How much do we really know about the Mississippi River?

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Saint Louis and the Mississippi River are so closely tied. But how much do you actually know about the Mississippi River?

"It's really remarkable how much the (Mississippi) river changes over the course of its 2,300-ish miles," said Dean Klinkenberg, author The Wild Mississippi, A State-by-State Guide to the River's Natural Wonders on Total Information A.M. Thursday. "So I've been lucky enough to paddle on different sections of the river. And I think that's one great way to get a feel for how the river differs."

Klinkenberg says up north, the river is just a small stream and when it begins, sometimes it's too shallow even to float a canoe or kayak. By the time the river gets to the Minneapolis-St. Paul-metro area, there's a canyon, which is the only gorge on the Mississippi.

As the river passes through, it enters into the drift less area: a wide braided channel with lots of islands and limestone faced bluffs that frame the river on either side and the river just keeps getting bigger and bigger from there.

"So by the time you get to Saint Louis, we've had the flow of the Missouri river added, it's a much bigger, more powerful river than further north," said Klinkeberg. "Then you add in the Ohio river and the lower Mississippi is a different beast entirely. It's a mammoth river with so much water and surprisingly wild in that area between the levees."

Klinkenberg thinks that many, including those who live on river towns just St. Louis, do take living on the river for granted.

"I know people who will travel around the world to take a boat ride on the Amazon or, you know, the Great River (in Jamaica) and some other place," said Klinkenberg. "We have that right here. As friends I know have said over and over, we have this incredible river right here with a lot of wildlife and we need to reconnect to it."