Jacob Vandenberg Brower (January 11, 1844[1] – 1905) was a prolific writer of the Upper Midwest region of the United States who championed the location and protection of the utmost headwaters of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

In 1888, acting as surveyor, Brower visited Lake Itasca to settle a dispute regarding the headwaters of the Mississippi River.

He spent five months on Lake Itasca and eventually concluded that since the Nicollet Creek was an intermittent stream, it should not qualify as the source of the Mississippi.

[5] Brower led the campaign to stop logging around Lake Itasca by the companies owned by timber industrialist Friedrich Weyerhäuser.

In 1888 he visited the site of Brower's Spring, which he determined as the true source of the Missouri, and buried a metal tablet with his name and the date nearby.