From a knee-deep stream to a 350-mile inland sea
A traverse from the source of the Mississippi at Lake Itasca, across central Minnesota lake country, to Duluth on Lake Superior. The Itasca outlet is 18 feet wide. By Brainerd, 80 miles south, the river is already a working channel. By Duluth, 130 miles east on Lake Superior, you're at the western tip of the largest freshwater lake by surface area in the world. Cirrus Aircraft has been built in Duluth since 1999; the F-16s of the 148th Fighter Wing share the field.