Kathy Brown, age 10, of DeWitt, Mich., for her question:

Is the Mississippi named after the state?

Kathy wonders why the great river is not named either for Minnesota, where it is born, or for Louisiana, where it joins the sea, It would seem unfair to name it for just one state, but this is not the case. The state of Mississippi was named for the Big River.

The Bid River was originally named by the Indians and their name for it means the Father of Waters. It is a beautiful name with an even more beautiful meaning. The Missouri river was discovered later and together the two rivers make one vast waterway. Along with the Nile and the Amazon, it rates as one of the longest rivers in the world. No one is quite sure which of the three great rivers is the longest.