🔍 Key Concepts

• Mississippi River System mileages are usually measured in statute river miles along the navigation charts • Baton Rouge and St. Louis are both key reference points with charted mile markers on the Mississippi • The total distance between two river ports is often found by subtracting their river mile markers

💭 Think About

• Think about approximately where Baton Rouge and St. Louis lie along the Mississippi compared to the river’s total length • Consider which answer choices seem too short for a multi‑state trip on a major river versus which seem more realistic • If you know (or can estimate) the river mile numbers for these cities, how would you use subtraction to get the distance?

✅ Before You Answer

• Make sure you are thinking in statute miles, not nautical miles or kilometers • Ask yourself which options are clearly too short for a trip from Louisiana to Missouri on the Mississippi • If you’ve seen an inland river chart before, recall the approximate river mile for Baton Rouge and St. Louis and mentally subtract them