Top Ten Reasons Why the Mississippi
River Headwaters is a Special Place
apologies to David Letterman


10. The Mississippi Headwaters is protected by the people who live there. Residents of Clearwater, Hubbard, Beltrami, Cass, Itasca, Aitkin, Crow Wing and Morrison counties show their care for the river by: Maintaining a setback of new construction from the river, Educating themselves about how land uses connect to water quality, especially in specific activities such as timber harvest and Educating themselves about cultural values of the Mississippi Headwaters.

9. The Mississippi Headwaters supports a diverse and productive fishery, with excellent smallmouth bass and muskie fishing.

8. The Mississippi Headwaters provides for a variety of human economic uses. It powers generation of electricity for municipal and industrial uses at Bemidji, Cohasset, Grand Rapids, Brainerd, Little Falls and Royalton; it discharges wastes from Bemidji, Cas s Lake, Deer River, Grand Rapids, LaPrairie, Palisade, Aitkin, Brainerd, Baxter and Little Falls.

7. The Mississippi Headwaters is the source of drinking water for one-quarter of the state's residents.

6. The Mississippi Headwaters is witness to 10,000 years of human history, from prehistoric nomadic hunters who travelled great distances annually to European immigrants who logged the region and settled it.

5. The Mississippi Headwaters supported the lives of Ojibwe people, who harvested wildlife, trapped fur bearers, netted fish, gathered maple syrup and hunted large game for hundreds of years.

4. The Mississippi Headwaters supports more than 350 species of animals, mammals and birds, including nearly all of the endangered, rare and threatened species listed in Minnesota.

3. A dozen vegetative communities are found on the lands of the Mississippi Headwaters, representing nearly every type found in Minnesota.

2. The Mississippi Headwaters is a living record of climate changes that have further shaped the landscape or our region.

1. The Mississippi Headwaters is a living record of the glacial systems that created the landscape of Minnesota.

0.5 "Mississippi" is way harder to spell than "Amazon" or "Nile"