The Mississippi River is the largest river of the United States and the chief river of the second-largest drainage system on the North American continent, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system.[14][15] Its source is Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota and it flows generally south for 2,320 miles (3,730km)[15] to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains.[16] The main stem is entirely within the United States; the total drainage basin is 1,151,000sqmi (2,980,000km2), of which only about onepercent is in Canada. The Mississippi ranks as the fourth-longest and fifteenth-largest river by discharge in the world. The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.[17][18]
Native Americans have lived along the Mississippi River and its tributaries for thousands of years. Most were hunter-gatherers, but some, such as the Mound Builders, formed prolific agricultural societies. The arrival of Europeans in the 16th century changed the native way of life as first explorers, then settlers, ventured into the basin in increasing numbers.[19] The river served first as a barrier, forming borders for New Spain, New France, and the early United States, and then as a vital transportation artery and communications link. In the 19th century, during the height of the ideology of manifest destiny, the Mississippi and several western tributaries, most notably the Missouri, formed pathways for the western expansion of the United States.
Formed from thick layers of the river's silt deposits, the Mississippi embayment is one of the most fertile regions of the United States; steamboats were widely used in the 19th and early 20th centuries to ship agricultural and industrial goods. During the American Civil War, the Mississippi's capture by Union forces marked a turning point towards victory, due to the river's strategic importance to the Confederate war effort. Because of substantial growth of cities and the larger ships and barges that replaced steamboats, the first decades of the 20th century saw the construction of massive engineering works such as levees, locks and dams, often built in combination. A major focus of this work has been to prevent the lower Mississippi from shifting into the channel of the Atchafalaya River and bypassing New Orleans.
Since the 20th century, the Mississippi River has also experienced major pollution and environmental problems – most notably elevated nutrient and chemical levels from agricultural runoff, the primary contributor to the Gulf of Mexico dead zone.
Name and significance
The word  Mississippi itself comes from Misi zipi, the French rendering of the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe or Algonquin) name for the river, Misi-ziibi (Great River).
In the 18th century, the river was the primary western boundary of the young United States, and since the country's expansion westward, the Mississippi River has been widely considered a convenient if approximate dividing line between the Eastern, Southern, and Midwestern United States, and the Western United States. This is exemplified by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the phrase "Trans-Mississippi" as used in the name of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition.
It is common to qualify a regionally superlative landmark in relation to it, such as "the highest peak east of the Mississippi"[20] or "the oldest city west of the Mississippi".[21] The FCC also uses it as the dividing line for broadcast call-signs, which begin with W to the east and K to the west, mixing together in media markets along the river.
Physical geography
The geographical setting of the Mississippi River includes considerations of the course of the river itself, its watershed, its outflow, its prehistoric and historic course changes, and possibilities of future course changes. The New Madrid Seismic Zone along the river is also noteworthy. These various basic geographical aspects of the river in turn underlie its human history and present uses of the waterway and its adjacent lands.
Divisions
The Mississippi River can be divided into three sections: the Upper Mississippi, the river from its headwaters to the confluence with the Missouri River; the Middle Mississippi, which is downriver from the Missouri to the Ohio River; and the Lower Mississippi, which flows from the Ohio to the Gulf of Mexico.
Upper Mississippi

The Upper Mississippi runs from its headwaters to its confluence with the Missouri River at St. Louis, Missouri. It is divided into two sections:
The headwaters, 493 miles (793km) from the source to Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, Minnesota; and
A navigable channel, formed by a series of man-made lakes between Minneapolis and St. Louis, Missouri, some 664 miles (1,069km).
The source of the Upper Mississippi branch is traditionally accepted as Lake Itasca, 1,475 feet (450m) above sea level in Itasca State Park in Clearwater County, Minnesota. The name "Itasca" was chosen to designate the "true head" of the Mississippi River as a combination of the last four letters of the Latin word for truth (veritas) and the first two letters of the Latin word for head (caput).[22] However, the lake is in turn fed by a number of smaller streams.
From its origin at Lake Itasca to St. Louis, Missouri, the waterway's flow is moderated by 43 dams. Fourteen of these dams are located above Minneapolis in the headwaters region and serve multiple purposes, including power generation and recreation. The remaining 29 dams, beginning in downtown Minneapolis, all contain locks and were constructed to improve commercial navigation of the upper river. Taken as a whole, these 43 dams significantly shape the geography and influence the ecology of the upper river. Beginning just below Saint Paul, Minnesota, and continuing throughout the upper and lower river, the Mississippi is further controlled by thousands of wing dikes that moderate the river's flow in order to maintain an open navigation channel and prevent the river from eroding its banks.
The head of navigation on the Mississippi is the Coon Rapids Dam in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. Before it was built in 1913, steamboats could occasionally go upstream as far as Saint Cloud, Minnesota, depending on river conditions.
The uppermost lock and dam on the Upper Mississippi River is the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam in Minneapolis. Above the dam, the river's elevation is 799 feet (244m). Below the dam, the river's elevation is 750 feet (230m). This 49-foot (15m) drop is the largest of all the Mississippi River locks and dams. The origin of the dramatic drop is a waterfall preserved adjacent to the lock under an apron of concrete. Saint Anthony Falls is the only true waterfall on the entire Mississippi River. The water elevation continues to drop steeply as it passes through the gorge carved by the waterfall.
After the completion of the St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam in 1963, the river's head of navigation moved upstream, to the Coon Rapids Dam. However, the Locks were closed in 2015 to control the spread of invasive Asian carp, making Minneapolis once again the site of the head of navigation of the river.[23]
The Upper Mississippi has a number of natural and artificial lakes, with its widest point being Lake Winnibigoshish, near Grand Rapids, Minnesota, over 11 miles (18km) across. Lake Onalaska, created by Lock and Dam No. 7, near La Crosse, Wisconsin, is more than 4 miles (6.4km) wide. Lake Pepin, a natural lake formed behind the delta of the Chippewa River of Wisconsin as it enters the Upper Mississippi, is more than 2 miles (3.2km) wide.[24]
By the time the Upper Mississippi reaches Saint Paul, Minnesota, below Lock and Dam No. 1, it has dropped more than half its original elevation and is 687 feet (209m) above sea level. From St. Paul to St. Louis, Missouri, the river elevation falls much more slowly, and is controlled and managed as a series of pools created by 26 locks and dams.[25]
The Upper Mississippi River is joined by the Minnesota River at Fort Snelling in the Twin Cities; the St. Croix River near Prescott, Wisconsin; the Cannon River near Red Wing, Minnesota; the Zumbro River at Wabasha, Minnesota; the Black, La Crosse, and Root rivers in La Crosse, Wisconsin; the Wisconsin River at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin; the Rock River at the Quad Cities; the Iowa River near Wapello, Iowa; the Skunk River south of Burlington, Iowa; and the Des Moines River at Keokuk, Iowa. Other major tributaries of the Upper Mississippi include the Crow River in Minnesota, the Chippewa River in Wisconsin, the Maquoketa River and the Wapsipinicon River in Iowa, and the Illinois River in Illinois.
The Upper Mississippi is largely a multi-thread stream with many bars and islands. From its confluence with the St. Croix River downstream to Dubuque, Iowa, the river is entrenched, with high bedrock bluffs lying on either side. The height of these bluffs decreases to the south of Dubuque, though they are still significant through Savanna, Illinois. This topography contrasts strongly with the Lower Mississippi, which is a meandering river in a broad, flat area, only rarely flowing alongside a bluff (as at Vicksburg, Mississippi).

Middle Mississippi
The Mississippi River is known as the Middle Mississippi from the Upper Mississippi River's confluence with the Missouri River at St. Louis, Missouri, for 190 miles (310km) to its confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois.[26][27]
The Middle Mississippi is relatively free-flowing. From St. Louis to the Ohio River confluence, the Middle Mississippi falls 220 feet (67m) over 180 miles (290km) for an average rate of 1.2 feet per mile (23cm/km). At its confluence with the Ohio River, the Middle Mississippi is 315 feet (96m) above sea level. Apart from the Missouri and Meramec rivers of Missouri and the Kaskaskia River of Illinois, no major tributaries enter the Middle Mississippi River.
Lower Mississippi

The Mississippi River is called the Lower Mississippi River from its confluence with the Ohio River to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of about 1,000 miles (1,600km). At the confluence of the Ohio and the Middle Mississippi, the long-term mean discharge of the Ohio at Cairo, Illinois is 281,500 cubic feet per second (7,970 cubic meters per second),[28] while the long-term mean discharge of the Mississippi at Thebes, Illinois (just upriver from Cairo) is 208,200cuft/s (5,900m3/s).[29] Thus, by volume, the main branch of the Mississippi River system at Cairo can be considered to be the Ohio River (and the Allegheny River further upstream), rather than the Middle Mississippi.
In addition to the Ohio River, the major tributaries of the Lower Mississippi River are the White River, flowing in at the White River National Wildlife Refuge in east central Arkansas; the Arkansas River, joining the Mississippi at Arkansas Post; the Big Black River in Mississippi; and the Yazoo River, meeting the Mississippi at Vicksburg, Mississippi. The widest point of the Mississippi River is in the Lower Mississippi portion where it exceeds 1 mile (1.6km) in width in several places.
Deliberate water diversion at the Old River Control Structure in Louisiana allows the Atchafalaya River in Louisiana to be a major distributary of the Mississippi River, with 30% of the Mississippi flowing to the Gulf of Mexico by this route, rather than continuing down the Mississippi's current channel past Baton Rouge and New Orleans on a longer route to the Gulf.[30][31][32] Although the Red River is commonly thought to be a tributary, it is actually not, because its water flows separately into the Gulf of Mexico through the Atchafalaya River.
Watershed

The Mississippi River has the world's fourth-largest drainage basin ("watershed" or "catchment"). The basin covers more than 1,245,000 square miles (3,220,000km2), including all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. The drainage basin empties into the Gulf of Mexico, part of the Atlantic Ocean. The total catchment of the Mississippi River covers nearly 40% of the landmass of the continental United States. The highest point within the watershed is also the highest point of the Rocky Mountains, Mount Elbert at 14,440 feet (4,400m).[33]

In the United States, the Mississippi River drains the majority of the area between the crest of the Rocky Mountains and the crest of the Appalachian Mountains, except for various regions drained to Hudson Bay by the Red River of the North; to the Atlantic Ocean by the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River; and to the Gulf of Mexico by the Rio Grande, the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, the Chattahoochee and Appalachicola rivers, and various smaller coastal waterways along the Gulf.
The Mississippi River empties into the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles (160km) downstream from New Orleans. Measurements of the length of the Mississippi from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico vary somewhat, but the United States Geological Survey's number is 2,320 miles (3,730km). The retention time from Lake Itasca to the Gulf is typically about 90 days.[34]
Outflow
The Mississippi River discharges at an annual average rate of between 200 and 700 thousand cubic feet per second (7,000–20,000m3/s).[35] Although it is the fifth-largest river in the world by volume, this flow is a small fraction of the output of the Amazon, which moves nearly 7 million cubic feet per second (200,000m3/s) during wet seasons. On average, the Mississippi has only 8% the flow of the Amazon River.[36]
Fresh river water flowing from the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico does not mix into the salt water immediately. The images from NASA's MODIS (to the right) show a large plume of fresh water, which appears as a dark ribbon against the lighter-blue surrounding waters. These images demonstrate that the plume did not mix with the surrounding sea water immediately. Instead, it stayed intact as it flowed through the Gulf of Mexico, into the Straits of Florida, and entered the Gulf Stream. The Mississippi River water rounded the tip of Florida and traveled up the southeast coast to the latitude of Georgia before finally mixing in so thoroughly with the ocean that it could no longer be detected by MODIS.
Before 1900, the Mississippi River transported an estimated 400million metric tons of sediment per year from the interior of the United States to coastal Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. During the last two decades, this number was only 145million metric tons per year. The reduction in sediment transported down the Mississippi River is the result of engineering modification of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio rivers and their tributaries by dams, meander cutoffs, river-training structures, and bank revetments and soil erosion control programs in the areas drained by them.[37]
Course changes
Over geologic time, the Mississippi River has experienced numerous large and small changes to its main course, as well as additions, deletions, and other changes among its numerous tributaries, and the lower Mississippi River has used different pathways as its main channel to the Gulf of Mexico across the delta region.
Through a natural process known as avulsion or delta switching, the lower Mississippi River has shifted its final course to the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico every thousand years or so. This occurs because the deposits of silt and sediment begin to clog its channel, raising the river's level and causing it to eventually find a steeper, more direct route to the Gulf of Mexico. The abandoned distributaries diminish in volume and form what are known as bayous. This process has, over the past 5,000 years, caused the coastline of south Louisiana to advance toward the Gulf from 15 to 50 miles (24 to 80km). The currently active delta lobe is called the Birdfoot Delta, after its shape, or the Balize Delta, after La Balize, Louisiana, the first French settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi.
Prehistoric courses
The current form of the Mississippi River basin was largely shaped by the Laurentide Ice Sheet of the most recent Ice Age. The southernmost extent of this enormous glaciation extended well into the present-day United States and Mississippi basin. When the ice sheet began to recede, hundreds of feet of rich sediment were deposited, creating the flat and fertile landscape of the Mississippi Valley. During the melt, giant glacial rivers found drainage paths into the Mississippi watershed, creating such features as the Minnesota River, James River, and Milk River valleys. When the ice sheet completely retreated, many of these "temporary" rivers found paths to Hudson Bay or the Arctic Ocean, leaving the Mississippi Basin with many features "over-sized" for the existing rivers to have carved in the same time period.
Ice sheets during the Illinoian Stage, about 300,000 to 132,000 years before present, blocked the Mississippi near Rock Island, Illinois, diverting it to its present channel farther to the west, the current western border of Illinois. The Hennepin Canal roughly follows the ancient channel of the Mississippi downstream from Rock Island to Hennepin, Illinois. South of Hennepin, to Alton, Illinois, the current Illinois River follows the ancient channel used by the Mississippi River before the Illinoian Stage.[38][39]

Timeline of outflow course changes[40]
c. 5000 BC: The last Ice Age ended; world sea level became what it is now.
c. 2500 BC: Bayou Teche became the main course of the Mississippi.
c. 800 BC: The Mississippi diverted further east.
c. 200 AD: Bayou Lafourche became the main course of the Mississippi.
c. 1000 AD: The Mississippi's present course took over.
Before c. 1400 AD: The Red River of the South flowed parallel to the lower Mississippi to the sea
15th century: Turnbull's Bend in the lower Mississippi extended so far west that it captured the Red River of the South. The Red River below the captured section became the Atchafalaya River.
1831: Captain Henry M. Shreve dug a new short course for the Mississippi through the neck of Turnbull's Bend.
1833 to November 1873: The Great Raft (a huge logjam in the Atchafalaya River) was cleared. The Atchafalaya started to capture the Mississippi and to become its new main lower course.
1963: The Old River Control Structure was completed, controlling how much Mississippi water entered the Atchafalaya.
 (article in Popular Archaeology periodical)
Historic course changes
In March 1876, the Mississippi suddenly changed course near the settlement of Reverie, Tennessee, leaving a small part of Tipton County, Tennessee, attached to Arkansas and separated from the rest of Tennessee by the new river channel. Since this event was an avulsion, rather than the effect of incremental erosion and deposition, the state line still follows the old channel.[41]
The town of Kaskaskia, Illinois once stood on a peninsula at the confluence of the Mississippi and Kaskaskia (Okaw) Rivers. Founded as a French colonial community, it later became the capital of the Illinois Territory and was the first state capital of Illinois until 1819. Beginning in 1844, successive flooding caused the Mississippi River to slowly encroach east. A major flood in 1881 caused it to overtake the lower 10 miles of the Kaskaskia River, forming a new Mississippi channel and cutting off the town from the rest of the state. Later flooding destroyed most of the remaining town, including the original State House. Today, the remaining 2,300 acre island and community of 14 residents is known as an enclave of Illinois and is accessible only from the Missouri side.[42]
New Madrid Seismic Zone
The New Madrid Seismic Zone, along the Mississippi River near New Madrid, Missouri, between Memphis and St. Louis, is related to an aulacogen (failed rift) that formed at the same time as the Gulf of Mexico. This area is still quite active seismically. Four great earthquakes in 1811 and 1812, estimated at approximately 8 on the Richter magnitude scale, had tremendous local effects in the then sparsely settled area, and were felt in many other places in the Midwestern and eastern U.S. These earthquakes created Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee from the altered landscape near the river.
Length
When measured from its traditional source at Lake Itasca, the Mississippi has a length of 2,320 miles (3,730km). When measured from its longest stream source (most distant source from the sea), Brower's Spring in Montana, the source of the Missouri River, it has a length of 3,710 miles (5,970km), making it the fourth longest river in the world after the Nile, Amazon, and Yangtze.[43] When measured by the largest stream source (by water volume), the Ohio River, by extension the Allegheny River, would be the source, and the Mississippi would begin in Pennsylvania.
Depth
At its source at Lake Itasca, the Mississippi River is about 3 feet deep. The average depth of the Mississippi River between Saint Paul and Saint Louis is between 9 and 12 feet (2.7–3.7m) deep, the deepest part being Lake Pepin, which averages 20–32 feet (6–10m) deep and has a maximum depth of 60 feet (18m). Between Saint Lois, Missouri, where the Missouri River joins and Cairo, Illinois, the depth averages 30 feet (9m). Below Cairo, where the Ohio River joins, the depth averages 50–100 feet (15–30m) deep. The deepest part of the river is in New Orleans, where it reaches 200 feet (61m) deep.[44][45]
Cultural geography
State boundaries
The Mississippi River runs through or along 10 states, from Minnesota to Louisiana, and is used to define portions of these states borders, with Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi along the east side of the river, and Iowa, Missouri, and Arkansas along its west side. Substantial parts of both Minnesota and Louisiana are on either side of the river, although the Mississippi defines part of the boundary of each of these states.
In all of these cases, the middle of the riverbed at the time the borders were established was used as the line to define the borders between adjacent states.[46][47] In various areas, the river has since shifted, but the state borders have not changed, still following the former bed of the Mississippi River as of their establishment, leaving several small isolated areas of one state across the new river channel, contiguous with the adjacent state. Also, due to a meander in the river, a small part of western Kentucky is contiguous with Tennessee, but isolated from the rest of its state.

Communities along the river

Many of the communities along the Mississippi River are listed below; most have either historic significance or cultural lore connecting them to the river. They are sequenced from the source of the river to its end.

Bemidji, Minnesota
Grand Rapids, Minnesota
Jacobson, Minnesota
Palisade, Minnesota
Aitkin, Minnesota
Riverton, Minnesota
Brainerd, Minnesota
Fort Ripley, Minnesota
Little Falls, Minnesota
Sartell, Minnesota
St. Cloud, Minnesota
Monticello, Minnesota
Anoka, Minnesota
Coon Rapids, Minnesota
Brooklyn Park, Minnesota
Brooklyn Center, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Nininger, Minnesota
Hastings, Minnesota
Prescott, Wisconsin
Prairie Island, Minnesota
Diamond Bluff, Wisconsin
Red Wing, Minnesota
Hager City, Wisconsin
Maiden Rock, Wisconsin
Stockholm, Wisconsin
Lake City, Minnesota
Maple Springs, Minnesota
Camp Lacupolis, Minnesota
Pepin, Wisconsin
Reads Landing, Minnesota
Wabasha, Minnesota
Nelson, Wisconsin
Alma, Wisconsin
Buffalo City, Wisconsin
Weaver, Minnesota
Minneiska, Minnesota
Fountain City, Wisconsin
Winona, Minnesota
Homer, Minnesota
Trempealeau, Wisconsin
Dakota, Minnesota
Dresbach, Minnesota
La Crescent, Minnesota
La Crosse, Wisconsin
Brownsville, Minnesota
Stoddard, Wisconsin
Genoa, Wisconsin
Victory, Wisconsin
Potosi, Wisconsin
De Soto, Wisconsin
Lansing, Iowa
Ferryville, Wisconsin
Lynxville, Wisconsin
Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin
Marquette, Iowa
McGregor, Iowa
Wyalusing, Wisconsin
Guttenberg, Iowa
Cassville, Wisconsin
Dubuque, Iowa
Galena, Illinois
Bellevue, Iowa
Savanna, Illinois
Sabula, Iowa
Fulton, Illinois
Clinton, Iowa
Cordova, Illinois
Port Byron, Illinois
LeClaire, Iowa
Rapids City, Illinois
Hampton, Illinois
Bettendorf, Iowa
East Moline, Illinois
Moline, Illinois
Davenport, Iowa
Rock Island, Illinois
Buffalo, Iowa
Muscatine, Iowa
New Boston, Illinois
Keithsburg, Illinois
Oquawka, Illinois
Burlington, Iowa
Dallas City, Illinois
Fort Madison, Iowa
Nauvoo, Illinois
Keokuk, Iowa
Warsaw, Illinois
Quincy, Illinois
Hannibal, Missouri
Louisiana, Missouri
Clarksville, Missouri
Grafton, Illinois
Portage Des Sioux, Missouri
Alton, Illinois
St. Louis, Missouri
Ste. Genevieve, Missouri
Kaskaskia, Illinois
Chester, Illinois
Grand Tower, Illinois
Cape Girardeau, Missouri
Thebes, Illinois
Commerce, Missouri
Cairo, Illinois
Wickliffe, Kentucky
Columbus, Kentucky
Hickman, Kentucky
New Madrid, Missouri
Tiptonville, Tennessee
Caruthersville, Missouri
Osceola, Arkansas
Reverie, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
West Memphis, Arkansas
Tunica, Mississippi
Helena-West Helena, Arkansas
Napoleon, Arkansas (historical)
Arkansas City, Arkansas
Greenville, Mississippi
Mayersville, Mississippi
Vicksburg, Mississippi
Waterproof, Louisiana
Natchez, Mississippi
Morganza, Louisiana
St. Francisville, Louisiana
New Roads, Louisiana
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Donaldsonville, Louisiana
Lutcher, Louisiana
Destrehan, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
Pilottown, Louisiana
La Balize, Louisiana (historical)

Bridge crossings

The road crossing highest on the Upper Mississippi is a simple steel culvert, through which the river (locally named "Nicolet Creek") flows north from Lake Nicolet under "Wilderness Road" to the West Arm of Lake Itasca, within Itasca State Park.[48]
The earliest bridge across the Mississippi River was built in 1855. It spanned the river in Minneapolis where the current Hennepin Avenue Bridge is located.[49] No highway or railroad tunnels cross under the Mississippi River.
The first railroad bridge across the Mississippi was built in 1856. It spanned the river between the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois and Davenport, Iowa. Steamboat captains of the day, fearful of competition from the railroads, considered the new bridge a hazard to navigation. Two weeks after the bridge opened, the steamboat Effie Afton rammed part of the bridge, setting it on fire. Legal proceedings ensued, with Abraham Lincoln defending the railroad. The lawsuit went to the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled in favor of the railroad.[50]
Below is a general overview of selected Mississippi bridges which have notable engineering or landmark significance, with their cities or locations. They are sequenced from the Upper Mississippi's source to the Lower Mississippi's mouth.
Stone Arch Bridge–Former Great Northern Railway (now pedestrian) bridge at Saint Anthony Falls connecting downtown Minneapolis with the historic Marcy-Holmes neighborhood.
I-35W Saint Anthony Falls Bridge–In Minneapolis, opened in September 2008, replacing the I-35W Mississippi River bridge which had collapsed catastrophically on August 1, 2007, killing 13 and injuring over 100.
Eisenhower Bridge (Mississippi River)–In Red Wing, Minnesota, opened by Dwight D. Eisenhower in November 1960.
I-90 Mississippi River Bridge–Connects La Crosse, Wisconsin, and Winona County, Minnesota, located just south of Lock and Dam No. 7.
Black Hawk Bridge–Connects Lansing in Allamakee County, Iowa and rural Crawford County, Wisconsin; locally referred to as the Lansing Bridge and documented in the Historic American Engineering Record.

Dubuque-Wisconsin Bridge–Connects Dubuque, Iowa, and Grant County, Wisconsin.
Julien Dubuque Bridge–Joins the cities of Dubuque, Iowa, and East Dubuque, Illinois; listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Savanna-Sabula Bridge–A truss bridge and causeway connecting the city of Savanna, Illinois, and the island city of Sabula, Iowa. The bridge carries U.S. Highway 52 over the river, and is the terminus of both Iowa Highway 64 and Illinois Route 64. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
Fred Schwengel Memorial Bridge–A 4-lane steel girder bridge that carries Interstate 80 and connects LeClaire, Iowa, and Rapids City, Illinois. Completed in 1966.
I-74 Bridge–Connects Bettendorf, Iowa, and Moline, Illinois; originally known as the Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge.
Government Bridge–Connects Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa, adjacent to Lock and Dam No. 15; the fourth crossing in this vicinity, built in 1896.
Rock Island Centennial Bridge–Connects Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa; opened in 1940.
Sergeant John F. Baker, Jr. Bridge–Connects Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa; opened in 1973.
Norbert F. Beckey Bridge–Connects Muscatine, Iowa, and Rock Island County, Illinois; became first U.S. bridge to be illuminated with light-emitting diode (LED) lights decoratively illuminating the facade of the bridge.
Great River Bridge–A cable-stayed bridge connecting Burlington, Iowa, to Gulf Port, Illinois.
Fort Madison Toll Bridge–Connects Fort Madison, Iowa, and unincorporated Niota, Illinois; also known as the Santa Fe Swing Span Bridge; at the time of its construction the longest and heaviest electrified swing span on the Mississippi River. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1999.
Keokuk–Hamilton Bridge–Connects Keokuk, Iowa and Hamilton, Illinois; opened in 1985 replacing an older bridge which is still in use as a railroad bridge.
Bayview Bridge–A cable-stayed bridge bringing westbound U.S. Highway 24 over the river, connecting the cities of West Quincy, Missouri, and Quincy, Illinois.
Quincy Memorial Bridge–Connects the cities of West Quincy, Missouri, and Quincy, Illinois, carrying eastbound U.S. 24, the older of these two U.S. 24 bridges.
Clark Bridge–A cable-stayed bridge connecting West Alton, Missouri, and Alton, Illinois, also known as the Super Bridge as the result of an appearance on the PBS program, Nova; built in 1994, carrying U.S. Route 67 across the river. This is the northernmost river crossing in the St. Louis metropolitan area, replacing the Old Clark Bridge, a truss bridge built in 1928, named after explorer William Clark.

Chain of Rocks Bridge–Located on the northern edge of St. Louis, notable for a 22-degree bend occurring at the middle of the crossing, necessary for navigation on the river; formerly used by U.S. Route 66 to cross the Mississippi. Replaced for road traffic in 1966 by a nearby pair of new bridges; now a pedestrian bridge.
Eads Bridge–A combined road and railway bridge, connecting St. Louis and East St. Louis, Illinois. When completed in 1874, it was the longest arch bridge in the world, with an overall length of 6,442 feet (1,964m). The three ribbed steel arch spans were considered daring, as was the use of steel as a primary structural material; it was the first such use of true steel in a major bridge project.
Chester Bridge–A truss bridge connecting Route 51 in Missouri with Illinois Route 150, between Perryville, Missouri, and Chester, Illinois. The bridge can be seen in the beginning of the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night. In the 1940s, the main span was destroyed by a tornado.
Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge—Connecting Cape Girardeau, Missouri and East Cape Girardeau, Illinois, completed in 2003 and illuminated by 140 lights.
Caruthersville Bridge– A single tower cantilever bridge carrying Interstate 155 and U.S. Route 412 across the Mississippi River between Caruthersville, Missouri and Dyersburg, Tennessee.

Hernando de Soto Bridge–A through arch bridge carrying Interstate 40 across the Mississippi between West Memphis, Arkansas, and Memphis, Tennessee.
Harahan Bridge–A cantilevered through truss bridge, carrying two rail lines of the Union Pacific Railroad across the river between West Memphis, Arkansas, and Memphis, Tennessee.
Frisco Bridge–A cantilevered through truss bridge, carrying a rail line across the river between West Memphis, Arkansas, and Memphis, Tennessee, previously known as the Memphis Bridge. When it opened on May 12, 1892, it was the first crossing of the Lower Mississippi and the longest span in the U.S. Listed as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.
Memphis & Arkansas Bridge–A cantilevered through truss bridge, carrying Interstate 55 between Memphis and West Memphis; listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Helena Bridge
Greenville Bridge

Old Vicksburg Bridge
Vicksburg Bridge
Natchez-Vidalia Bridge
John James Audubon Bridge–The second-longest cable-stayed bridge in the Western Hemisphere; connects Pointe Coupee and West Feliciana Parishes in Louisiana. It is the only crossing between Baton Rouge and Natchez. This bridge was opened a month ahead of schedule in May 2011, due to the 2011 floods.
Huey P. Long Bridge–A truss cantilever bridge carrying US 190 (Airline Highway) and one rail line between East Baton Rouge and West Baton Rouge Parishes in Louisiana.
Horace Wilkinson Bridge–A cantilevered through truss bridge, carrying six lanes of Interstate 10 between Baton Rouge and Port Allen in Louisiana. It is the highest bridge over the Mississippi River.
Sunshine Bridge
Gramercy Bridge
Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge
Huey P. Long Bridge–In Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, the first Mississippi River span built in Louisiana.
Crescent City Connection–Connects the east and west banks of New Orleans, Louisiana; the fifth-longest cantilever bridge in the world.
Navigation and flood control

A clear channel is needed for the barges and other vessels that make the main stem Mississippi one of the great commercial waterways of the world. The task of maintaining a navigation channel is the responsibility of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which was established in 1802.[51] Earlier projects began as early as 1829 to remove snags, close off secondary channels and excavate rocks and sandbars.
Steamboats entered trade in the 1820s, so the period 1830–1850 became the golden age of steamboats. As there were few roads or rails in the lands of the Louisiana Purchase, river traffic was an ideal solution. Cotton, timber and food came down the river, as did Appalachian coal. The port of New Orleans boomed as it was the trans-shipment point to deep sea ocean vessels. As a result, the image of the twin stacked, wedding cake Mississippi steamer entered into American mythology. Steamers worked the entire route from the trickles of Montana, to the Ohio River; down the Missouri and Tennessee, to the main channel of the Mississippi. Only with the arrival of the railroads in the 1880s did steamboat traffic diminish. Steamboats remained a feature until the 1920s. Most have been superseded by pusher tugs. A few survive as icons—the Delta Queen and the River Queen for instance.

A series of 29 locks and dams on the upper Mississippi, most of which were built in the 1930s, is designed primarily to maintain a 9-foot-deep (2.7m) channel for commercial barge traffic.[52][53] The lakes formed are also used for recreational boating and fishing. The dams make the river deeper and wider but do not stop it. No flood control is intended. During periods of high flow, the gates, some of which are submersible, are completely opened and the dams simply cease to function. Below St. Louis, the Mississippi is relatively free-flowing, although it is constrained by numerous levees and directed by numerous wing dams.
On the lower Mississippi, from Baton Rouge to the mouth of the Mississippi, the navigation depth is 45 feet (14m), allowing container ships and cruise ships to dock at the Port of New Orleans and bulk cargo ships shorter than 150-foot (46m) air draft that fit under the Huey P. Long Bridge to traverse the Mississippi to Baton Rouge.[54] There is a feasibility study to dredge this portion of the river to 50 feet (15m) to allow New Panamax ship depths.[55]
19th century

In 1829, there were surveys of the two major obstacles on the upper Mississippi, the Des Moines Rapids and the Rock Island Rapids, where the river was shallow and the riverbed was rock. The Des Moines Rapids were about 11 miles (18km) long and just above the mouth of the Des Moines River at Keokuk, Iowa. The Rock Island Rapids were between Rock Island and Moline, Illinois. Both rapids were considered virtually impassable.
In 1848, the Illinois and Michigan Canal was built to connect the Mississippi River to Lake Michigan via the Illinois River near Peru, Illinois. The canal allowed shipping between these important waterways. In 1900, the canal was replaced by the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The second canal, in addition to shipping, also allowed Chicago to address specific health issues (typhoid fever, cholera and other waterborne diseases) by sending its waste down the Illinois and Mississippi river systems rather than polluting its water source of Lake Michigan.
The Corps of Engineers recommended the excavation of a 5-foot-deep (1.5m) channel at the Des Moines Rapids, but work did not begin until after Lieutenant Robert E. Lee endorsed the project in 1837. The Corps later also began excavating the Rock Island Rapids. By 1866, it had become evident that excavation was impractical, and it was decided to build a canal around the Des Moines Rapids. The canal opened in 1877, but the Rock Island Rapids remained an obstacle. In 1878, Congress authorized the Corps to establish a 4.5-foot-deep (1.4m) channel to be obtained by building wing dams which direct the river to a narrow channel causing it to cut a deeper channel, by closing secondary channels and by dredging. The channel project was complete when the Moline Lock, which bypassed the Rock Island Rapids, opened in 1907.
To improve navigation between St. Paul, Minnesota, and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, the Corps constructed several dams on lakes in the headwaters area, including Lake Winnibigoshish and Lake Pokegama. The dams, which were built beginning in the 1880s, stored spring run-off which was released during low water to help maintain channel depth.

20th century
In 1907, Congress authorized a 6-foot-deep (1.8m) channel project on the Mississippi River, which was not complete when it was abandoned in the late 1920s in favor of the 9-foot-deep (2.7m) channel project.
In 1913, construction was complete on Lock and Dam No. 19 at Keokuk, Iowa, the first dam below St. Anthony Falls. Built by a private power company (Union Electric Company of St. Louis) to generate electricity (originally for streetcars in St. Louis), the Keokuk dam was one of the largest hydro-electric plants in the world at the time. The dam also eliminated the Des Moines Rapids. Lock and Dam No. 1 was completed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1917. Lock and Dam No. 2, near Hastings, Minnesota, was completed in 1930.
Before the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the Corps's primary strategy was to close off as many side channels as possible to increase the flow in the main river. It was thought that the river's velocity would scour off bottom sediments, deepening the river and decreasing the possibility of flooding. The 1927 flood proved this to be so wrong that communities threatened by the flood began to create their own levee breaks to relieve the force of the rising river.
The Rivers and Harbors Act of 1930 authorized the 9-foot (2.7m) channel project, which called for a navigation channel 9 feet (2.7m) feet deep and 400 feet (120m) wide to accommodate multiple-barge tows.[56][57] This was achieved by a series of locks and dams, and by dredging. Twenty-three new locks and dams were built on the upper Mississippi in the 1930s in addition to the three already in existence.

Until the 1950s, there was no dam below Lock and Dam 26 at Alton, Illinois. Chain of Rocks Lock (Lock and Dam No. 27), which consists of a low-water dam and an 8.4-mile-long (13.5km) canal, was added in 1953, just below the confluence with the Missouri River, primarily to bypass a series of rock ledges at St. Louis. It also serves to protect the St. Louis city water intakes during times of low water.
U.S. government scientists determined in the 1950s that the Mississippi River was starting to switch to the Atchafalaya River channel because of its much steeper path to the Gulf of Mexico. Eventually the Atchafalaya River would capture the Mississippi River and become its main channel to the Gulf of Mexico, leaving New Orleans on a side channel. As a result, the U.S. Congress authorized a project called the Old River Control Structure, which has prevented the Mississippi River from leaving its current channel that drains into the Gulf via New Orleans.[59]
Because the large scale of high-energy water flow threatened to damage the structure, an auxiliary flow control station was built adjacent to the standing control station. This $300million project was completed in 1986 by the Corps of Engineers. Beginning in the 1970s, the Corps applied hydrological transport models to analyze flood flow and water quality of the Mississippi. Dam 26 at Alton, Illinois, which had structural problems, was replaced by the Mel Price Lock and Dam in 1990. The original Lock and Dam 26 was demolished.

21st century
The Corps now actively creates and maintains spillways and floodways to divert periodic water surges into backwater channels and lakes, as well as route part of the Mississippi's flow into the Atchafalaya Basin and from there to the Gulf of Mexico, bypassing Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The main structures are the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway in Missouri; the Old River Control Structure and the Morganza Spillway in Louisiana, which direct excess water down the west and east sides (respectively) of the Atchafalaya River; and the Bonnet Carré Spillway, also in Louisiana, which directs floodwaters to Lake Pontchartrain (see diagram). Some experts blame urban sprawl for increases in both the risk and frequency of flooding on the Mississippi River.[60]
Some of the pre-1927 strategy is still in use today, with the Corps actively cutting the necks of horseshoe bends, allowing the water to move faster and reducing flood heights.[61]
History
Native Americans

The area of the Mississippi River basin was first settled by hunting and gathering Native American peoples and is considered one of the few independent centers of plant domestication in human history.[62] Evidence of early cultivation of sunflower, a goosefoot, a marsh elder and an indigenous squash dates to the 4th millennium BC. The lifestyle gradually became more settled after around 1000 BC during what is now called the Woodland period, with increasing evidence of shelter construction, pottery, weaving and other practices. A network of trade routes referred to as the Hopewell interaction sphere was active along the waterways between about 200 and 500 AD, spreading common cultural practices over the entire area between the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes. A period of more isolated communities followed, and agriculture introduced from Mesoamerica based on the Three Sisters (maize, beans and squash) gradually came to dominate. After around 800 AD there arose an advanced agricultural society today referred to as the Mississippian culture, with evidence of highly stratified complex chiefdoms and large population centers. The most prominent of these, now called Cahokia, was occupied between about 600 and 1400 AD[63] and at its peak numbered between 8,000 and 40,000 inhabitants, larger than London, England of that time. At the time of first contact with Europeans, Cahokia and many other Mississippian cities had dispersed, and archaeological finds attest to increased social stress.[64][65][66]
Modern American Indian nations inhabiting the Mississippi basin include Cheyenne, Sioux, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Fox, Kickapoo, Tamaroa, Moingwena, Quapaw and Chickasaw.
The word Mississippi itself comes from Messipi, the French rendering of the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe or Algonquin) name for the river, Misi-ziibi (Great River).[67][68] The Ojibwe called Lake Itasca Omashkoozo-zaaga'igan (Elk Lake) and the river flowing out of it Omashkoozo-ziibi (Elk River). After flowing into Lake Bemidji, the Ojibwe called the river Bemijigamaag-ziibi (River from the Traversing Lake). After flowing into Cass Lake, the name of the river changes to Gaa-miskwaawaakokaag-ziibi (Red Cedar River) and then out of Lake Winnibigoshish as Wiinibiigoonzhish-ziibi (Miserable Wretched Dirty Water River), Gichi-ziibi (Big River) after the confluence with the Leech Lake River, then finally as Misi-ziibi (Great River) after the confluence with the Crow Wing River.[69] After the expeditions by Giacomo Beltrami and Henry Schoolcraft, the longest stream above the juncture of the Crow Wing River and Gichi-ziibi was named "Mississippi River". The Mississippi River Band of Chippewa Indians, known as the Gichi-ziibiwininiwag, are named after the stretch of the Mississippi River known as the Gichi-ziibi. The Cheyenne, one of the earliest inhabitants of the upper Mississippi River, called it the Máʼxe-éʼometaaʼe (Big Greasy River) in the Cheyenne language. The Arapaho name for the river is Beesniicíe.[70] The Pawnee name is Kickaátit.[71]
The Mississippi was spelled Mississipi or Missisipi during French Louisiana and was also known as the Rivière Saint-Louis.[72][73][74]
European exploration

On May 8, 1541, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto became the first recorded European to reach the Mississippi River, which he called Río del Espíritu Santo ("River of the Holy Spirit"), in the area of what is now Mississippi. In Spanish, the river is called Río Mississippi.[75]
French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette began exploring the Mississippi in the 17th century. Marquette traveled with a Sioux Indian who named it Ne Tongo ("Big river" in Sioux language) in 1673. Marquette proposed calling it the River of the Immaculate Conception.
When Louis Jolliet explored the Mississippi Valley in the 17th century, natives guided him to a quicker way to return to French Canada via the Illinois River. When he found the Chicago Portage, he remarked that a canal of "only half a league" (less than 2 miles (3.2km), 3km) would join the Mississippi and the Great Lakes.[76] In 1848, the continental divide separating the waters of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley was breached by the Illinois and Michigan canal via the Chicago River.[77] This both accelerated the development, and forever changed the ecology of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes.
In 1682, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle and Henri de Tonti claimed the entire Mississippi River Valley for France, calling the river Colbert River after Jean-Baptiste Colbert and the region La Louisiane, for King Louis XIV. On March 2, 1699, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville rediscovered the mouth of the Mississippi, following the death of La Salle.[78] The French built the small fort of La Balise there to control passage.[79]
In 1718, about 100 miles (160km) upriver, New Orleans was established along the river crescent by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, with construction patterned after the 1711 resettlement on Mobile Bay of Mobile, the capital of French Louisiana at the time.
Colonization

Following Britain's victory in the Seven Years War the Mississippi became the border between the British and Spanish Empires. The Treaty of Paris (1763) gave Great Britain rights to all land east of the Mississippi and Spain rights to land west of the Mississippi. Spain also ceded Florida to Britain to regain Cuba, which the British occupied during the war. Britain then divided the territory into East and West Florida.
Article 8 of the Treaty of Paris (1783) states, "The navigation of the river Mississippi, from its source to the ocean, shall forever remain free and open to the subjects of Great Britain and the citizens of the United States". With this treaty, which ended the American Revolutionary War, Britain also ceded West Florida back to Spain to regain the Bahamas, which Spain had occupied during the war. In 1800, under duress from Napoleon of France, Spain ceded an undefined portion of West Florida to France. When France then sold the Louisiana Territory to the U.S. in 1803, a dispute arose again between Spain and the U.S. on which parts of West Florida exactly had Spain ceded to France, which would in turn decide which parts of West Florida were now U.S. property versus Spanish property. These aspirations ended when Spain was pressured into signing Pinckney's Treaty in 1795.
France reacquired 'Louisiana' from Spain in the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800. The United States then secured effective control of the river when it bought the Louisiana Territory from France in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The last serious European challenge to U.S. control of the river came at the conclusion of War of 1812 when British forces mounted an attack on New Orleans – the attack was repulsed by an American army under the command of General Andrew Jackson.
In the Treaty of 1818, the U.S. and Great Britain agreed to fix the border running from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains along the 49th parallel north. In effect, the U.S. ceded the northwestern extremity of the Mississippi basin to the British in exchange for the southern portion of the Red River basin.
So many settlers traveled westward through the Mississippi river basin, as well as settled in it, that Zadok Cramer wrote a guide book called The Navigator, detailing the features and dangers and navigable waterways of the area. It was so popular that he updated and expanded it through 12 editions over a period of 25 years.

The colonization of the area was barely slowed by the three earthquakes in 1811 and 1812, estimated at approximately 8 on the Richter magnitude scale, that were centered near New Madrid, Missouri.
Steamboat era

Mark Twain's book, Life on the Mississippi, covered the steamboat commerce which took place from 1830 to 1870 on the river before more modern ships replaced the steamer. The book was published first in serial form in Harper's Weekly in seven parts in 1875. The full version, including a passage from the then unfinished Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and works from other authors, was published by James R. Osgood & Company in 1885.
The first steamboat to travel the full length of the Lower Mississippi from the Ohio River to New Orleans was the New Orleans in December 1811. Its maiden voyage occurred during the series of New Madrid earthquakes in 1811–12. The Upper Mississippi was treacherous, unpredictable and to make traveling worse, the area was not properly mapped out or surveyed. Until the 1840s only two trips a year to the Twin Cities landings were made by steamboats which suggests it was not very profitable.[80]
Steamboat transport remained a viable industry, both in terms of passengers and freight until the end of the first decade of the 20th century. Among the several Mississippi River system steamboat companies was the noted Anchor Line, which, from 1859 to 1898, operated a luxurious fleet of steamers between St. Louis and New Orleans.
Italian explorer Giacomo Beltrami, wrote about his journey on the Virginia, which was the first steam boat to make it to Fort St. Anthony in Minnesota. He referred to his voyage as a promenade that was once a journey on the Mississippi. The steamboat era changed the economic and political life of the Mississippi, as well as the nature of travel itself. The Mississippi was completely changed by the steamboat era as it transformed into a flourishing tourists trade.[81]
Civil War

Control of the river was a strategic objective of both sides in the American Civil War. In 1862 Union forces coming down the river successfully cleared Confederate defenses at Island Number 10 and Memphis, Tennessee, while Naval forces coming upriver from the Gulf of Mexico captured New Orleans, Louisiana. The remaining major Confederate stronghold was on the heights overlooking the river at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and the Union's Vicksburg Campaign (December 1862 to July 1863), and the fall of Port Hudson, completed control of the lower Mississippi River. The Union victory ending the Siege of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, was pivotal to the Union's final victory of the Civil War.
20th and 21st centuries

The "Big Freeze" of 1918–19 blocked river traffic north of Memphis, Tennessee, preventing transportation of coal from southern Illinois. This resulted in widespread shortages, high prices, and rationing of coal in January and February.[82]
In the spring of 1927, the river broke out of its banks in 145 places, during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and inundated 27,000sqmi (70,000km2) to a depth of up to 30 feet (9.1m).
In 1962 and 1963, industrial accidents spilled 3.5million US gallons (13,000,000L) of soybean oil into the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. The oil covered the Mississippi River from St. Paul to Lake Pepin, creating an ecological disaster and a demand to control water pollution.[83]
On October 20, 1976, the automobile ferry, MV George Prince, was struck by a ship traveling upstream as the ferry attempted to cross from Destrehan, Louisiana, to Luling, Louisiana. Seventy-eight passengers and crew died; only eighteen survived the accident.
In 1988, the water level of the Mississippi fell to 10 feet (3.0m) below zero on the Memphis gauge. The remains of wooden-hulled water craft were exposed in an area of 4.5 acres (18,000m2) on the bottom of the Mississippi River at West Memphis, Arkansas. They dated to the late 19th to early 20th centuries. The State of Arkansas, the Arkansas Archeological Survey, and the Arkansas Archeological Society responded with a two-month data recovery effort. The fieldwork received national media attention as good news in the middle of a drought.[84]
The Great Flood of 1993 was another significant flood, primarily affecting the Mississippi above its confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois.
Two portions of the Mississippi were designated as American Heritage Rivers in 1997: the lower portion around Louisiana and Tennessee, and the upper portion around Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Missouri. The Nature Conservancy's project called "America's Rivershed Initiative" announced a 'report card' assessment of the entire basin in October 2015 and gave the grade of D+. The assessment noted the aging navigation and flood control infrastructure along with multiple environmental problems.[85]

In 2002, Slovenian long-distance swimmer Martin Strel swam the entire length of the river, from Minnesota to Louisiana, over the course of 68 days. In 2005, the Source to Sea Expedition[86] paddled the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers to benefit the Audubon Society's Upper Mississippi River Campaign.[87][88]
Future
Geologists believe that the lower Mississippi could take a new course to the Gulf. Either of two new routes—through the Atchafalaya Basin or through Lake Pontchartrain—might become the Mississippi's main channel if flood-control structures are overtopped or heavily damaged during a severe flood.[89][90][91][92][93]
Failure of the Old River Control Structure, the Morganza Spillway, or nearby levees would likely re-route the main channel of the Mississippi through Louisiana's Atchafalaya Basin and down the Atchafalaya River to reach the Gulf of Mexico south of Morgan City in southern Louisiana. This route provides a more direct path to the Gulf of Mexico than the present Mississippi River channel through Baton Rouge and New Orleans.[91] While the risk of such a diversion is present during any major flood event, such a change has so far been prevented by active human intervention involving the construction, maintenance, and operation of various levees, spillways, and other control structures by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Old River Control Structure, between the present Mississippi River channel and the Atchafalaya Basin, sits at the normal water elevation and is ordinarily used to divert 30% of the Mississippi's flow to the Atchafalaya River. There is a steep drop here away from the Mississippi's main channel into the Atchafalaya Basin. If this facility were to fail during a major flood, there is a strong concern the water would scour and erode the river bottom enough to capture the Mississippi's main channel. The structure was nearly lost during the 1973 flood, but repairs and improvements were made after engineers studied the forces at play. In particular, the Corps of Engineers made many improvements and constructed additional facilities for routing water through the vicinity. These additional facilities give the Corps much more flexibility and potential flow capacity than they had in 1973, which further reduces the risk of a catastrophic failure in this area during other major floods, such as that of 2011.
Because the Morganza Spillway is slightly higher and well back from the river, it is normally dry on both sides.[94] Even if it failed at the crest during a severe flood, the flood waters would have to erode to normal water levels before the Mississippi could permanently jump channel at this location. During the 2011 floods, the Corps of Engineers opened the Morganza Spillway to 1/4 of its capacity to allow 150,000ft3/sec of water to flood the Morganza and Atchafalaya floodways and continue directly to the Gulf of Mexico, bypassing Baton Rouge and New Orleans.[95] In addition to reducing the Mississippi River crest downstream, this diversion reduced the chances of a channel change by reducing stress on the other elements of the control system.[96]
Some geologists have noted that the possibility for course change into the Atchafalaya also exists in the area immediately north of the Old River Control Structure. Army Corps of Engineers geologist Fred Smith once stated, "The Mississippi wants to go west. 1973 was a forty-year flood. The big one lies out there somewhere—when the structures can't release all the floodwaters and the levee is going to have to give way. That is when the river's going to jump its banks and try to break through."[97]
Another possible course change for the Mississippi River is a diversion into Lake Pontchartrain near New Orleans. This route is controlled by the Bonnet Carré Spillway, built to reduce flooding in New Orleans. This spillway and an imperfect natural levee about 4–6 meters (12 to 20 feet) high are all that prevents the Mississippi from taking a new, shorter course through Lake Pontchartrain to the Gulf of Mexico.[98] Diversion of the Mississippi's main channel through Lake Pontchartrain would have consequences similar to an Atchafalaya diversion, but to a lesser extent, since the present river channel would remain in use past Baton Rouge and into the New Orleans area.
Recreation

The sport of water skiing was invented on the river in a wide region between Minnesota and Wisconsin known as Lake Pepin.[99] Ralph Samuelson of Lake City, Minnesota, created and refined his skiing technique in late June and early July 1922. He later performed the first water ski jump in 1925 and was pulled along at 80mph (130km/h) by a Curtiss flying boat later that year.[99]
There are seven National Park Service sites along the Mississippi River. The Mississippi National River and Recreation Area is the National Park Service site dedicated to protecting and interpreting the Mississippi River itself. The other six National Park Service sites along the river are (listed from north to south):
Effigy Mounds National Monument
Gateway Arch National Park (includes Gateway Arch)
Vicksburg National Military Park
Natchez National Historical Park
New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park
Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve
Ecology

The Mississippi basin is home to a highly diverse aquatic fauna and has been called the "mother fauna" of North American fresh water.[100]
Fish
About 375 fish species are known from the Mississippi basin, far exceeding other North Hemisphere river basin exclusively within temperate/subtropical regions,[100] except the Yangtze.[101] Within the Mississippi basin, streams that have their source in the Appalachian and Ozark highlands contain especially many species. Among the fish species in the basin are numerous endemics, as well as relicts such as paddlefish, sturgeon, gar and bowfin.[100]
Because of its size and high species diversity, the Mississippi basin is often divided into subregions. The Upper Mississippi River alone is home to about 120 fish species, including walleye, sauger, large mouth bass, small mouth bass, white bass, northern pike, bluegill, crappie, channel catfish, flathead catfish, common shiner, freshwater drum and shovelnose sturgeon.[102][103]
Other fauna
In addition to fish, several species of turtles (such as snapping, musk, mud, map, cooter, painted and softshell turtles), American alligator, aquatic amphibians (such as hellbender, mudpuppy, three-toed amphiuma and lesser siren),[104] and cambarid crayfish (such as the red swamp crayfish) are native to the Mississippi basin.[105]
Introduced species
Numerous introduced species are found in the Mississippi and some of these are invasive. Among the introductions are fish such as Asian carp, including the silver carp that have become infamous for outcompeting native fish and their potentially dangerous jumping behavior. They have spread throughout much of the basin, even approaching (but not yet invading) the Great Lakes.[106] The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has designated much of the Mississippi River in the state as infested waters by the exotic species zebra mussels and Eurasian watermilfoil.[107]
Cultural references

Literature
Herman Melville's novel The Confidence-Man portrayed a Canterbury Tales-style group of steamboat passengers whose interlocking stories are told as they travel down the Mississippi River. The novel is written both as cultural satire and a metaphysical treatise.
Many of the works of Mark Twain deal with or take place near the Mississippi River. One of his first major works, Life on the Mississippi, is in part a history of the river, in part a memoir of Twain's experiences on the river, and a collection of tales that either take place on or are associated with the river. Twain's most famous work, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is largely a journey down the river. The novel works as an episodic meditation on American culture with the river having multiple different meanings including independence, escape, freedom, and adventure.
William Faulkner uses the Mississippi River and Delta as the setting for many hunts throughout his novels. It has been proposed that in Faulkner's famous story The Bear, young Ike first begins his transformation into a man, thus relinquishing his birthright to land in Yoknapatawpha County through his realizations found within the woods surrounding the Mississippi River.
Much of Edna Ferber's 1926 novel Show Boat takes place on the Mississippi River. The novel is the basis for the 1927 musical play of the same title by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II.
Jonathan Raban's Old Glory: An American Voyage, a 1981 travel book describing the author's single-handed journey by boat down the river, was the winner of The Royal Society of Literature's Heinemann Award and the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award.
Music

The song "When the Levee Breaks", made famous in the version performed by Led Zeppelin on the album Led Zeppelin IV, was composed by Memphis Minnie McCoy in 1929 after the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.
Ferde Grofé composed a set of movements for symphony orchestra entitled "Mississippi Suite", based on the lands the river travels through.
"Ghost," a song by Indigo Girls, mentions the "mighty" Mississippi and its watershed's relative narrowness.
The stage and movie musical Show Boat's central musical piece is the spiritual-influenced ballad "Ol' Man River". Its composer, Jerome Kern, also composed an orchestral piece entitled "Mark Twain Suite".
The musical Big River is based on the travels of Huckleberry Finn down the river.
The Johnny Cash song "Big River" is about the Mississippi River, and about drifting the length of the river to pursue a relationship that fails. The places mentioned in the song are Saint Paul, Davenport, St. Louis, Memphis, Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
"Louisiana 1927" is a 1974 song written and recorded by Randy Newman on the album Good Old Boys. It tells the story of the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927 which left 700,000 people homeless in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Illinois-born singer Lissie has a song called Oh Mississippi dedicated to the river.
"Roll On Mississippi" and "Mississippi Cotton Picking Delta Town" are two classics from Charley Pride that refer to the Mississippi River.
The late Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn collaborated on the song "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man".
Paul Simon mentions the river and the Mississippi Delta in his song "Graceland".
See also

Atchafalaya Basin
Capes on the Mississippi River
Chemetco
Great River Road
List of crossings of the Lower Mississippi River
List of locks and dams of the Upper Mississippi River
List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem)
Lists of crossings of the Mississippi River
Mississippi embayment
Mississippi River floods
The Waterways Journal Weekly
Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge

Further reading

Ambrose, Stephen. The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation: From the Louisiana Purchase to Today (National Geographical Society, 2002) heavily illustrated

Anfinson, John Ogden. Commerce and conservation on the Upper Mississippi River (US Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, 1994)

Botkin, Benjamin Albert. A Treasury of Mississippi River folklore: stories, ballads & traditions of the mid-American river country (1984).
Carlander, Harriet Bell. A history of fish and fishing in the upper Mississippi River (PhD Diss. Iowa State College, 1954)  (PDF)
Daniel, Pete. Deep'n as it come: The 1927 Mississippi River flood (University of Arkansas Press, 1977)
Fremling, Calvin R. Immortal river: the Upper Mississippi in ancient and modern times (U. of Wisconsin Press, 2005), popular history
Milner, George R. "The late prehistoric Cahokia cultural system of the Mississippi River valley: Foundations, florescence, and fragmentation." Journal of World Prehistory (1990) 4#1 pp: 1–43.
Morris, Christopher. The Big Muddy: An Environmental History of the Mississippi and Its Peoples From Hernando de Soto to Hurricane Katrina (Oxford University Press; 2012) 300 pages; links drought, disease, and flooding to the impact of centuries of increasingly intense human manipulation of the river.

, project of the American Land Conservancy

 from the NPS
 from the NPS
, from the digital library of Northern Illinois University

 – PDF files of publications about and maps of the geology of the Mississippi River Valley and its tributaries.

 article on 1930-40s project to improve barge navigation between Helena and Natchez
The short film  is available for free download at the Internet Archive
The short film  is available for free download at the Internet Archive
The short film  is available for free download at the Internet Archive
 Geographic data related to  at OpenStreetMap


Part of a series onGenetic genealogy
Concepts
Population genetics
Haplogroup / Haplotype / Subclade
Most recent common ancestor
DNA haplogroups
(Human mitochondrial,
Human Y-chromosome)
Genomics
Related topics
Y-chromosome haplogroups by population
Genealogical DNA test
Surname DNA project
Personal genomics
Genographic Project
ISOGGvt
A haplotype is a group of alleles in an organism that are inherited together from a single parent,[1][2] and a haplogroup (haploid from the Greek: ἁπλούς, haploûs, "onefold, simple" and English: group) is a group of similar haplotypes that share a common ancestor with a single-nucleotide polymorphism mutation.[3][4] More specifically, a haplogroup is a combination of alleles at different chromosomes regions that are closely linked and that tend to be inherited together. As a haplogroup consists of similar haplotypes, it is usually possible to predict a haplogroup from haplotypes. Haplogroups pertain to a single line of descent. As such, membership of a haplogroup, by any individual, relies on a relatively small proportion of the genetic material possessed by that individual.
Each haplogroup originates from, and remains part of, a preceding single haplogroup (or paragroup). As such, any related group of haplogroups may be precisely modelled as a nested hierarchy, in which each set (haplogroup) is also a subset of a single broader set (as opposed, that is, to biparental models, such as human family trees).
Haplogroups are normally identified by an initial letter of the alphabet, and refinements consist of additional number and letter combinations, such as (for example) A → A1 → A1a.
In human genetics, the haplogroups most commonly studied are Y-chromosome (Y-DNA) haplogroups and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups, each of which can be used to define genetic populations. Y-DNA is passed solely along the patrilineal line, from father to son, while mtDNA is passed down the matrilineal line, from mother to offspring of both sexes. Neither recombines, and thus Y-DNA and mtDNA change only by chance mutation at each generation with no intermixture between parents' genetic material.
Haplogroup formation

Mitochondria are small organelles that lie in the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells, such as those of humans. Their primary function is to provide energy to the cell. Mitochondria are thought to be reduced descendants of symbiotic bacteria that were once free living. One indication that mitochondria were once free living is that each contains a circular DNA, called mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), whose structure is more similar to bacteria than eukaryotic organisms (see endosymbiotic theory). The overwhelming majority of a human's DNA is contained in the chromosomes in the nucleus of the cell, but mtDNA is an exception.
An individual inherits his or her cytoplasm and the organelles contained by that cytoplasm exclusively from the maternal ovum (egg cell); sperm only pass on the chromosomal DNA, all paternal mitochondria are digested in the oocyte. When a mutation arises in a mtDNA molecule, the mutation is therefore passed in a direct female line of descent. Mutations are copying mistakes in the DNA sequence. Single mistakes are called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).
Human Y chromosomes are male-specific sex chromosomes; nearly all humans that possess a Y chromosome will be morphologically male. Although Y chromosomes are situated in the cell nucleus and paired with X chromosomes, they only recombine with the X chromosome at the ends of the Y chromosome; the remaining 95% of the Y chromosome does not recombine. Therefore, the Y chromosome and any mutations that arise in it are passed on from father to son in a direct male line of descent. This means the Y chromosome and mtDNA share specific properties.
Other chromosomes, autosomes and X chromosomes in women, share their genetic material (called crossing over leading to recombination) during meiosis (a special type of cell division that occurs for the purposes of sexual reproduction). Effectively this means that the genetic material from these chromosomes gets mixed up in every generation, and so any new mutations are passed down randomly from parents to offspring.
The special feature that both Y chromosomes and mtDNA display is that mutations can accrue along a certain segment of both molecules and these mutations remain fixed in place on the DNA. Furthermore, the historical sequence of these mutations can also be inferred. For example, if a set of ten Y chromosomes (derived from ten different men) contains a mutation, A, but only five of these chromosomes contain a second mutation, B, then it must be the case that mutation B occurred after mutation A.
Furthermore, all ten men who carry the chromosome with mutation A are the direct male line descendants of the same man who was the first person to carry this mutation. The first man to carry mutation B was also a direct male line descendant of this man, but is also the direct male line ancestor of all men carrying mutation B. Series of mutations such as this form molecular lineages. Furthermore, each mutation defines a set of specific Y chromosomes called a haplogroup.
All men carrying mutation A form a single haplogroup, and all men carrying mutation B are part of this haplogroup, but mutation B also defines a more recent haplogroup (which is a subgroup or subclade) of its own to which men carrying only mutation A do not belong. Both mtDNA and Y chromosomes are grouped into lineages and haplogroups; these are often presented as tree like diagrams.
Haplogroup population genetics
It is usually assumed that there is little natural selection for or against a particular haplotype mutation which has survived to the present, day so apart from mutation rates (which may vary from one marker to another) the main driver of population genetics affecting the proportions of haplotypes in a population is genetic drift—random fluctuation caused by the sampling randomness of which members of the population happen to pass their DNA on to members of the next generation of the appropriate sex.
This causes the prevalence of a particular marker in a population to continue to fluctuate, until it either hits 100%, or falls out of the population entirely. In a large population with efficient mixing the rate of genetic drift for common alleles is very low; however, in a very small interbreeding population the proportions can change much more quickly. The marked geographical variations and concentrations of particular haplotypes and groups of haplotypes therefore witness the distinctive effects of repeated population bottlenecks or founder events followed by population separations and increases.
The lineages which can be traced back from the present will not reflect the full genetic variation of the older population: genetic drift means that some of the variants will have died out. The cost of full Y-DNA and mtDNA sequence tests has limited the availability of data; however, their cost has dropped dramatically in the last decade. Haplotype coalescence times and current geographical prevalences both carry considerable error uncertainties. This is especially troublesome for coalescence times, because most population geneticists still continue (albeit decreasing a little bit) to use the "Zhivotovski method", which is heavily criticised by DNA-genealogists for its falsehood. The eusocial wasp Angiopolybia pallens presents with 8 haplogroups depending on its location. This displays the idea of genetic drift.
Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups

Human Y chromosome DNA (Y-DNA) haplogroups are named from A to T, and are further subdivided using numbers and lower case letters. Y chromosome haplogroup designations are established by the Y Chromosome Consortium.[5]

Phylogenetic tree of human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups [χ 1][χ 2]"Y-chromosomal Adam"A00A0-T[χ 3]A0A1[χ 4]A1aA1bA1b1BTBCTDECFDECFF1F2F3GHIJKGHIJKIJKHIJKIJLT[χ 5]K2[χ 6]LTK2a[χ 7]K2b[χ 8]K2cK2dK2e[χ 9]K-M2313[χ 10]K2b1[χ 11]P[χ 12]NOS[χ 13]M[χ 14]P1P2NOQR
Y-DNA by population
Y-DNA haplogroups of historic people

Y-chromosomal Adam is the name given by researchers to the male who is the most recent common patrilineal (male-lineage) ancestor of all living humans.
Major Y-chromosome haplogroups, and their geographical regions of occurrence (prior to
the recent European colonization), include:

Groups without mutation M168
Haplogroup A (M91) (Africa, especially the Khoisan and Nilotes)
Haplogroup B (M60) (Africa, especially the Pygmies and Hadzabe)
Groups with mutation M168
(mutation M168 occurred ~50,000 bp)
Haplogroup C (M130) (Oceania, North/Central/East Asia, North America and a minor presence in South America, Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia, and Europe)
YAP+ haplogroups
Haplogroup DE (M1, M145, M203)
Haplogroup D (M174) (Tibet, Japan, the Andaman Islands)
Haplogroup E (M96)
Haplogroup E1b1a (V38) West Africa and surrounding regions; formerly known as E3a
Haplogroup E1b1b (M215) Associated with the spread of Afroasiatic languages; now concentrated in North Africa and the Horn of Africa, as well as parts of the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and the Balkans; formerly known as E3b
Groups with mutation M89
(mutation M89 occurred ~45,000 bp)
Haplogroup F (M89) Oceania, Europe, Asia, North and South America
Haplogroup FT (P14, M213) (China, Vietnam,[6] Singapore[7])
Haplogroup G (M201) (present among many ethnic groups in Eurasia, usually at low frequency; most common in the Caucasus, the Iranian plateau, and Anatolia; in Europe mainly in Greece, Italy, Iberia, the Tyrol, Bohemia; rare in Northern Europe)
Haplogroup H (L901/M2939)
H1'3 (Z4221/M2826, Z13960)
H1 (L902/M3061)
H1a (M69/Page45) India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Iran, Central Asia
H1b (B108) Found in a Burmese individual in Myanmar.[7]
H3 (Z5857) India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bahrain, Qatar
H2 (P96) Formerly known as haplogroup F3. Found with low frequency in Europe and western Asia.
Haplogroup IJK (L15, L16)
Groups with mutations L15 & L16
Haplogroup IJK (L15, L16)
Haplogroup IJ (S2, S22)
Haplogroup I (M170, P19, M258) (widespread in Europe, found infrequently in parts of the Middle East, and virtually absent elsewhere[8])
Haplogroup I1 (M253, M307, P30, P40) (Northern Europe, dominant in Scandinavia)
Haplogroup I2 (S31) (Central and Southeast Europe, Sardinia)
Haplogroup J (M304) (the Middle East, Turkey, Caucasus, Italy, Greece, the Balkans, North Africa)
Haplogroup J* (Mainly found in Socotra, with a few observations in Pakistan, Oman, Greece, the Czech Republic, and among Turkic peoples)
Haplogroup J1 (M267) (Mostly associated with Semitic peoples in the Middle East but also found in; Mediterranean Europe, Ethiopia, North Africa, Iran, Pakistan, India and with Northeast Caucasian peoples in Dagestan; J1 with DYS388=13 is associated with eastern Anatolia)
Haplogroup J2 (M172) (Mainly found in West Asia, Central Asia, Southern Europe, and North Africa)
Haplogroup K (M9, P128, P131, P132)
Groups with mutation M9
(mutation M9 occurred ~40,000 bp)
Haplogroup K
Haplogroup LT (L298/P326)
Haplogroup L (M11, M20, M22, M61, M185, M295) (South Asia, Central Asia, Southwestern Asia, the Mediterranean)
Haplogroup T (M70, M184/USP9Y+3178, M193, M272) (North Africa, Horn of Africa, Southwest Asia, the Mediterranean, South Asia); formerly known as Haplogroup K2
Haplogroup K(xLT) (rs2033003/M526)
Groups with mutation M526
Haplogroup M (P256) (New Guinea, Melanesia, eastern Indonesia)
Haplogroup NO (M214)
Haplogroup N (M231) (northernmost Eurasia, especially among the Uralic peoples)
Haplogroup O (M175) (East Asia, Southeast Asia, the South Pacific, South Asia, Central Asia)
Haplogroup O1 (F265)
Haplogroup O1a (MSY2.2)
Haplogroup O1b (P31, M268)
Haplogroup O2 (M122)
Haplogroup P-M45 (M45) (M45 occurred ~35,000 bp)
Haplogroup Q-M242 (M242) (Occurred ~15,000–20,000 bp. Found in Asia and the Americas)
Haplogroup Q-M3 (M3) (North America, Central America, and South America)
Haplogroup R (M207)
Haplogroup R1 (M173)
Haplogroup R1a (M17) (Central Asia, South Asia, and Central, Northern, and Eastern Europe)
Haplogroup R1b (M343) (Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia, South Asia, North Africa, Central Africa)
Haplogroup R2 (M124) (South Asia, Caucasus, Central Asia)
Haplogroup S (M230, P202, P204) (New Guinea, Melanesia, eastern Indonesia)
Human mitochondrial DNA haplogroups

Human mtDNA haplogroups are lettered:
A,
B,
C,
CZ,
D,
E,
F,
G,
H,
HV,
I,
J,
pre-JT,
JT,
K,
L0,
L1,
L2,
L3,
L4,
L5,
L6,
M,
N,
P,
Q,
R,
R0,
S,
T,
U,
V,
W,
X,
Y, and
Z. The most up-to-date version of the mtDNA tree is maintained by Mannis van Oven on the PhyloTree website.[9]

Phylogenetic tree of human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroupsMitochondrial Eve (L)L0L1–6L1L2L3L4L5L6MNCZDEGQOASRIWXYCZBFR0pre-JTPUHVJTKHVJT
Mitochondrial Eve is the name given by researchers to the woman who is the most recent common matrilineal (female-lineage) ancestor of all living humans.
Defining populations

Haplogroups can be used to define genetic populations and are often geographically oriented. For example, the following are common divisions for mtDNA haplogroups:
African: L0, L1, L2, L3, L4, L5, L6
West Eurasian: H, T, U, V, X, K, I, J, W (all listed West Eurasian haplogroups are derived from macro-haplogroup N)[10]
East Eurasian: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, Y, Z (note: C, D, E, G, and Z belong to macro-haplogroup M)
Native American: A, B, C, D, X
Australo-Melanesian: P, Q, S
The mitochondrial haplogroups are divided into three main groups, which are designated by the sequential letters L, M, N.
Humanity first split within the L group between L0 and L1-6. L1-6 gave rise to other L groups, one of which, L3, split into the M and N group.
The M group comprises the first wave of human migration which is thought to have evolved outside of Africa, following an eastward route along southern coastal areas. Descendant lineages of haplogroup M are now found throughout Asia, the Americas, and Melanesia, as well as in parts of the Horn of Africa and North Africa; almost none have been found in Europe. The N haplogroup may represent another macrolineage that evolved outside of Africa, heading northward instead of eastward. Shortly after the migration, the large R group split off from the N.
Haplogroup R consists of two subgroups defined on the basis of their geographical distributions, one found in southeastern Asia and Oceania and the other containing almost all of the modern European populations. Haplogroup N(xR), i.e. mtDNA that belongs to the N group but not to its R subgroup, is typical of Australian aboriginal populations, while also being present at low frequencies among many populations of Eurasia and the Americas.
The L type consists of nearly all Africans.
The M type consists of:
M1 – Ethiopian, Somali and Indian populations. Likely due to much gene flow between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman), separated only by a narrow strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
CZ – Many Siberians; branch C – Some Amerindian; branch Z – Many Saami, some Korean, some North Chinese, some Central Asian populations.
D – Some Amerindians, many Siberians and northern East Asians
E – Malay, Borneo, Philippines, Taiwanese aborigines, Papua New Guinea
G – Many Northeast Siberians, northern East Asians, and Central Asians
Q – Melanesian, Polynesian, New Guinean populations
The N type consists of:
A – Found in many Amerindians and some East Asians and Siberians
I – 10% frequency in Northern, Eastern Europe
S – Some Australian aborigines
W – Some Eastern Europeans, South Asians, and southern East Asians
X – Some Amerindians, Southern Siberians, Southwest Asians, and Southern Europeans
Y – Most Nivkhs and people of Nias; many Ainus, Tungusic people, and Austronesians; also found with low frequency in some other populations of Siberia, East Asia, and Central Asia
R – Large group found within the N type.Populations contained therein can be divided geographically into West Eurasia and East Eurasia. Almost all European populations and a large number of Middle-Eastern population today are contained within this branch. A smaller percentage is contained in other N type groups (See above). Below are subclades of R:
B – Some Chinese, Tibetans, Mongolians, Central Asians, Koreans, Amerindians, South Siberians, Japanese, Austronesians
F – Mainly found in southeastern Asia, especially Vietnam; 8.3% in Hvar Island in Croatia.[11]
R0 – Found in Arabia and among Ethiopians and Somalis; branch HV (branch H; branch V) – Europe, Western Asia, North Africa;
Pre-JT – Arose in the Levant (modern Lebanon area), found in 25% frequency in Bedouin populations; branch JT (branch J; branch T) – North, Eastern Europe, Indus, Mediterranean
U – High frequency in West Eurasia, Indian sub-continent, and Algeria, found from India to the Mediterranean and to the rest of Europe; U5 in particular shows high frequency in Scandinavia and Baltic countries with the highest frequency in the Sami people.
Y-chromosome and MtDNA geographic haplogroup assignation
Here is a list of Y-chromosome and MtDNA geographic haplogroup assignation proposed by Bekada et al. 2013.[12]
Y-chromosome
According to SNPS haplogroups which are the age of the first extinction event tend to be around 45–50 kya. Haplogroups of the second extinction event seemed to diverge 32–35 kya according to Mal'ta. The ground zero extinction event appears to be Toba during which haplogroup CDEF* appeared to diverge into C, DE and F. C and F have almost nothing in common while D and E have plenty in common. Extinction event #1 according to current estimates occurred after Toba, although older ancient DNA could push the ground zero extinction event to long before Toba, and push the first extinction event here back to Toba. Haplogroups with extinction event notes by them have a dubious origin and this is because extinction events lead to severe bottlenecks, so all notes by these groups are just guesses. Note that the SNP counting of ancient DNA can be highly variable meaning that even though all these groups diverged around the same time no one knows when.[13][14]

mtDNA

See also
International HapMap Project
Molecular evolution
Molecular phylogenetics
Human evolutionary genetics
Race (biology) / Race (human categorization)
Genetic genealogy
Genealogical DNA test
List of genetic genealogy topics
List of haplogroups of notable people

General

News
, Journal of Human Genetics
 frequent highlights of new results.
all DNA haplogroups
Y-Chromosome

Y chromosome DNA haplogroups

 A minimal reference phylogeny for the human Y-chromosome

The Y Chromosome Consortium (2002), , Genome Research, Vol. 12(2), 339–48, February 2002. (Detailed hierarchical  has conversions from previous naming schemes)
Semino et al. (2000), , Science, Vol 290 (paper which introduced the "Eu" haplogroups).

Mitochondrial DNA haplogroups
PhyloTree – The phylogenetic tree of global human mitochondrial DNA variation[1]

Software


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Charm School is a reality television series airing on VH1; it is a spin-off of Flavor of Love created by executive producers Cris Abrego and Mark Cronin. The first season, called Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School, is hosted by comedian Mo'Nique and features thirteen contestants from the first two seasons of Flavor of Love. The second season, called Rock of Love: Charm School, is hosted by Sharon Osbourne and features fourteen contestants from the first two seasons of Rock of Love with Bret Michaels. The third season, called Charm School with Ricki Lake, is hosted by Ricki Lake and features contestants from Rock of Love Bus with Bret Michaels and Real Chance of Love. The show ostensibly acts as a finishing school for its contestants that helps develop proper etiquette. Season 1 offered a prize of $50,000, while Seasons 2 and 3 doubled the amount to $100,000. All three seasons offered the title of "Charm School Queen."
Show information

Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School
Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School was hosted by comedian Mo'Nique and featured 13 contestants from the first two seasons of Flavor of Love, who were assigned the challenge of developing proper etiquette in a competition for $50,000 and the title of "Charm School Queen." Mo'Nique was assisted by talent agency president Keith Lewis and magazine beauty director Mikki Taylor.[6] The series first aired weekly from April 15, 2007 to July 8, 2007. Saaphyri was ultimately named "Charm School Queen" and was awarded the $50,000.[7]
Rock of Love: Charm School
Rock of Love: Charm School was hosted by Sharon Osbourne and featured 14 contestants from the first two seasons of Rock of Love, who were assigned the challenge of developing proper etiquette in a competition for $100,000 and the title of "Charm School Queen." The series premiered on October 12, 2008, and the finale was aired on December 21, 2008. Brandi Mahon was ultimately named "Charm School Queen" and was awarded the $100,000.[8][9]
Charm School with Ricki Lake
Charm School with Ricki Lake is hosted by Ricki Lake and features 14 contestants from Rock of Love Bus with Bret Michaels and Real Chance of Love, who learn self-improvement through selfless acts and charity work. The headmistress, Ricki Lake, is assisted by deans Alani "La La" Vazquez and Stryker.[10][11] The series premiered on May 11, 2009, and the finale was aired on July 27, 2009. Ebony "Risky" Jones was ultimately named "Charm School Queen" and was awarded the $100,000.

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What UK network aired Sharon Osbourne's Charm School?