Winnipeg & Mississippi Headwaters Photos

Lake Itasca & the Mighty Mississippi

The 'Rivers'

Mississppi River

at

Lake Itasca, Minnesota

The Ojibwe gave this river it's name...'mizi-ziibi'...meaning "Great River".  Lake Itasca, a glacial lake, in northwestern Minnesota is the birth mother to the Mississippi River.  A sign nearby said...

"What makes a River "Great?"

It's easy to imagine a river as a living force, 

shaping the landscape and impacting the lives of the people it touches.  

How do you measure the greatness of a river?  

Is its significance a result of geographic statistics 

or its influence on people's lives?

A terrific question and not one easily answered unless you love the Delta Blues.  Then the answer is...the people's relationship to the River is the greatest indicator of all.  In the case of the Mississippi...she is revered as the "Mighty Mississippi", a living, breathing part of the lives of the people in the heartland of blues music, the Mississippi Delta.

Anyway...much like yesterday this day was serene with no problems at the border;however, when I stepped out of my car at the headwaters of the Mississippi River instead of a train whistle I heard a gunshot!  A sign that I had crossed into a different culture with many similarities like box stores, 4x4 trucks and really bad mullets but with a different relationship to weapons and the importance of the militia.  Thankfully the Canada Geese in the photo on the right honked reminding me that their migration can be a thread to connect me back home.

With the railway tracks from Saskatchewan and the Mississippi now joined geographically I will follow both the next 3,726 kilometers to the Gulf of Mexico and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  

The next blog are other photos from today...a scenic shot of the melting snow on the Mississippi and the CN Symington Triage Yard in Winnipeg that sends trains west or east in Canada or south into the USA.

Rock 'n roll...

Kat