The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: August twenty- eighth, beating our feet in the Mississippi mud.

The Mississippi River is arguably America's most important waterway. Over 2,500-miles long, the river and its four main tributaries, the Missouri, the Ohio, the Tennessee, and the Arkansas, drain water from 40 percent of the Continental U.S.

Memphis, the city that gave birth to the Blues, has also erected a significant monument to Old Man River, on a sliver of an island spawned by the river's silt.

Dedicated in 1982, Mud Island is a 50-acre complex consisting of equal parts museum, entertainment, and city park. Mud Island's main building is the five-story River Center, which houses the Mississippi River Museum. It offers a broad education in the river's history and culture, including full-scale re-creations of a steamboat and Civil War gunship.

But Mud Island's most fascinating feature is the River Walk. Five blocks long, it's a 30 inch to the mile, working scale-model of the entire southern half of the mighty Mississippi River from the mouth of the Ohio at Cairo, Illinois, to the Gulf of Mexico.

Meticulously sculpted, Mud Island's River Walk mirrors the Mississippi's every twist and turn for 1200 miles. It's a remarkable, toes-on exhibition, especially for travelers fascinated by maps and the intricacies of geography. Mud Island access is easy via the monorail from Front Street Station. With other attractions like Beale Street, Graceland, and a new football stadium, Mud Island is always a good reason to make tracks to Memphis. 

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