These woodcut paintings show various slices of the complex history of the Mississippi. The modern river course is an overlay of channels from 1765, 1785, 1820, 1880 and 1999 that are represented in different colors. As the Mississippi River winds from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, it is in constant flux. Man-made interventions persist in trying to control the Great Meandering River (source: Army Corps of Engineers and NASA Earth Observatory).