<P> Timeline of outflow course changes </P> <Ul> <Li> c. 5000 BC: The last Ice Age ended; world sea level became what it is now . </Li> <Li> c. 2500 BC: Bayou Teche became the main course of the Mississippi . </Li> <Li> c. 800 BC: The Mississippi diverted further east . </Li> <Li> c. 200 AD: Bayou Lafourche became the main course of the Mississippi . </Li> <Li> c. 1000 AD: The Mississippi's present course took over . </Li> <Li> Before c. 1400 AD: The Red River of the South flowed parallel to the lower Mississippi to the sea </Li> <Li> 15th century: Turnbull's Bend in the lower Mississippi extended so far west that it captured the Red River of the South . The Red River below the captured section became the Atchafalaya River . </Li> <Li> 1831: Captain Henry M. Shreve dug a new short course for the Mississippi through the neck of Turnbull's Bend . </Li> <Li> 1833 to November 1873: The Great Raft (a huge logjam in the Atchafalaya River) was cleared . The Atchafalaya started to capture the Mississippi and to become its new main lower course . </Li> <Li> 1963: The Old River Control Structure was completed, controlling how much Mississippi water entered the Atchafalaya . </Li> <Li> Cahokia's rise and fall linked to river flooding (article in Popular Archaeology periodical) </Li> </Ul> <Li> c. 5000 BC: The last Ice Age ended; world sea level became what it is now . </Li> <Li> c. 2500 BC: Bayou Teche became the main course of the Mississippi . </Li>

Where does the mississippi river begin and end