Big River, the monthly newsletter for people who work, live or play on the Upper Mississippi River, from St. Cloud, Minnesota to Davenport, Iowa, published its first issue in January 1993. Since then it has treated its readers to a broad variety of articles about the Upper Mississippi, covering ancient earthworks, backwaters, bass and gizzard shad, beaches, bluffs, boating, camping, carp, collapsing bridges, ducks, eagles, floods, history, herons, ice, living in a boathouse, locks, paddlefish, piloting a paddlewheeler, pollution, silver maples, starry nights, swans, swimming, towboats, turtles, walleyes, and zebra mussels.