- The Mississippi River flows 2,340 miles from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico.
- The first 50 miles, navigable only by canoe, are the last vestige of the wild Mississippi.
- It takes a raindrop approximately 90 days to travel from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico.
- The Mississippi River watershed drains 41 percent of the continental United States, or between 1.2 and 1.8 million square miles.
Mississippi River