Mississippi River

The Mississippi River stands at the very beginning of the Ingalls family's great westward journey, the first great natural barrier they must overcome. When Pa decides that the family must leave Wisconsin, he insists that they cannot wait for warmer weather: "We can't cross the Mississippi River after the ice breaks." The river is thus not merely a geographical feature but a temporal deadline, one that dictates the timing of the entire emigration. The family must leave their comfortable, warm house in the cold of winter precisely because the river's frozen surface offers the only safe passage. The Mississippi is the hinge between the old life and the new, the point of no return after which the little house in Wisconsin is left lonely and empty among the big trees, never to be seen again.

The Threshold of the West

The Mississippi River functions as the symbolic and physical boundary between the world the Ingalls family leaves behind and the West they seek. Pa's vision of the Western country is of a place "where the land is flat and the grass grows thick and high," where "animals run freely and there are no settlers," and where "only Indians live." Wisconsin, by contrast, has become too crowded; wild animals do not stay in a country with so many people. The river is the line that separates these two worlds. Crossing it is the first act of commitment to the new life, the moment when the family leaves behind the familiar comforts of their old home—the beds, tables, and chairs that Pa promises to make anew out West—and commits themselves to the unknown. The crossing is accomplished in the wagon, with the horses travelling as far as they can each day, and it marks the true beginning of the long, long way to Indian country.

The Crossing and Its Aftermath

The actual crossing of the Mississippi is part of the family's arduous overland journey, undertaken before the ice breaks and while the weather is still bitterly cold. The family rides across the wide river, then crosses many other rivers and creeks on their way west. The crossing is not an isolated event but the first of many river crossings, each one carrying them further from civilization and deeper into the prairie. After the Mississippi, the family travels across Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri, with their little dog Jack walking along under the wagon the whole way. The river thus stands at the head of a chain of journeys, the first and most significant of the natural obstacles that separate the settled East from the wild West. It is the moment when the family's fate is sealed, when they become travellers in a covered wagon, never knowing what will happen next nor where they will be tomorrow.

The River as a Symbol of the Frontier

The Mississippi River's significance extends beyond the Ingalls family's personal journey to encompass the larger story of American westward expansion. The river is the great dividing line of the continent, the boundary beyond which lies the Indian Territory that the family is entering. Pa's explanation to Laura that "when white settlers arrive in a place, the Indians have to move away from there" and that "the government makes them" reveals the river as the gateway to a process of displacement. The crossing of the Mississippi is thus the first step in a larger historical movement, one that will eventually push the Indians west again and again. The river marks the edge of the settled, civilized world and the beginning of the frontier, the place where the American character is supposedly forged. When Pa later reflects that "it's a great country, Caroline, but there will be wild Indians and wolves here for many years," he is speaking of the land beyond the Mississippi, the land that the family has crossed the river to claim. The river is the threshold of the frontier myth itself, the point where the Ingalls family's personal story becomes part of the larger national narrative of expansion and settlement.