In 2001, the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area was granted $35,000 to study the presence and extent of mussel populations within the boundaries of the park. This study is one facet of a system-wide effort within the National Park Service to identify species of plants and animals within park boundaries across the nation.

During the summer of 2001, biologists from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources sampled the river and forwarded their findings which are presented in the Mussel Survey section of this site.

The Mississippi National River and Recreation Area acknowledges the generous support of the following individuals and agencies for making this information available to the public.

K. S. Cummings of the Illinois Natural History Survey provided the majority of the original photographs of the mussels pictured in the Native Mussel Gallery.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Environmental Services Section provided the numbers for the Mussel Survey, most of the pictures in the picture gallery, answers to innumerable questions, and steered us to additional resources.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, provided both pictorial images and information on the range and prevalence of mussels in the Upper Mississippi River Basin.