Mississippi River

Principal U.S. river running southward from Itasca Lake, Minnesota, to Gulf of Mexico. Covered 3,160-mile course, 1839 (now about 2,350 miles). Drains about 1,100,000 square miles. Steamboat travel on Mississippi very important in 1830s and 1840s for shipping, transportation, and recreation. At least four steamboat landings utilized in Nauvoo, Illinois: Upper Stone House Landing, Kimball Landing, Lower Stone House Landing, and Nauvoo House Landing. River also utilized by Saints for performing baptisms and as source of food. Church owned modest freighting steamer, Maid of Iowa, which traversed entire Mississippi. Thousands of British converts immigrated to Nauvoo on river steamers from New Orleans, 1840–1846.