C $25. 1, 62nd Cong., 3d sess., Doc. How the Mississippi River Made Mark Twain And Vice Versa No novelist captured the muddy waterway and its people like the creator of Huckleberry Finn, as a journey along the river makes clear. Donald B. Dodd and Wynelle S. Dodd, Historical Statistics of the United States, 1790-1970. At this point only 310 miles of levees had been built along the river, allowing for expanded cotton production within the Delta region of the state. Forward thinking entrepreneurs and politicians pushed for the development of such a railroad and in May 1869 the final spike of the Transcontinental Railroad was driven in Promontory Point in Utah. A movement into central Mississippi ended when Southern cavalrymen captured the Federals supply base at Holly Springs. 2, Appendix CC, Reports on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard, p. 455. Twenty-seven river miles downstream, at Hastings, they recorded a rise of about one foot and at Red Wing about one-half foot. However, Paxson, whom he cites, shows that the railroad completed tracks from Alton to Springfield, Illinois, in 1852, and then from Springfield to Chicago, via a roundabout route, in 1853, but did not have the line in operation until 1854. Planters were those that became lodged in the river's bottom, and sleepers hid beneath the water's surface. Crossing the Mighty Mississippi River From La to Ms highway 82 Historical Features are physical or cultural features that are no longer visible on the landscape. The Senate also considered a warning from Republican President Ulysses Grant. Frederic Paxson, American Frontier, 1763-1893, (Chicago: The Riverside Press, 1924), p. 517. As the experiments with closing dams had shown, cutting off the side channels greatly increased the main channel's flow. The Mississippi and her tributaries are natural outlets for the west and northwest, Kelley insisted, but how little attention is given to their improvement. Railroads, he charged, control the river front in every town on the river; their boats can land freight without paying wharfage and people consider it all right. While railroads had received huge land grants, steamboats had not. Instead of going to St. Louis or New Orleans, a steamboat from St. Paul might unload at La Crosse or Rock Island or at other railheads, and increasingly, most river commerce became local.41, While the river had been hauling grain since the birth of Midwestern agriculture, railroads held too many advantages over the undeveloped waterways. Heretofore I have had nothing to do but fight the enemy. The small streams were crossed by fording; the larger ones by swimming the teams, wagons and all. MN As Anti-Monopoly parties threatened to undermine the Republican party's dominance in the state and nationally, Windom and other Republicans began working for railroad reform and began seeking ways to solve the farm crisis.54, As chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Transportation to the Seaboard, Windom was in an especially good position to help both farmers and his party. George Byron Merrick, Old Times on the Upper Mississippi: The Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot from 1854 to 1863, Appendix B, Opening of Navigation at St. Paul, 1844-1862, (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1987), p. 295. Quincy and Cairo, Illinois, became railheads in 1856, and East St. Louis, Illinois, and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, in 1857. The Hernando de Soto Bridge, named after the Spanish explorer who reached the Mississippi River in 1541, opened to automobile traffic on August 2, 1973. The threat of a railroad monopoly, the commercial decline of the Mississippi River and rising dissatisfaction with his Republican party were of particular concern to Senator Windom (Figure 7). While railroads could send many cars in both directions with full cargoes, barges delivering their commodities at St. Louis or New Orleans or points in between too often returned empty.43. 152-53. Hundreds of miles of riverbank had been secured with riprap. Frank Haigh Dixon, A Traffic History of the Mississippi River System, National Waterways Commission, Document No. Her father, Albert Kirchner, along with Jacob Richtman, both from Fountain City, Wisconsin, became the leading contractors for the Corps in wing dam construction. The effort to channel the river away from the defenders cannons had been underway for weeks. Havighurst, A Wilderness Saga, p. 161. The earliest type of ferry to operate on the Mississippi River was the canoe. Wing and closing dam construction began at Pike Island at the mouth of the Minnesota River. crossing the mississippi river in 1850 middlebury college blanket Mary Meachum Celebration The United States grew up on the water and remains a maritime nation to this day. crossing the mississippi river in 1850. . 17 Oct 1872 BUTLER, Thomas *15: BRAKEMAN, Harriet (1835-1866): m'd 05 Jul 1852 WADSWORTH, Elisha . According to one historian, 'the Mississippi River gave slavery a whole new lease on life' (Johnson, 2013: 6-7, 146). Anfinson, Secret History, Minnesota History 54:6 (Summer 1995):254-67. . Tributaries like the Ohio and Missouri join the journey that starts at the top and finishes at the bottom of the country. St. Paul District records, St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1892, Mackenzie again insisted that only locks and dams could regularly entice steamboats above Meeker Island; any other efforts, he charged, wasted time and money.89, Signaling a possible break, the Chief of Engineers, on February 15, 1893, directed Mackenzie to prepare new and exact estimates for locks and dams for this portion of the river . A circular trail connected the head of navigation of the Mississippi River with Pembina, North Dakota. 309-10. . The density of channel constriction works and the degree to which they physically and ecologically changed the river increased gradually over the project's history. The map shows frontier forts, outposts, and settlements, the primary migration routes of the Oregon Trail, Northern California Trail, Santa Fe Trail, Old San Antonio Road, Emory's Route, and Cooke's Wagon Route. . 58, pp. From their pioneer days on, they insisted that the federal government should improve the river for navigation. The U.S. Army established a post at the bridge in 1855, when tension was mounting between emigrants and Native Americans. From 1850 to 1870, it delivered supplies and furs on two-wheeled carts between St. Paul, Minnesota and the frontier. Desiring to keep traffic flowing past their city, the citizens had attempted to close the Wisconsin channel but had been unsuccessful. Rafting companies and steamboat interests had employed wing dams to scour the channel at troublesome bars. The Mississippi River is the second longest river in North America measuring a total length of 2320 miles from its traditional source at Lake Itasca. Between 1866 and 1869, three more railroads crossed the river to Iowa, and by 1877, thirteen railroad bridges spanned the upper river (Figure 5).40 Railroads greatly increased the countrys ability to move commodities, and, yet, railroads would provoke and inflame a shipping crisis. Islands created dangerous currents.13 From just below Hastings to St. Anthony Falls roughly 40 islands broke the rivers flow. Annual Reports, 1867, pp. Wing dams especially caused bank erosion by forcing the river away from one shore and against the other. St. Paul recorded 41 steamboat arrivals in 1844, and 95 in 1849. Snags could, in an instant, impale a steamboat or tear it apart.11 The natural river became surprisingly narrow in places. Low water was based on the rivers elevation in 1864, when a severe drought occurred. 1850-1899. In this act, Congress directed the Corps to extend navigation to the Washington Avenue Bridge by constructing Lock and Dam 2.91 While it did not mention Lock and Dam 1, Congress called for improving the river from near the mouth of the Minnesota River to the Washington Avenue Bridge, indicating that another lock and dam would be built below Meeker Island. In December 1872, he had introduced a resolution to address the transportation problem. Printed in the Minnesota Monthlys July edition, the convention's preamble to its resolutions declared: "The Mississippi River traverses for thousands of miles the noblest agricultural regions of the earth, running from North to South, . The St. Paul District commander, Major Francis R. Shunk, tried to explain the matter to Minneapolis Mayor J. C. Haynes on February 17, 1909. This act signaled a new era of internal improvements and the beginning of dramatic changes to the upper Mississippi River. Contents 1Crossings 1.1Kentucky - Missouri 1.2Tennessee - Missouri 1.3Tennessee - Arkansas 1.4Mississippi - Arkansas 1.5Mississippi - Louisiana Focusing on navigation, the Minnesota Legislature, in 1866, petitioned Congress to authorize navigation improvements above St. Paul and requested the land grant on behalf of Meeker's company. The next day, Colonel Benjamin Grierson and 1,700 troopers started on a mounted raid through central Mississippi to destroy railroad tracks and mislead the Southerners. Rocks and rapids were a greater problem for steamboats trying to ply the river above St. Paul. 310-11. Military supplies and furs would dominate the much smaller steamboat trade above Galena. 68-74; Jane Carroll, Dams and Damages: The Ojibway, the United States, and the Mississippi Headwaters Reservoirs, Minnesota History, (Spring, 1990):4-5. Sherman advocated a withdrawal of the army to Memphis, where it could regroup and then move south. . HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. Image: This cotton . Lauren McCoy dove deep to explore how it was a means of freedom. Rock Island District, Corps of Engineers, Railroad Monopolies The Midwests need to receive and send out goods grew as rapidly as its population and agricultural production. According to most estimates, the Yellowstone River measures approximately 692 miles (1,114 kilometers) long. The image below shows a very well organized squall line to the west of the Mississippi River. 206-09, 209, 246; William J. Petersen, Captains and Cargoes of Early Upper Mississippi Steamboats, Wisconsin Magazine of History 13 (1929_30):227-32; Mildred Hartsough, From Canoe to Steel Barge, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1934), pp. It would alter the navigable portion of the river through the MNRRA corridor dramatically. . To secure their objective, the company needed support from businessmen in Minneapolis, and for that support, Minneapolis interests won back control of the company. The first railroad bridge across the Mississippi was open for business. By a 4-foot channel, Congress meant a channel at least 4 feet deep if the river fell as low as it did in 1864. p. 213. They would have to alter the pattern by which sand and silt moved along the river bottom. But in 1862, he left the river to fight in the Civil War. Eager to begin the project, Major Francis Farquhar, the new St. Paul District commander, reported that he had initiated a survey of the river and of the dam site. 2103-04; Annual Report, 1869, p. 237; Annual Report, 1901, p. 2309; Raymond H. Merritt, The Corps, the Environment, and the Upper Mississippi River Basin, (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1984), p. 1; Merritt, Creativity, pp. The Harahan Bridge opened in 1916 and was used until 1949. proof Most of the trail crossed Arkansas from northeast to southwest, entering at Hix's Ferry (later Pitman's Ferry) across the The Saints left in companies and on June 14, 1846 Grandfather with 225 others arrived at the Missouri River, where a large . There are two locks.93 Minneapolis had somehow won the debate over building one or two dams. c. 1810. So they actively participated in local, regional and national campaigns for navigation improvement. Ibid. From this time forward, the Corps' role in the river would become as deep and broad as the river itself. Over the next five years, the city's newspapers, civic leaders and the Territorial Legislature called for locks and dams to carry the booming steamboat trade to Minneapolis. He would become one of the Senate's strongest advocates for railroad regulation and navigation improvement.52, The rapidly growing strength of the Granger movement in Minnesota and the threat of railroad monopolies spurred Windom to address the transportation issue with zeal. 67-68; Duties for the middle Mississippi stayed with the Office of Western Improvements in Cincinnati until 1873, when St. Louis became the new office for the middle river; see Dobney, River Engineers, pp. 23-25; Tweet, A History of the Rock Island District, U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers, 1866-1983, (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1984), p. 39; William J. Petersen, Steamboating on the Upper Mississippi, (Iowa City: The State Historical Society of Iowa, 1968), pp. The crossing back into Mississippi appears to have taken a physical toll on the animal. The number of islands, of course, varied with the season and the year, as many islands were temporary. The Mississippi River gave birth to most cities along its banks, and those cities did all they could to ensure that the river would nurture their growth. 2, 10, 22, 46. In less than 100 years, these projects would radically transform the river that nature had created over millions of years and that Native Americans had hunted along, canoed on, and fished in for thousands of years. A thick limestone mantle formed the riverbed. 15T E 635413 N 4489267. The total cost of the bridge was $6.8 million (City of Clinton Bridge Commission 1956:2). The Mississippi River touches 31 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces and is one of the largest rivers in the world. To fulfill that destiny, they would help transform the entire upper Mississippi River and make the reach between Hastings and St. Anthony Falls one of the rivers most engineered. On November 20, 1855, the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad, which later became part of the Rock Island System, operated the first . No. Petersen, Captains, p. 235; Tweet, History of Transportation on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, pp. Pilots, Merrick recounted, had to study the nightmares first. In addition to the Mississippi River crossings, there are six Rock River crossings and another in the final design stage. It was a method that had proven successful in France and elsewhere.36 Mississippi River pilots had learned that by running their paddle wheels over the crest of a bar, they helped the river cut through it, allowing the flow from the pool to deepen the cut just enough for the boat to pass. Kane, St. Anthony, p. 96, points out that the state never transferred the grant to the company. No general plan had been developed or implemented. Artist: Thompson Ritchie. By dividing the river, islands limited the water available to the navigation channel and thereby its depth. Deep was anything over three feet. This image pair shows the area around St. Louis, Missouri, in August 1991 and 1993. At its headwaters, the water exceeds 12,800 feet above sea level, while its lowest point measures 1,850 feet above sea level. But it held little chance of success and was eventually abandoned. . Later a New City West was built on the Chicago-Detroit road through the dunes area, but this, too, declined after the railroads came through Porter County in the early 1850's. New City West stood in the vicinity of present-day Tremont, on US 12. Pike took 40 strokes in his bateau and Long only 16 in his skiff.12. He estimated that Lock and Dam 1 would cost $568,222 and that Lock and Dam 2 would cost $598,235. In his report for the 1871 season, Captain Wm. Enough said. In turn, the Federal army would have to march south over poor roads and await the arrival of the transports. Early Navigation Paddling upstream from St. Louis to St. Paul in 1823, the Virginia became the first steamboat to navigate the upper Mississippi River. Such improvements were beyond the ability of the individual states and had to be undertaken by the federal government, they declared.50. Historians generally agree that with the Civil War's end the federal government took a very different position on internal improvements. 229-42), Barns addresses three issues concerning Kelley. An interview with historian Richard M. McMurry on his 2023 book, The Civil Wars of General Joseph E. Johnston, Confederate States Army.. Railroads moved their freight quicker, giving their users greater flexibility in responding to market changes. All demanded the federal presence, the federal expertise and the federal dollars. Overall, Warren found that those who had been using the river evince a shrewd knowledge of the action of running water and the means of temporarily controlling it, gained by their constant experience and observation.33 Warren listened to these knowledgeable sources, but came to his own conclusions. During its 1872 to 1873 session, Congress temporarily ended debate over the project, when it refused to amend the land grant.84. The Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroads were the first railroads to be built in Iowa reaching Rock Island, Illinois, in August 1854 and connecting with Iowa by a ferry crossing the Mississippi River. During his trip, he fed the St. Paul Pioneer Press articles condemning railroads and the Chicago Board of Trade and promoting waterway improvement. The Twin Cities had to see that the entire Mississippi River was remade. pdf i74-mrc-bro.pdf (663.5 kB) Download the I-74 Mississippi River Crossings Brochure. To create a 4-foot channel and deal with the Rock Island and Des Moines Rapids, the Corps established its first offices on the upper Mississippi River: one at St. Paul and one at Keokuk, Iowa (the latter would be moved to Rock Island in 1869).28 On July 31, 1866, A. Nevertheless, Farquhar optimistically asked for $300,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876.86 Disagreement over the grant and haggling over land for the project, including the purchase of Meeker Island, however, would delay the project for nearly 20 more years.87 St. Paul remained the head of navigation, and the Corps focused its efforts downstream. Doc. Wildlife Although the river is very different than it was when the city was founded in 1764, a wide diversity of wildlife can still be found in and around it. In his next report, Warren had suggested a system of 41 reservoirs for the St. Croix, Chippewa, Wisconsin and Mississippi River basins. The Corps of Engineers was working on a project to save the falls. By 1905, the Engineers had built about 340 wing and closing dams from the Minnesota River to the southern end of the MNRRA corridor below Hastings. Native Americans hunted and farmed in the Mississippi valley for hundreds of years before white men arrived. As Cook had worked for the Washburns, Meeker expected a negative report. They needed local navigation projects, but these did little good without a navigable river downstream. After reviewing various proposals, the committee recommended that Congress regulate some railroad operations and that it authorize an intense program of waterway improvements. Native American at back of boat (detail), Emanuel Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1851, oil on canvas, 378.5 x 647.7 cm (Metropolitan Museum of Art, photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Despite Leutze's interest in history, there is little historical accuracy to be found within the painting. . Hartsough, Canoe, pp. Grant Stevenson. While mining Fold3 today, I ran across the Citizens Records of John McKay. Port Gibson has a nice little downtown area and town square which features the Claiborne County courthouse. In August 1870, Kelley left Minnesota by steamboat for St. Louis to secure direct trade arrangements between Minnesota and Missouri. Sawmill owners also feared that they would not be able to continue dumping sawdust into the river, as it would obstruct navigation, and boom company operators did not want a dam obstructing the lumber rafts they sent downriver. From St. Paul to the St. Croix River, the controlling depth at low water was 16 inches. Accepting Mackenzies arguments and under continual pressure by navigation proponents in Minneapolis, Congress authorized the Five-Foot Project in Aid of Navigation, in the River and Harbor Act of August 18, 1894. 30, 50-52. To subscribe, click here. It is a story with local and national significance. St. Louis merchants were among the Mississippi River's greatest advocates. Merrick, Old Times, p. 162, says that From 1852 to 1857 there were not boats enough to carry the people who were flocking into the newly-opened farmers' and lumbermans' paradise.. To eliminate the problem, the Engineers closed the upper end of the east channel. The miller's fear, he said, "is another waterpower that might result incidentally from our effort to get Boats to the Falls of St. Anthony.75, Minneapolis navigation boosters clearly saw that Meeker's project would extend navigation above St. Paul, which was their primary reason for supporting it. In view of the hold which this method has taken upon the minds of river men, and the difficulties, uncertainty, and expense which attend the use of dams, Warren concluded, I have determined to recommend the employment of these dredging machines.37 In 1867 the Corps initiated a program of dredging sandbars, snagging, clearing overhanging trees and removing sunken vessels to create the 4-foot channel. Granted, Mackenzie repeatedly called for locks and dams. Windom's hometown, Winona, lay on the Mississippi River in southeastern Minnesota.51 Windom first became a senator when Republican Daniel S. Norton died in office in 1870 and Minnesota's governor appointed Windom to fill the seat. The river pioneers once forded with their wagons and livestock no longer existed. The Union general had determined after the December failures to march his army down the Louisiana side of the river south of Vicksburg and then ferry it across to the east bank. Annual Report, 1875, p. 302. However, enslavers and law enforcement officials caught at least five of . No. He hoped to restore the dying river connection between St. Paul and St. Louis. N 40 32.586 W 091 24.054. No. No. and finally crossing near St Cloud. Subsequently he turned to newspaper editing and publishing.20 This measurement takes into account the full mainstem of the river. They did so by driving two tiers of piles nine feet apart and then filling between them with willow brush and placing sacks of sand on top to weigh the brush down. Harold B. Schonberger, Transportation to the Seaboard: The Communication Revolution and American Foreign Policy, 1860-1900, (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Corporation, 1971), p. 21. I could even smell the delightfully blended odor of the willows and of the creosoted marline twine with which the bundles were held together. Demonstrating the Grange's early concern for improving the Mississippi River, the state Grange convention of 1869 featured the river. When the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad was completed in 1854 under the direction of Henry Farnam and his partner Joseph Sheffield, it became the first to connect the East with the Mississippi River. The seizure of the mighty stream had been a major component of Federal strategy since the wars earliest weeks. 58, 39th Cong., 2d sess., p. 46; Kane, St. Anthony, pp. 1; see U.S. Congress, House, Survey of the Upper Mississippi River, Exec. At 692 miles, the Yellowstone River ranks . The island divided the river, and the navigation channel sometimes ran on the east side and sometimes on the west. Because some of the bridges across the river may be under construction, unofficial, small or in disrepair, the exact number of bridges that cross the Mississippi River is difficult to pin down to a single precise number; however, it can be said that there are at least 130 bridges that cross the Mississippi River. While steamboat traffic had remained strong before the Civil War, steamboats had begun losing passengers and grain to railroads. Twelve years later, in 1848, the territory became the new state of . In response, farmers in the Midwest and throughout the nation joined the first national farm movement, called the Grange or Patrons of Husbandry. You will then create a visual (posterboard, glogster, MS Word, etc.) Snags were such frequent and treacherous hazards that steamboat pilots named them (Figure 3). In 1836, the ferry carried a 23-year-old New Yorker named Nelson Dewey across the river. It required the company to spend $25,000 on the project before February 1, 1871. As this requirement had proven cumbersome, the company asked Congress to modify it to allow for the sale of more sections within a single township. Carey's 1814 Map of Missouri Territory formally Louisiana. Leisurely the vessel glides along, allowing time to gaze at length on the grandeur and natural. Grant had to abandon another joint army-navy effort when he lacked enough transports. , During the late summer or early fall, when the Mississippi usually became a shallow, slow-moving stream, the wing dams could not direct enough water down the channel to scour it. Extending navigation above St. Anthony Falls with the other two locks and dams would total $1,538,702.90. Ten sheets formed a continuous map of the river from St. Anthony Falls to the mouth of the St. Croix River. The first European to cross the Mississippi River was Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto by boat in 1541, and then railroads crossed it in 1856. La Crosse, Wisconsin, joined these cities, becoming the terminus of the Milwaukee and La Crosse in 1858. Transportation Routes to the Upper Mississippi river 2, Appendix CC, Reports on Transportation to! Paul and St. Louis 's bottom, and 95 in 1849 during his trip, he fed St.. The crossing back into Mississippi appears to have taken a physical toll on west. 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