Talk:Lake Itasca

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[edit] Definitely the Mississippi's source?

I don't know enough about the Earth science to assess this, but should someone put in a note about there being a dispute as to whether this lake is the Mississippi's source? ("Some people dispute the theory that the Mississippi River source is at Itasca State Park. They claim the source to be the Continental Divide, 15 miles north of Bemidji, Minnesota." http://www.visitbemidji.com/location/contdiv.html) Sh76us 02:45, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

No!

There is no serious dispute about this, among knowledgeable scientists. No doubt there are "some people" who dispute this. There are also 'some people' who believe the world is flat -- so what? We don't need to give credence to the theories of every little wackjob cult in Wikipedia.

P.S. The continental divide is in the Rocky Mountains in Montana & Wyoming, several hundred miles west of Minnesota -- not 15 miles north of Bemidji. That's probably the Northern Divide you're thinking of. T-bonham 10:16, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Veritas Caput story -- any cite?

I'm currently working on proofreading Schoolcrafts original book for Project Gutenberg, and in Chapter XXII on finding the source of the Mississippi, he refers to "the Itasca Summit" and the "Itascan fork" of the river. That seems to indicate that the term 'Itasca' was already in use at the time. So that raises questions about the story that he wrote Veritas Caput on a map and then it faded so that only itas ca were readable. We ought to have a cite for that story.

OK, further along in the book, I find Schoolcraft reporting that the Indian name was Elk Lake, and specifically stating that he renamed it as "Itasca Lake". And both the text and labels on his hand-drawn map of the lake clearly say "Itasca".

So I've changed the text to reflect that, and included a link to that page in his original book.

I left the 'Veritas Caput' story in the text, but indicated it as an urban legend. Perhaps it should be removed altogether, but if it's a common misperception, having it clarified here is useful. T-bonham 23:41, 10 August 2007 (UTC)