie between the Appalachian Mountains and the Rockies. This basin spreads out over 1,247,3000 square miles and includes the country's most productive industrial and agricultural areas.
Lake Itasca in northwestern Minnesota is where the Mississippi starts as a sparkling stream. It travels northward at first, and then eastward as it links a series of lakes. At Grand Rapids it turns south and as it passes St. Paul and Minneapolis it gains strength by taking on the water of the Minnesota River.
The Mississippi River forms part of the boundary between Minnesota and Wisconsin and forms part of the boundaries of eight other states: Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi on the east and Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and part of Louisiana on the west.
Just above St. Louis the river is joined by two major tributaries: the Illinois River and the Missouri. The muddy Missouri River turns the clear water of the Mississippi dark.
The Ohio River joins the Mississippi at Cairo, I11., and doubles the volume of water. It is here the river is its widest: about 4,5000 feet from bank to bank.
Along its course, the Mississippi varies in depth from nine feet to more than 100 feet. Ships travel more than 1,800 miles from the Gulf of Mexico to St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Scientists say the Mississippi River was formed about 2 million years ago at the beginning of the Pleistocene Ice Age. Glaciers covered most of the Northern Hemisphere and melting ice was carried down to the Mississippi by the Missouri and Ohio rivers.
Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto was the first European to travel on the river. He crossed near what is now Memphis in 1541. In 1680 the French explorer Sieur de la Salle claimed the river and the Mississippi Valley for France.
France lost the land near'the Mississippi River as a result of the French and Indian war which ended in 1763. Great Britain took over the land east of the river, and Spain gained the land to the west. After the Revolutionary War the United States took control over British territories, and in 1803 the French portion was acquired in the Louisiana Purchase.
The Mississippi River is one of the country's greatest treasures.