Geography and Industry

Mississippi has many different types of land within its borders. In the northern part of the state there are hills and river valleys cut by small, fast-flowing rivers. The southern part is taken up mostly by the broad floodplain of the Mississippi River. This plain is called the Mississippi Delta, and runs between the mouth of the Mississippi River in the west and that of the Yazoo River in the east.

After Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin and made cotton such an important crop, places like Mississippi became very important centers of the growth of cotton. Although not as important as it once was, cotton is still grown all over Mississippi's delta region today. With cotton not being grown so much anymore, a lot of Mississippi's rich farmland is currently devoted to cattle-ranching and chicken-raising. If you've ever had roaster chicken, it probably came from Mississippi.

Delta

A delta takes its name from the Greek letter delta, which is triangular in shape. Greek visitors to the Nile River noticed that the river dumped a lot of the soil it carried from upstream at its mouth, that this soil was excellent for farming, and that the shape of the river's floodplain was roughly triangular in shape. This is why the Greeks called the area the delta.

History

Before European exploration and settlement, Mississippi was home to large tribes of Native Americans such as the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Natchez. The Spaniards visited the region first, and Hernandode Soto's men discovered the Mississippi River in 1541.

The French, in 1699, established a trading post on the coast, near Biloxi. Over the next century, the area changed hands between the French, Spanish, and English numerous times. In the treaty that ended the American Revolution, the English ceded most of what is now Mississippi to the United States. The southern part came to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

Just as they did in Alabama, by the 1820s, cotton-growing American settlers displaced the Native American population, and began to take the rich farmland in the delta. By the time the Civil War began in 1861, Mississippi was a cotton empire. Its plantation owners made millions from the British demand for the crop, and slavery flourished.

As a result, the state joined the other states of the Deep South in seceding from the Union. In fact, Mississippi also supplied the Confederacy with its first and only president: former Mississippi senator and U.S. Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis.

Like Virginia and Georgia in the east, Mississippi was a battleground state during the Civil War. The important battles of Shiloh, Jackson, and Vicksburg were all fought in Mississippi. The loss of Vicksburg to the Union forces is considered by many historians to be the turning point in the American Civil War.

Where are my glasses?

Start in one of the corners and read the letters in order around the grid and into the middle. You must find which corner to start, and in which direction to read! When you are finished, you will have the silly answer to this riddle: Why is Mississippi such an unusual state?