Featured in this northeast-looking, low-oblique photograph is the portion of the Mississippi River between Canton and Hannibal, Missouri. Visible are the river’s floodplain and numerous agricultural field patterns, the area devastated by the floods of the spring and summer of 1993. Atop a bluff on the eastern shore of the river is Quincy, Illinois (near center), a trade, industrial, and distribution center in a grain and livestock producing area. The city has a good harbor and was an important river port in the mid-19th century. Hannibal, Missouri (near bottom right), the boyhood home of author Mark Twain, sits on the western shore of the Mississippi River.