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The Mississippi River is the largest river of North America, with its major tributaries draining an area of approximately 1,200,000 square miles (3,100,000square kilometres), or about one-eighth of the entire continent. The Mississippi River lies entirely in the United States. Rising in Lake Itasca in Minnesota, it flows almost due south across the continental interior, collecting the waters of its major tributaries, the Missouri (to the west) and the Ohio (to the east), approximately halfway alongits journey to the Gulf of Mexico through a vast delta southeast of New Orleans, a total distance of 2,350 miles (3,780 kilometres) from its source. With its tributaries,the Mississippi drains all or part of 31 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces.