The term cape has a different tradition of usage in the American

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

along the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

. The middle Mississippi River Valley once formed part of the French Colonies of Quebec and

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is bord ...

, also referred to as Upper Louisiana (Haute-Louisiane) or the

Illinois Country The Illinois Country (french: Pays des Illinois ; , i.e. the Illinois people)—sometimes referred to as Upper Louisiana (french: Haute-Louisiane ; es, Alta Luisiana)—was a vast region of New France claimed in the 1600s in what is n ...

(Pays des Illinois). The Illinois Country also included the left bank of the Mississippi River in present-day Missouri. The French explorers and mapmakers used the word cape (or in French, "cap") to describe the bluffs and promontories along the Mississippi River. A "cap" could sit next to any body of water, not just the ocean. Spanish authorities also used the term ''cabo'' (cape) for points on the Mississippi River. Along the Mississippi River between St. Louis and

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

there are a number of capes of French origin.

References

{{New France Mississippi River Louisiana (New France) Landforms of Missouri Pre-statehood history of Missouri

See also

References