12 Stories About America’s Most Iconic River System

12 Stories About America’s Most Iconic River System

12 Stories About America’s Most Iconic River System This story is one in a series about the confluence of capitalism, conservation and cultural identity in the Mississippi River Basin. It is part of Waterline and is sponsored by the Walton Family Foundation. The Mississippi River Basin begins in a little lake in northern Minnesota. But its many branches and tributaries sprawl across nearly half of the continental U.S., stretching from the sandstone cliffs of Montana to the shale fields of Western Pennsylvania, sustaining the lives and livelihoods of millions in between. Yet even this doesn’t fully capture how large the Mississippi looms. According to the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk , the region it spans produces more than 90 percent of America’s agricultural exports and a majority of its livestock. It’s also one of the most important transportation corridors on the planet, supporting a $400 billion shipping industry that ferries countless goods across the continent, from f…