The City of Savanna, IL

The Mississippi River is the second longest river in the United States and runs 2,340 miles from Lake Itasca in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Mighty Mississippi is bisected by a series of 29 locks and dams managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which allow for the maintenance of a nine-foot-deep channel for commercial navigation.

The lock and dams create inundated bodies of water on the river known as pools. Each pool is named for the lock and dam at its southern end.

Savanna lies in the middle of Pool 13, which runs 34.2 miles from Bellevue, Iowa to Fulton, Illinois. Pool 13 is also part of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. 

Established in 1924 to be a refuge for fish, wildlife and plants and a breeding place for migratory birds, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages more than 240,000 acres and extends roughly 261 miles of the Mississippi River from Wabasha, Minnesota to Rock Island, Illinois.

You can learn more about the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge and should become familiar with the Rules and Regulations before heading out on the river.