PHOTO PROMPT © Dale Rogerson
The water started hundreds of miles away. A tiny spring bubbled clear water to the surface. Over time, it became a stream, and gathered water from other streams on its journey.
At first, there were no names. The water just flowed, and eventually became a wide and mighty river. There was no end of fish and wildlife. The river fed the land, and traveled ever southward to spill into a mighty ocean.
People came. Great cities grew. Industry, electricity, agriculture: all relied upon the great river that sprang from a tiny spring way up north.
Itasca.
Just Writing! 
Had to look up that last word! Lovely story. We rely on our fragile nature so much to keep us alive.
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The legends around the beginning of the mighty Mississippi are endless. I’ve been to Itasca, stepped across this seemingly eternal spring without getting my feet wet. It’s amazing, really.
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If we don’t name a magic place, we can hope nobody will go and try to find it. Thought provoking
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I almost didn’t include the name, but the word itself has a sense of magic to me. It is coined by Henry Schoolcraft, from two Latin words: VerITAS (truth) and CAput (head).
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Lovely piece.
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Thanks, Sandra.
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A beautifully constructed piece and I learned something new, as I so often do from Friday Fictioneers.
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Thanks, Jilly. I do too–almost every week, something I didn’t know.
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I really love that your piece reads like what it describes, as if following the river from its grandest part to its beginning. Wonderful.
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Thanks, Magaly. It’s a wonderful river 🙂
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This was indeed lovely, Linda. And of course, I had to Google Itasca – and that’s a great thing when you get your readers to work a little.
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Thanks, Dale. I’m so pleased when enjoyed it.
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I too have been to Itasca. I was sure I knew the river you described so well. Viola. You did not disappoint.
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One of the things that drew me to Mark Twain was his love of the MIssissippi 🙂
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Oh so true. I have spent a lot of time along Mississippi. It is amazing.
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So many stories. So much history.
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What a magnificent journey you describe 🙂
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It’s a magnificent river 🙂
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How our rivers spawn such life both within and around. I had to look up the last word 🙂
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Maybe it’s because I went to elementary school in Minnesota, because I can’t remember NOT knowing that Itasca is the source of the Mississippi. I was 10 when we moved to Oregon, and the kids there were just in awe that I’d actually seen the fabled Mississippi. What they couldn’t understand was how excited I was about seeing the Pacific Ocean 🙂
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Since I’m in the UK I have no idea where Minnesota is and the Mississippi is probably “somewhere down south” 🙂
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Ah. Well, Minnesota is in the middle of America, but in the northern area. The Mississippi has it’s start in northern Minnesota, is just a trickle for a while, but many other rivers and streams empty into it, especially from the west. It finally empties into the Gulf of Mexico.
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A lovely story about how we all rely on nature.
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I do love a pot that educates. Well done. 😀
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Thank you 🙂
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Dear Linda,
Beautifully written. I could almost hear the water babbling over the rocks.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Rochelle
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Thanks, Rochelle. The same to you.
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Splish, splash, I was having a bath!
I have lots of favourite rivers and, as I was on a river boat in New Orleans, pre-Katrina, the Mississippi is one of them.
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America is truly blessed with an abundance of water, from sea to shining sea 🙂
And was it a Saturday night?
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Lovely, Oaks from acorns and Great rivers from little mountain streams. 🙂
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Lovely story, Linda. It flowed very nicely 🙂
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Thank you!
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your words flowed smoothly like the water in your story. well done.
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Thanks so much 🙂
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Lovely piece which reminds us that everything starts somewhere and we should pay heed to that
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That’s a good perspective, Michael. Thanks.
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Excellent. Captures so much. One of these days I want to go there.
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It’s a vastly different river, depending upon where you go. Someday I’d like to do a Mark Twain, and visit it from source to the delta.
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That would be amazing!
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It would. There used to be steamboat excursions. Don’t know if they still do.
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A tiny spring into the great Mississippi, that’s impressive. Nicely told!
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Thank you, Brenda 🙂
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The way a great river can be and how much depends on those sources… love it, and after googling I knew the name of the river too…
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Glad you enjoyed it, Bjorn 🙂
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What a beautifully written, flowing tale.
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Thanks you 🙂
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What a beautifully written piece. It’s fascinating how a tiny spring far away can become a vast river, and how it can sustain so much on the way.
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It really is amazing. I don’t think I understood just how amazing it is until I moved to where people thought it was fantastic that I’d actually seen the mighty Mississippi 🙂
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🙂
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Amazingly true.
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From little streams big rivers grow…
Lovely piece.
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Amazingly written.
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