Lake Itasca

Lake Itasca is a small glacial lake, approximately 1.8 square miles (4.7 km²) in area, notable for being the headwaters of the Mississippi River. The lake is located in southeastern Clearwater County, in the Headwaters area of north central Minnesota. The lake is within Itasca State Park and it has an average depth of 20–35 feet (6–11 m), and is 1,475 ft (450 m) above sea level.

The Ojibwe name for "Lake Itasca" was Omashkoozo-zaaga'igan (Elk Lake); this was changed by Henry Schoolcraft to "Itasca", coined from a combination of the Latin words veritas ("truth") and caput ("head"), though it is sometimes misinterpreted as "true head." It is one of several examples of pseudo-Indian place names created by Schoolcraft.

Source of the Mississippi River

It is the primary source of the Mississippi River which flows 2,340 mi (3,770 km) to the Gulf of Mexico; There are several tributaries that flow (most or all of the year) into the lake, one of which, by most modern definitions, as with the Nile River and Amazon River, would be considered the actual source, though less dramatic than the lake's outflow. Henry Schoolcraft identified Lake Itasca as the river's primary source in 1832. He had been part of a previous expedition in 1820 led by General Lewis Cass that had named nearby Cass Lake (which is downstream from Itasca) as the source of the river.