Mississippi Headwaters at Itasca State Park

At the north end of Lake Itasca, the water spills out over a low rocky sill and becomes a narrow, ankle-deep stream, the beginning of the Mississippi River. A line of stepping stones lets visitors walk across the river at its very start, a few steps from bank to bank, and it is nearly impossible to resist. From here the water winds north at first, then swings east and finally south, gathering strength from countless tributaries until, some 2,300 miles later, it empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

Finding this source was a long chase. European and American explorers spent decades trying to pin down the true head of the Mississippi. In 1832 the explorer Henry Schoolcraft, guided by an Ojibwe leader named Ozawindib, reached Lake Itasca and identified it as the source. Schoolcraft coined the name Itasca from the Latin words veritas caput, meaning true head, keeping the middle syllables. That the crucial guidance came from an Ojibwe man is a reminder that the 'discovery' was of a place Native people had always known.

This is the homeland of the Ojibwe, or Anishinaabe, whose bands, including Leech Lake, White Earth, and Red Lake, live across this region of north-central Minnesota. The lake and its waters were part of Ojibwe life long before any explorer arrived, a place of fishing, wild ricing, and travel by canoe through a country laced with lakes and rivers. The Ojibwe knew the headwaters and the routes of these waters intimately.

It was an Ojibwe leader, Ozawindib, who led Henry Schoolcraft to the source in 1832, and Native knowledge underlay the European accounts of the region. The wider land is also part of the Dakota story, as the two peoples' homelands met and shifted across northern Minnesota over the centuries. Today the Ojibwe presence continues in the surrounding communities, and the park interprets this history as part of the place, not just its scenery.

One reason Itasca was protected in 1891 was its forest. The park holds some of the last great stands of old-growth red and white pine in Minnesota, trees that escaped the logging boom that stripped most of the north woods. Some of these pines are more than two centuries old, and a few individual trees, like the park's famous Big Pine, are landmarks in their own right. Walking beneath them, in the hush of a mature pine forest, is a rare experience in a state where nearly all the old growth was cut.

The Wilderness Drive, a loop through the park, threads past these ancient stands and quiet glacial lakes, and trails let hikers walk among the big trees. The park's landscape of lakes, kettles, and rolling hills was shaped by the glaciers that covered this country in the last ice age, leaving behind the pockets of water and the pine-clad ridges that make Itasca a jewel of the north woods.

Itasca is rich with north-woods wildlife. White-tailed deer and black bear range through the forest, loons call across the lakes, and bald eagles and ospreys hunt the water. The pine forest holds pileated woodpeckers, warblers, and owls, and the wetlands draw waterfowl and, in the region, the occasional wolf or moose. It is a living slice of the great northern forest.

Summer is the busy season, warm and green, when families walk the headwaters and paddle the lakes, though the mosquitoes are part of the deal. Fall brings crisp air, golden tamarack and aspen among the pines, and quieter trails. Winter blankets the park in deep snow, freezing the headwaters and opening the trails to cross-country skiers and snowshoers in a silent white forest. Spring returns the loons, the wildflowers, and the rush of meltwater at the river's source.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.