History

Hernando de Soto is credited with the European discovery of the Mississippi in 1541, even though other Spanish explorers had probably reached it before him. In 1673 Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet traveled down the river from the point where it is joined by the Wisconsin River to its junction with the Arkansas. The task of following the river to the gulf was accomplished by Sieur de La Salle and his party in 1682.

The Louisiana Purchase, 1803, brought a large part of the Mississippi's basin under the control of the United States. Opening of this vast new land and development of the steamboat (first used on the Mississippi in 1811) brought a rapid growth of trade. Some trading towns, particularly St. Louis, grew into large cities. The steamboat trade reached a peak about the time of the Civil War and thereafter was gradually taken over by the railways. Civil War battles fought on or near the river include those at New Orleans, Chickasaw Bluffs, Vicksburg, Memphis, and New Madrid.