VOICE ONE:
This is Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special Englishprogram, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the biggest river in theUnited States, The Mississippi.
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VOICE ONE:
The Mississippi flows from near the northern border of the UnitedStates south into the Gulf of Mexico. The river flows forfour-thousand kilometers through the center of the country. It isthe one of the longest rivers in the world. The Amazon in SouthAmerica and the Nile in eastern Africa are the only rivers in theworld that are longer.
The name, Mississippi, came fromthe Chippewa Indians who lived in what is now the north central partof the United States. Their name for the river was “maesi-sipu”. Inthe Chippewa language this meant “river of many fishes”. The wordwas not easy for European explorers to say. So they began calling itthe Mississippi instead. Today, it is often called ‘Old Man River’.
Modern maps show that Little Elk Lake in the north central stateof Minnesota is the true beginning of the Mississippi River. LittleElk Lake is only about four kilometers long.
VOICE TWO:
At its beginning, the Mississippi does not look like much of ariver. But it grows as it starts moving slowly north before turningwest and then south.
What is called the Upper Mississippi ends in southern Illinois,near a city with an Egyptian name – Cairo. However, in this middlewestern state it is called Kay-ro. At Cairo, another large river,the Ohio River, joins the expanding Mississippi.
It is easy to see how the Upper Mississippi has flowed throughthe land. It has cut its way through mountains of rock, pushing andpushing its waters slowly south.
VOICE ONE:
The Lower Mississippi begins south of Cairo. It is often higherthan the land along it. The land is protected by man-made levees,which are walls of earth. These levees prevent the river fromflooding. Some of these levees are higher and longer than the GreatWall of China. If you stand behind some of the levees you look up atthe river and boats sailing on it.
While the levees control the river, the land is safe. But whenheavy rains fall on the hundreds of big and little rivers that flowinto the Mississippi, the land is threatened. If the levees break,the river can spread its fingers across the land, flooding towns andvillages and destroying crops growing in fields.
VOICE TWO:
There are hundreds of big and little islands throughout theMississippi River. These islands are formed by dirt carried along bythe flow of the powerful river. Every year, the river carriesfive-hundred-million tons of dirt. Islands can form quickly,sometimes between the time a ship sails down the river and returns.
United States government engineerswork hard to keep the river safe. They destroy islands built by theriver to keep it clear for ships and trade. They also work to keepthe levees strong so that the river does not break through them.Still, Old Man River does not like to be controlled. Every few yearsthe Mississippi River changes its path or floods many thousands ofhectares.
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VOICE ONE:
In the state of Minnesota, the two cities of Minneapolis andSaint Paul face each other across the river. The cities are on thenorthernmost point on the river that is deep enough for trade boatsto sail. The cities today form an important center for business andagriculture.
About two-thousand kilometers south along the river is the cityof Saint Louis, Missouri. The city is just a few kilometers south ofwhere the huge Missouri River joins the Mississippi. A French traderfirst established a business there in Seventeen-Sixty-Four. A fewyears later settlers named their new town after the ThirteenthCentury French King, Louis the Ninth, who had been made a Christiansaint. The city of Saint Louis was a popular starting point forsettlers traveling to the American west.
VOICE TWO:
The most famous city on the Mississippi is at the river’ssouthern end. It is the port city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Frenchexplorers first settled there, naming the town after the French cityof Orleans (Or-lay-onh). From its earliest days, New Orleans was animportant center for national and international trade. During theWar of Eighteen-Twelve a great battle was fought there againstBritish forces.
Today, New Orleans continues to be an important center forbusiness and international trade. But the city is probably mostfamous for its culture, music, and food. Many cultures unite in NewOrleans. The large black population of the city provides stronginfluences from Africa, the Caribbean, and South America. Frenchculture also has been very important since the time the city andlarge areas of North America belonged to France.
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VOICE ONE:
Indians had lived in the Mississippi Valley for a very long timewhen Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto arrived around Fifteen-Forty.
De Soto was looking for gold and cities of gold. He thought theMississippi was just another river to cross before he would reachthose cities, which the Spanish called El Dorado. Instead of thecities, he found hostile Indians, hunger and sickness.
De Soto died on the edge of the river in Fifteen-Forty-Two. Hewas forty-two years old.
After De Soto’s death, the natives attacked the soldiers he hadbrought with him and forced them off the land. The Indians saw nomore Europeans in the part of the country for more than one-hundred– twenty years.
VOICE TWO:
In Sixteen-Eighty-Two, French explorer Rene Robert Cavelier,Sieur de la Salle, reached the mouth of the Mississippi at the Gulfof Mexico. La Salle claimed the surrounding country for France. Henamed it Louisiana, after the King of France at that time, Louis theFourteenth.
La Salle failed to reach his goal of building forts and tradingtowns along the Mississippi from Canada south to the Gulf of Mexico.Instead, he was murdered by one of his soldiers.
VOICE ONE:
By the end of the Seventeenth Century, stories about Louisianawere spreading across France and other parts of Europe. Ships thatwere sailing to the new world were crowded with people. Many of themdied of hunger and sickness. However French people kept coming. Theybegan settling the Mississippi Valley. They established controlalong the river, from New Orleans to as far north as Illinois.
In Seventeen-Eighty-One, Britain and the new United States ofAmerica signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the AmericanRevolutionary War. The treaty gave the United States completecontrol of the land between the Atlantic Ocean and the MississippiRiver. The Americans also gained the right to use the river.
In Eighteen-Three, France sold the territory of Louisiana to theUnited States. What became known as “The Louisiana Purchase”included more than two-million square kilometers. It was the largestland purchase in history.
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VOICE TWO:
In the early NineteenthCentury, the steam engine was invented. Soon steamboats were movinggoods and people on the Mississippi River. For about sixty years,steamboats were extremely important for trade in the MississippiValley and throughout most of the middle west.
During this time, a boy living in a town next to the Mississippifell in love with steamboats and the river. He grew up to become acaptain on one of those boats. Then he began writing stories andbooks, using the name Mark Twain. Mark Twain’s most famous book is”Huckleberry Finn”. It tells the story of a boy who runs away with aslave and their adventures as they drift on a raft down theMississippi.
The American Civil War was fought between Eighteen-Sixty-One andEighteen-Sixty-Five. During this time, nothing much was heard alongthe river but the sounds of war. After the war, trade along theriver began again.
VOICE ONE:
The Mississippi has always had an important part in Americanhistory. Today, the river is still an important part of the Americaneconomy. Goods are carried up and down the river to get to otherparts of the country and the world.
Human activities on and along the Mississippi River have changedthrough history. But the great river just keeps flowing through thecenter of America. As the song “Old Man River” says: “It must knowsomething. It don’t say nothing. It just keeps rolling along.”
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VOICE TWO:
This Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler anddirected by Paul Thompson. This is Shirley Griffith.
VOICE ONE:
And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for anotherEXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA.