The headwaters of the Mississippi River, in Minnesota. Some people might say that the true headwaters are of the Missouri river, but the North to South Mississippi starts here, and so it stays. Unusual, in that most rivers are female, but the Mississippi is always spoken of as being male: He is the Father of Waters, the Old Man River, and so on. There are also numberless seasonal brooks and creeks emptying into the Lake, any which of whom might be considered to be the "true" headwaters of the river, but this is where it starts.

But most interestingly, is a set of stepping stones, 10-11 meters across, where the lake empties itself into a true, seasonless RIVER. Folklore has it, that if you can walk over these stones, that you will become a Friend of the River, and it will always grant you good luck throughout all the golden cities on its banks. Also, it has been said, that to play with the river, is to have the river play with you.(Right downstream is a lovely place, depth less than 1 meter, to wade as a child, to bathe and swim in the clean and lifegiving water as an adult, to shift rocks, and to imagine that you're diverting the flow of ~5000 km of water below you...) There is also told of a mussel shell, from Louisiana, that is to be found amongst the rocks, that should never be moved...

I can only wonder at the musicians who might have trod these stones...Prince, anybody?

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