2022 Might yMississippi Stamps (10Sheets / 100pcs)

The Mississippi River is central to the nation's heritage and has been called the backbone, heart and soul of the United States. The Mississippi River spills from a trickle of water at Lake Itasca in Minnesota for 2,300 miles.

It flows through the varied terrain of Wisconsin's Drift-free Zone, past the 1,000-year-old Statue Mound in Iowa, and the remains of Cahokia, the largest pre-Columbian city in the United States, in Illinois. Missouri's Grand Arch stands near where Meriwether Lewis and William Clark began their westward venture in 1803.

The Ohio River flows along the northern border of Kentucky with twice as much water as the Mississippi. The lower Mississippi River is a riparian highway. Large projects - channels, locks, DAMS and levees - help accommodate tugboats over 1,000 feet long, which are common along the Arkansas-Tennessee border and beyond.

The rich bays of Mississippi and Louisiana divide the river into a bird-foot delta. The New Orleans area has the river's largest port.

Where the Mississippi River joins the Gulf of Mexico, a trickle of water originating in Lake Itasca intertwines with waters from 31 states.