Photograph from David Rumsey Map Collection The chart is ... choose to combine the Mississippi with the Missouri River, which is in the Mississippi's watershed, effectively doubling the length ...

Throughout the Mississippi River watershed, wetlands store floodwater, improve drinking water quality and serve as homes for millions of birds and other animals. But this special ecosystem is ...

Madeline Heim is a Report for America corps reporter who writes about environmental issues in the Mississippi River watershed and across Wisconsin. Contact her at 920-996-7266 or [email protected].

More: Mississippi River basin residents worry about the environment and want change, study finds. But many don't know they're in the basin. More: What is a watershed and why should you care?

then the Red River by the Oligocene. Around 60 million years ago, the Mississippi was collecting water from the Rockies to the Appalachians; by four million years ago, its watershed had extended ...