Hundreds of islands, some forming and others being cut away, divided the natural river, dispersing its waters into innumerable side channels and backwaters. Doc. However, for the enslaved in the country years ago, the river represented something worlds away from oppression. 1850-1899. .65 Once the willow mats had been laid in the water, the workers would sink them with rock. . 152-53. No. In response to their lobbying, Congress authorized four broad projects to improve navigation on the upper river and a number of site-specific projects in the Twin Cities metropolitan area since 1866. It runs through ten states, and many people today just see the Mississippi River as a bunch of water. No. This act signaled a new era of internal improvements and the beginning of dramatic changes to the upper Mississippi River. Port Gibson, MS. is a small town that played a part in the Civil War. 58, Survey of Upper Mississippi River, p. 25. In December 1872, he had introduced a resolution to address the transportation problem. Opponents to the amendment included waterpower magnates William D. Washburn and Richard Chute. Ahead of him lay the capital at Jackson, and then Vicksburg. The works built under the 41/2-foot channel project embody these national movements and local efforts. At this point, Minneapolitans began fighting among themselves over the project.83, Millers feared a competing water power so close to St. Anthony Falls and believed that the project might jeopardize federal funding for repair work at the falls. This map displays the three land-based migration routes from the Carolinas and eastern Georgia to the newly opened lands of southern Mississippi. 341, pp. I t took approximately 300 years from 1500 to 1800 for European population to extend from the East Coast of America to the Mississippi River. Westward expansion in the 1850s punctuated the need for a transcontinental railroad. Doc. By narrowing the river and thereby increasing the main channel's velocity, the Corps hoped to scour one uninterrupted navigation channel the length of the upper river.63 Wing dams, closing dams and shore protection required two simple components: willow saplings and rock. As with so many projects, the Economic Panic of 1857 and the Civil War stalled the Mississippi River Improvement and Manufacturing Company's plans, postponing the project and the intercity conflict.72, Holding to their dream through the depression and the war, Meeker and Morrison beseeched Congress for a land grant to fund their project in 1865. The 1850s also saw railroads reach across the Mississippi River, serve parts of Texas, and lay down roots in California. All this, they believed, was part of their manifest destiny. . In St. Louis, the Mississippi remained above flood stage for 144 days between April 1 and September 30, 1993. 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. 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. Not only could the steamboat haul freight, but it had comfortable accommodations for passengers. William Cronon, Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West, (New York:W. W. Norton & Company, 1991), p. 296, says that the first railroad to reach the Mississippi River was the Chicago, Alton and St. Louis in 1852-53. 21-22. Other boats had been plying the upper riverIndian canoes, piroques, flatboats and keelboatsbut the Virginia announced a new era. Or a series of deeper pools separated by shallow sandbars could be scattered across the main channel. U.S. Congress, House, Laws of the United States Relating to the Improvement of Rivers and Harbors, vol. But in 1862, he left the river to fight in the Civil War. Image: This cotton . While intense local issues had resulted in two dams, an equally intense national debate would lead to a new project for one. On June 7, 1868, the Minneapolis Daily Tribune claimed that the Meeker Island lock and dam would transfer the commercial prestige of this upper country from St. Paul to the Magnet.80 St. Paul industrial boosters also claimed victory. Construction of the five-and-a-half-mile, six-lane bridge cost fifty-seven million dollars. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. It did so twice that year. 1850: Birth of the levee system. I expect to get through it successfully however.. Cadwallader C. Washburn and his brother William D., the Minneapolis Mill Company's owners and two of the city's most powerful and prominent millers, adamantly opposed locks and dams. . The Rock Island Bridge Company had been formed in 1853, but it wasn't until April 9, 1856, when the long-awaited Mississippi River Bridge - spanning from Rock Island to Davenport opened. Support for the project came from the company's stockholders, navigation boosters and city business leaders. Oct 2020. . Then, they would move to the next troublesome reach. His figures for arrivals differ slightly from those of Dixon in Table 2.1. . . Location. Five dams at the Headwaters stored the winters snow, holding it for the summer and fall, when the millers at St. Anthony and the steamboats below would need it. In 1869, a tunnel from the toe of the falls to Nicollet Island collapsed just below the island. Barns credits Kelley with founding the Grange, recognizing the role of others, particularly of Miss Carrie Hall, Kelley's niece. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. 1491, (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1913), pp. 318-19. This will then be shared on a discussion board with . Native Americans hunted and farmed in the Mississippi valley for hundreds of years before white men arrived. They yearned to make their city the head of navigation. .53 Recognizing the Granger movement's growing strength and its discontent with the Republican party's failure to deal with monopolies and the farm crisis, Donnelly joined the movement in 1872. After Union forces captured Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln saw the emancipated river as a symbol of a nation unified: "The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the. But when the Father of Waters was reached, these methods were out of the question: here apparently was an insurmountable obstacle. 106-7. In this way, pilots hoped to walk their boat over the bar. In their 1895 Annual Report, the Engineers reported that releasing water from the Headwaters reservoirs had successfully raised the water level in the Twin Cities by 12 to 18 inches, helping navigation interests and the millers. By 1830, the steamboat age had come to the upper Mississippi and by 1840, there was heavy river commerce between St. Louis and the head of navigation at St. Anthony's Falls, near present-day St. Paul, Minnesota. Midwesterners, however, needed to transform the river, if they hoped to make it a commercial thoroughfare. Many passengers came from the East; others came from Europe, fleeing famine in Ireland and political unrest on the continent. The first bridge to cross the river here, the Eads Bridge, was completed in 1874 and is still used today. On April 30, Porters gunboats passed Grand Gulfs guns and began ferrying McClernands infantry and artillery across the river. The small streams were crossed by fording; the larger ones by swimming the teams, wagons and all. 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. In 1876, he returned to Wisconsin to becomefittinglya railway agent. In his memoirs Grant wrote of that signal achievement: When this was effected, I felt a degree of relief scarcely ever equaled since.I was on dry ground on the same side of the river with the enemy. 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. Download the official NPS app before your next visit. Snags were such frequent and treacherous hazards that steamboat pilots named them (Figure 3). In 1805-06 the pioneer expedition of U.S. Army officer Zebulon Montgomery Pike struggled to within 80 miles (130 km) of the river's source, and in 1832 Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, an Indian agent for the U.S. government, identified and named Lake Itasca (from the Latin veritas caput, "true head") as the Mississippi's starting point. To subscribe, click here. He also sold boat-stores and groceries to the steamboats that stopped at the levee. The Engineers or their contractors placed the rock and brush in layers until a dam rose above the water surface to a level that would guarantee a minimum 41/2-foot channel (Figure 9).64. 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. Tornado warnings and bow echos were everywhere, but once it crossed the river, it immediately started weakening. The St. Paul District commander, Major Francis R. Shunk, tried to explain the matter to Minneapolis Mayor J. C. Haynes on February 17, 1909. Merrick lists the number or arrivals and the number of boats at St. Paul for each of these years. Millers at St. Anthony were profiting from the release of water from the Headwaters Reservoirs, but Minneapolis civic and commercial boosters wanted more than milling. Dewey was lured to Cassville by its promise as the potential capital of the Wisconsin Territory. Close to Port Gibson is Grand Gulf military park. Flood waters had started to recede, but remained . Shanai Matteson, an artist and community organizer who grew up in Palisade, stands at the site where the Line 3 oil pipeline will cross underneath the Mississippi River . No. Warren decided to deepen the upper Mississippi by dredging. From the building boat, Alberta Kirchner recalled, . The number of islands, of course, varied with the season and the year, as many islands were temporary. 58, pp. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. A. Humphreys, the Chief of Engineers, ordered Brevet Major General and Major of Engineers Gouverneur K. Warren to St. Paul to begin the Corps' work on the upper Mississippi River (Figure 4). branch, . Woods, Knights, pp. Bridges Over a dozen bridges cross the Mississippi River in the St. Louis metro area. Questions had arisen about his sobriety, with the War Department sending an observer to his headquarters. The XV Corps commander argued that Porters gunboats and transports could not run past Vicksburgs batteries. 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, . U.S. Congress, House, Survey of Upper Mississippi River, Letter from the Secretary of War in answer to a resolution of the House, of December 20, 1866, transmitting report of the Chief of Engineers, with General Warrens report of the surveys of the Upper Mississippi river and its tributaries, 39th Congress, 2d Session, Ex. I could even smell the delightfully blended odor of the willows and of the creosoted marline twine with which the bundles were held together. The Senate also considered a warning from Republican President Ulysses Grant. This is the general phone line at the Mississippi River Visitor Center. Edward L. Pross, A History of Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Bills, 1866-1933, Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1938, p. 44. Twelve years later, in 1848, the territory became the new state of . N 40 32.586 W 091 24.054. . Photo by Brady. He evidently was a cattle herder in Mississippi, with many vouchers for his work. 1491, (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1913), p. 704. Meeker, Kane says, retained some shares of the company for himself, as did his friends. Before he could develop a plan for achieving the 4-foot channel, Warren had to learn more about the upper Mississippi River and he had to complete his survey. Millers at St. Anthony Falls especially pushed for reservoirs above the falls. Planters were those that became lodged in the river's bottom, and sleepers hid beneath the water's surface. If lucky, they avoided hogging the boat; that is, warping or breaking its hull.24. Military supplies and furs would dominate the much smaller steamboat trade above Galena. 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. https://www.historynet.com/crossing-the-mississippi/, Jerrie Mock: Record-Breaking American Female Pilot, Turmoil in Richmond: Joe Johnston, Jefferson Davis Command Alliance Was Doomed From the Start, How Allied Forces Used Code and Hunches To Turn the Tables on German U-Boats. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Grand Tower Mississippi River Color Lithograph by Nat Kinsey Steamboat Rivermen at the best online prices at eBay! 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. Subsequently he turned to newspaper editing and publishing.20 With each new rail connection, steamboats made shorter trips between ports. They had closed nearly all the side channels. Where steamboat pilots followed the deepest channel, as it hugged one shore or the other, leaning trees might sweep poorly placed cargo or an unwary passenger from a steamboat's deck. This map shows the completion dates at various points along the route westward from Chicago. On April 22, 1856, the citizens of Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa, cheered as they watched three steam locomotives pull eight passenger cars safely across the newly completed Chicago and Rock Island railroad bridge over the Mississippi River. By 1907, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Hastings and other river cities, through their successful lobbying and through the Corps, had changed the upper Mississippi River dramatically. As a result, Warren favored dredging. Here, the Northern Light, one of the largest steamers on the upper river, passed them just after sundown. After reviewing various proposals, the committee recommended that Congress regulate some railroad operations and that it authorize an intense program of waterway improvements. Sandbars determined the river's overall navigability. Despite the frustrations and controversies, he had assured his wife: Vicksburg will be a hard job. To secure their objective, the company needed support from businessmen in Minneapolis, and for that support, Minneapolis interests won back control of the company. Crossing the Mighty Mississippi River From La to Ms highway 82 Few boats plied the river above Galena. Annual Report, 1890, p. 2034; Annual Report, 1892, pp. Pike, Sources of the Mississippi, p. 24; Keating, Narrative of an Expedition, p. 297. He questioned the value of removing boulders, believing that the steep grade and rapid current required locks and dams. Tweet, History of Transportation on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, p. 22. Examples: a dried up lake, a destroyed building, a hill leveled by mining. Merritt, Creativity, 140; Lucile M. Kane, The Falls of St. Anthony: The Waterfall that Built Minneapolis, (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1987), pp. Merritt, Creativity, p. 141, says that When it appeared that the Mississippi River Improvement and Manufacturing Company would not be able to resolve its internal conflicts, Congress decided to give the project over to the Corps of Engineers. Neither author discusses who pushed Congress to authorize the project. At Lock and Dam 1, the Engineers had begun constructing the lock.92 Few, if any, spectators watching the Itura paddle through Lock 2 imagined that the new facility would be destroyed within 5 years. 32 21.065 N, 90 53.032 W. Marker is in Vicksburg, Mississippi, in Warren County. Having accomplished nothing as the deadline approached, the company spent $26,000 during late 1870 and early 1871. 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.. Maybe, at a few places, especially between St. Paul and Hastings, settlers could have waded across on some persistent bar during extremely low water. "We actually thought he'd died," Resop said. They would build as many wing dams, close as many side channels, and protect as much shoreline as needed to establish a 41/2-foot channel. As long as the Corps ran the dredges, it could limit the depth of the cut on a bar and preserve much of the deeper pool behind it. 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. These slight dams, Warren commented, had been somewhat successful, indicating a way of deepening the low-water channel worthy of special attention. But these measures had been only temporary; high water usually swept the dams away. A favorable landing site on the east bank would have to be located, while other operations would be necessary to distract the Confederates. Alberta Kirchner Hill spent 19 summers (1898-1917) with her father's fleet as they built the dams for the government. Steamboat traffic grew quickly after 1823. Hundreds of miles of riverbank had been secured with riprap. During the frontier era, settlers used old animal and Indian trails, fording most streams or building crude rafts to cross larger rivers. Those that swayed back and forth with the current they called sawyers. Congress rejected Meeker's request and the Minnesota Legislature's petition for a land grant in support of a lock and dam in 1866. But in 1868, he quarreled with Minnesota's senior Republican leader, Alexander Ramsey, and failed to get reelected. Droughts had the same effect, but could last an entire season. . Raymond Merritt, Creativity, Conflict & Controversy: A History of the St. Paul District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1979); Roald Tweet, A History of Rock Island District, (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1984), pp. In its petition, the state stressed that boats had frequently landed within two and one-half miles of downtown Minneapolis, up until 1857. The bridge was completed on June 30, 1956. Extending navigation above St. Anthony Falls with the other two locks and dams would total $1,538,702.90. From his experiences, Merrick learned much about the natural river. On the night of May 21, 1855, in the area that is now part of the Mississippi Greenway: Riverfront Trail north of the Merchant's Bridge, Mary Meachum attempted to help a small group of enslaved people cross the Mississippi River to Illinois where slavery was outlawed. The total cost of the bridge was $6.8 million (City of Clinton Bridge Commission 1956:2). Many just mention herds of Government cattle, but one, for 305 head in June of 1863, specifically mentions Texas cattle. Photo by Henry P. Bosse. The four broad projects are known as the 4-, 41/2-, 6- and 9-foot channel projects. Railroads, more than the river, would meet the regions need, but not without a price, a price much too high for some. 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. 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. Sandbars posed the most persistent and frequent problem. John O. Anfinson, The Secret History of the Mississippi's Earliest Locks and Dams, Minnesota History 54:6 (Summer 1995):254-67. 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 . Demonstrating the Grange's early concern for improving the Mississippi River, the state Grange convention of 1869 featured the river. The desire to improve navigation on the upper river affected the river above the Twin Cities, as well. Over the next year, the Grange founded nearly 12,000 chapters and claimed over 858,000 members. Woods, Knights of the Plow: Oliver Kelley and the Origins of the Grange in Republican Ideology, (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1991), Chapters 7 and 8, supports and greatly expands on Barns' argument that Kelley actively pushed economic and political solutions and/or tacitly approved while others did so. 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. Jeffery's 1776 Map of the Course of the Mississippi River from the Balise to Fort Chartres. Starting in northern Minnesota, the Mississippi River flows by Minneapolis, St. Louis, Memphis, Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Porters gunboats arrived and began shelling the defenses. Rail lines were generally shorter, more direct, and could reach deep into lands served by no navigable rivers. 58, p. 5. 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). The Corps simply did not have the funding, equipment, personnel or authority to make significant and permanent changes. pdf i74-mrc-bro.pdf (663.5 kB) Download the I-74 Mississippi River Crossings Brochure. 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. Old Historical Atlas Maps of Arkansas. Missouri, during the "Golden Age of Steamboats" (1830-1850). 309-10. The millers recognized that the release of water from the reservoirs for navigation in the later summer and fall would increase the flow of water to keep their mills turning longer and more consistently. Snags could, in an instant, impale a steamboat or tear it apart.11 The natural river became surprisingly narrow in places. as part of a portfolio of multi-value projects approved by the midcontinent independent system operator, this river crossing is 1.56 miles (2.51 km) long, connects the maywood substation in missouri and the herleman substation in illinois, and is part of the illinois rivers transmission project 385 miles (620 km) of transmission from palmyra, The Mississippi flows for some 2,300 miles, from Minneapolis to New Orleans, and into the Gulf of Mexico. Assistant Engineer W.A. Hill, Out With the Fleet, p. 291. The Mississippi River, the state insisted, provided the natural link. According to one historian, 'the Mississippi River gave slavery a whole new lease on life' (Johnson, 2013: 6-7, 146). 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. When the white explorers finally reached the valley region, they also adopted the customary mode of crossing long followed by their red predecessors. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. 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. 17 Oct 1872 BUTLER, Thomas *15: BRAKEMAN, Harriet (1835-1866): m'd 05 Jul 1852 WADSWORTH, Elisha . Marker is on Levee Street north of Clay Street, on the left when traveling north. Little and Ives Company, 1944), p. 166; Hartsough, Canoe, pp. Portending the coming conflict with Minneapolis, St. Paul citizens criticized the project, as it would steal from them their valuable position as the head of navigation. Petersen, Steamboating, p. 298, also recognizes the railroad at Rock Island as the first to reach the river. Major General Ulysses S. Grant stood over maps searching for answers. At its headwaters, the water exceeds 12,800 feet above sea level, while its lowest point measures 1,850 feet above sea level. On the Mississippis west bank, Maj. Gen. John A. McClernand marched his XIII Corps and two divisions from Maj. Gen. James B. McPhersons XVII Corps south to Hard Times, La., opposite Grand Gulf, the planned crossing point. Considering the traumas . Vol. Crossing the Mississippi River, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 20,655 views Nov 24, 2015 77 Dislike Share Save Josh Huffines 578 subscribers Eastbound on I-10 crossing the Mississippi River in. To eliminate the problem, the Engineers closed the upper end of the east channel. The next . The Engineers were to create a permanent, continuous navigation channel, 41/2-feet deep at low-water, for the entire river between St. Paul and the mouth of the Illinois River at Alton. During the 1850s, traffic soared. Gone now, the island lay some three miles below the falls, in Minneapolis. As the river fell, each wave formed a bar that acted like a small dam. If built, this project would allow Minneapolis to become the head of navigation. p. 213. The young Daly recalled in his memoir that he could distinctly hear the grinding of her bottom on the gravel bar over which she was passing.23 Some boats ground to a halt on sandbars. Citizens of the old Northwest Territory states had urged operations to clear their historic avenue of commerce. Railroads have got enough for the present. 92-93; Kane, Rivalry, pp. Hartsough, Canoe, pp. A newly completed lock and dam and another one under construction promised to make Minneapolis the head of navigation. (Figure 1). Crossing the river was essential from the outset. It is a story with local and national significance. Mississippi was given title to more than three million acres of swamp and overflow land along its northwestern border with the Mississippi River. After charging men under him to undertake the tributary surveys, Warren began the upper Mississippi survey from the Rock Island Rapids to Minneapolis himself. Thomas A. Merrick, Old Times, p. 100; Havighurst, A Wilderness Saga, p. 158, says that early steamboating was a triumph of men more than machines, and, p. 159, that piloting was not so much a trade as a miracle.. Quincy and Cairo, Illinois, became railheads in 1856, and East St. Louis, Illinois, and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, in 1857. Nick is crossing the Mississippi for the first time, and feels the crossing will be "a big event". Annual Report, 1881, p. 2746. The 1993 image was captured slightly after the peak water levels in this part of the Mississippi River. 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. No. There is the city of St. Paul, and there is the city of Minneapolis. A day earlier, the St. Paul Daily Dispatch had declared that the dam had given St. Paul a water power equal to St. Anthony, and would provide enough power to make St. Paul one of the largest manufacturing cities on the continent.81 Through a deal between Meeker and a number of St. Paul businessmen, St. Paulites had gained control of Meeker's company and would get the waterpower created by the dam, even if Minneapolis and the state thought it overshadowed by St. Anthony Falls.82, On March 6, 1869, the state awarded the land grant to the Mississippi River Improvement and Manufacturing Company. Date Posted: 9/18/2012 1:45:33 PM. 259, 262; Laws of the United States, pp., 155-56; H. Exec. The keynote of the meeting was a determined effort to obtain federal money for the improvement of western waterways so that they might be used as reliable routes for cheap transportation.48 Cheap transportation, delegates argued, would allow the United States to monopolize the markets of the world.49, In May 1873, cheap transportation advocates held another convention in St. Louisthe Western Congressional Convention. In 1854 the first two railroads reached the Mississippi River: the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad at Rock Island, Illinois, and the Chicago and Alton at Alton, Illinois. 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. Solon J. Buck, Granger Movement, A Study of Agricultural Organization and Its Political, Economic and Social Manifestations, 1870-1880, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1933), pp. In addition to the Mississippi River crossings, there are six Rock River crossings and another in the final design stage. Over the next year, he began developing plans, determining that the Engineers could build one lock and dam with a 17-foot lift. Annual Report, 1875, Part 2, Vol. The focus of Corps work between 1878 and 1906, the 41/2-foot channel became the first system-wide, intensive navigation improvement project for the upper Mississippi River. 319-320; Kane, St. Anthony, p. 96. From the quarterboats you could hear the big rocks hitting each other, like a rapid-fire rage. "This was like a day after he crossed the river. Windom had already served in the House for a decade. Kane, Rivalry, p. 322, suggests that the federal government recognized its obligation for improving navigation in 1873 by authorizing $25,000 for the project. Deep pools might run near one bank for a short reach and then jump to the other. Trains ran when the river was high or low; they ran when the cold of winter froze it; for the most part, they ran throughout the year.42 Those railroads that ran east to westmost importantly to Chicagotook advantage of complementary markets. He does not provide a location for this work and there is no mention of it in later reports, however. The Engineers did not build all the works depicted in one area at the same time. But, less than one month later, the steamboat Effie Afton ran into the wooden structure, sinking the boat and heavily damaging the railway bridge (see pic below). The remarkable physical adaptation of our country for cheap and ample water communications, the committee concluded, point unerringly to the improvement of our great natural water-ways, and their connection by canals, or by short freight-railway portages under control of the government, as the obvious and certain solution of the problem of cheap transportation.57, Relying on the reports the Corps of Engineers submitted, the committee noted that improvements on the Mississippi River had been sporadic. Major Francis R. Shunk to Minneapolis Mayor J. C. Haynes, February 17, 1909. Lying at the head of navigation, they demanded a river capable of delivering the immigrants needed to populate the land (not considering that they had taken it from Native Americans) and the tools and provisions needed to fully use it. When a series of bars came in close succession, the river could become seriously obstructed. 17-18. While the river naturally eroded its banks, closing dams and wing dams accelerated erosion by increasing the channel's velocity and volume. 1578-79. The endeavor would be difficult and risky, requiring Rear Adm. David Dixon Porters fleet to pass by Vicksburgs heavy guns. Kane, St. Anthony, p. 96, points out that the state never transferred the grant to the company. One dam would be blown up within 5 years of its completion and another would have to be redesigned and the completed part rebuilt. They would have to eliminate the wide shallows and sandbars and the thou- sands of little pools that Warren had once sought to preserve. 2, 62nd Cong., 3d sess., Doc. After months of frustration, criticism and failure, Grant had executed a brilliant maneuver. To achieve the 1/2- foot channel, the Corps had to expand upon the channel constriction experiments. Locations are listed with the left bank (moving downriver) listed first. Congress initially balked at the projects pork-barrel appearance. However, enslavers and law enforcement officials caught at least five of . 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. At Dibbles Point, the shoreline had eroded 15 to 20 feet in one year due to a wing dam built at Prescott Island, near Prescott.67 To protect shores from naturally eroding or from being undercut by the constricted channel, the Corps protected hundreds of miles of shoreline with brush mats and rock. 111 E. Kellogg Blvd., Suite 105 Shermans troops, meanwhile, demonstrated against the citys northern defenses. A bad bar could sever St. Pauls and Hastings connection with St. Louis, the Gulf of Mexico and the world.14 Normally, during the late summer or early fall, the river began falling and would enter the stage steamboat pilots and Corps engineers called low water. 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. From St. Paul to the St. Croix River, the controlling depth at low water was 16 inches. They needed local navigation projects, but these did little good without a navigable river downstream. . Her father, Albert Kirchner, along with Jacob Richtman, both from Fountain City, Wisconsin, became the leading contractors for the Corps in wing dam construction. C $25. No. This also caused some delay. The Corps had experimented with channel constriction in 1874. 55101. 65 Annual Report, 1880, p. 1495. Key local projects included Locks and Dams 1 (Ford Dam) and 2 (Hastings), Lower and Upper St. Anthony Falls Locks and Dams, and the little known Meeker Island Lock and Dam, which was the rivers first and shortest-lived lock and dam (Figure 2). The Mississippi River Route was first explored by canoes, quickly followed by paddle boats, in a seemingly endless . They divided the upper Mississippi into a series of deep pools separated by wide shallows that sometimes stranded even the lightest steamboats. The area is ideal for classic resort cabin or camping vacations. The island divided the river, and the navigation channel sometimes ran on the east side and sometimes on the west. Their effort resulted in one of the most mysterious and ill-fated projects on the upper river. The river passed over the closing dams when high, but for most of the year, the dams directed water into the main channel, denying flow to the river's side channels and backwaters (Figure 10). Without a lock and dam, the river above St. Paul was too narrow, too shallow, too strewn with boulders and the current too fast for steamboat navigation.34 To create a safe and continuous 4-foot channel for the river between St. Paul and the Rock Island Rapids, Warren asked for $96,000 to acquire and operate two dredge and snag boats, $5,000 to construct an experimental closing dam at Prescott Island, about 26 miles below St. Paul, and $5,000 for another experimental closing dam for the Wacouta chute near Red Wing, Minnesota.35. . In other words, Congress asked the Corps to determine how to establish a continuous, 4-foot channel for the upper river at low water. The river pioneers once forded with their wagons and livestock no longer existed. Grant rejected any idea of a retreat. The Granger Movement As railroads spread throughout the upper Mississippi River valley and the Midwest, they began monopolizing the shipping of bulk commodities, especially grain. In June and July of 1891, Mackenzie carried out even more accurate surveys of most of the river from the Minneapolis steamboat warehouse to the Short Line bridge below Meeker Island and of select areas down to the Minnesota River; see Annual Report, 1891, p. 2154. crossing the mississippi river in 1850. In his next report, Warren had suggested a system of 41 reservoirs for the St. Croix, Chippewa, Wisconsin and Mississippi River basins. Railroad expansion following the Civil War accelerated the pace of the Midwest's unprecedented population and agricultural growth. Deep was anything over three feet. 1, 62nd Cong., 3d sess., Doc. 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. 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. A major focus of the Big River Crossing is the "big river" itself, which visitors view from the nearly one-mile walkway built alongside the historic Harahan Bridge, one of the river's former roadways. By dividing the river, islands limited the water available to the navigation channel and thereby its depth. Why Congress authorized two low dams, instead of one high dam that could have generated hydropower, is unknown. But navigating the river has never been easy, even today. Petersen, Captains, p. 235; Tweet, History of Transportation on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, pp. 123-24. Nate [Nathan] Daly, Tracks and Trails: Incidents in the Life of a Minnesota Pioneer, (Walker, Minnesota: Cass County Pioneer, 1931), p. 18. Esther (1823-1917): m1. March 26, 2015. But, as a result of the economic panic beginning that year, a number of unprecedented droughts and the Civil War, navigation, they brashly claimed, had receded some sixteen miles, to St. Paul, where all the freight destined to these cities, (Minneapolis and St. Anthony) and the vast regions north and west . 229-42), Barns addresses three issues concerning Kelley. 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. Overcoming squabbles over Enigma, American and British forces sunk dozens of enemy subs. St. Paul and Minneapolis pushed especially hard. But it held little chance of success and was eventually abandoned. As it had learned more about the upper Mississippi River, the Corps had recognized the futility of keeping the river navigable by dredging.61 In 1874, when the Montana could not dredge due to high water, the Engineers refitted it with a pile driver and went to Pig's Eye Island, five miles below St. Paul (Figure 8). . This ferry crossed the Mississippi River near the small town of Batchtownin Calhoun Countyinto Lincoln County, Missouri connecting with Route 79. Solon J. Buck, who wrote the classic study of the Grange, observed that, although avowedly nonpolitical, the phenomenal increase in the membership of the order during 1873 and 1874 awakened the liveliest interest, and sometimes apprehension, among politicians throughout the Union.45 As a result, he says, the New York Tribune, referring to the Grange, declared that within a few weeks it has menaced the political equilibrium of the most steadfast states.46 While the Grange refused to form a political party or actively participate in the established parties, its members did not. The 2,340 miles of the Mississippi River are entirely within the . Washington Crossing the Delaware By Emanuel Leutze Beautiful Detailed Print . On June 23, 1866, Congress passed the first postwar River and Harbor Act. Rachel Kramer/CC-BY 2.0. Congress, however, would soon authorize new projects for the upper Mississippi River that would make this impossible. St. Paul District, Corps of Engineers. From Minneapolis' perspective, the channel improvement works on the upper Mississippi River only benefitted its principal rivalSt. As cited in U. S. Congress, House, Letter from the Secretary of War, Transmitting, with a Letter from the Chief of Engineers, Report of Estimate for Six-Foot Channel in the Mississippi River between the Missouri River and St. Paul, Minn., 59th Cong., 2nd sess., H. Doc. . The second advance resulted in a bloody repulse at Chickasaw Bayou, north of Vicksburg. After the war, he settled in New York. . They would have to focus the river's current into one main channel and block off the myriad side channels. The Mississippi River touches 31 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces and is one of the largest rivers in the world. Gary F. Browne, The Railroads: Terminals and Nexus Points in the Upper Mississippi Valley, (in John S. Wozniak ed., Historic Lifestyles in the Upper Mississippi River Valley, (New York: University Press of America, 1983), p. 84, says the first railroad reached the Mississippi River at Rock Island on February 22, 1854. Quick Description: A covered wagon on a 1840s wooden ferry at the Mississippi River crossing; the beginning of the Mormon Pioneer Trail in Nauvoo, Illinois. To further increase the water available for navigation, Congress authorized the Corps to construct six dams at the headwaters of the Mississippi, in northern Minnesota, between 1880 and 1907. Annual Report, 1872, pp. Construction of the tied-in double-arch structure began in May 1967. Warren provided estimates for a variety of projects, in his first annual report in 1867. The company needed the grant, the state contended, because the company's income from water power would be limited by the inexhaustible resources in this respect above and on the falls and because the company's state charter required it to lock boats through free.73 Anticipating opposition from the millers at St. Anthony, the state claimed that the petitions principal purpose was to bring steamboats to Minneapolis and that hydropower was incidental.74 Meeker, himself, emphasized navigation. Early Navigation Paddling upstream from St. Louis to St. Paul in 1823, the Virginia became the first steamboat to navigate the upper Mississippi River. . m., over which the annual rainfall averages 34.7 in., and its discharge per second into the Lower Mississippi varies from 25,000 cub. St. Paul recorded 41 steamboat arrivals in 1844, and 95 in 1849. George Byron Merrick captures well the perils of sailing the natural river. The existing Rock River bridges include three federal, one state, and one local crossings. Islands created dangerous currents.13 From just below Hastings to St. Anthony Falls roughly 40 islands broke the rivers flow. Historical Features are physical or cultural features that are no longer visible on the landscape. 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. The remaining maps focused on problem reaches or detailed the river near a specific town.32 From these maps and from what he would learn about early navigation improvements, Warren began planning the 4-foot channel project. A movement into central Mississippi ended when Southern cavalrymen captured the Federals supply base at Holly Springs. The conservationist and local hero hails from the Quad Cities, a 300,000-person metropolitan area spanning two states on either side of the Mississippi River. First, the "Stars and Stripes" flag . The conference organizers' goal was to impress upon these key political officials the depth of the shipping crisis. Originally published in the July 2006 issue of Civil War Times. . 44-45. The Missouri drains 528,000 sq. Historians generally agree that with the Civil War's end the federal government took a very different position on internal improvements. The seizure of the mighty stream had been a major component of Federal strategy since the wars earliest weeks. While still in his twenties, Donnelly had become Minnesota's lieutenant governor. From the St. Croix to the Illinois River it varied from 18 to 24 inches. The Caffrey may have done some work with closing dams earlier. . 58, 39th Cong., 2d sess., p. 46; Kane, St. Anthony, pp. Railroads moved their freight quicker, giving their users greater flexibility in responding to market changes. c. 1810. The dangers of navigating the natural river were so great, he said, that pilots had to memorize every bluff, hill, rock, tree, stump, house, woodpile, and whatever else is to be noted along the banks of the river.21 And pilots, he added, learned The artistic quality in handling of a boat under the usual conditionsin making the multitudinous crossings, . To prove their point, they paid the steamer Lamartine $200 to journey from St. Paul to the cataract. . . . On the Mississippi's west bank, Maj. Gen. John A. McClernand marched his XIII Corps and two divisions from Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson's XVII Corps south to Hard Times, La., opposite Grand Gulf, the planned crossing point. It had been nearly two years since Confederate forces had closed the Mississippi River to Union shipping. . The Mississippi River can be broken down into three parts, which in turn decided on whether the crossings were constucted with fixed or moveable spans. He estimated that Lock and Dam 1 would cost $568,222 and that Lock and Dam 2 would cost $598,235. 84-85, 91. Carey's 1814 Map of Missouri Territory formally Louisiana. . Second, was the idea of the Grange really his? He hoped to restore the dying river connection between St. Paul and St. Louis. Annual Report, 1891, p. 2154; Mackenzie, Annual Report, 1890, p. 2034, reported that the Corps had completed several examinations of the area over the last year, in company with the Minneapolis representatives of the river interests.. Another wave soon followed. Granted, Mackenzie repeatedly called for locks and dams. The fourth longest river in the world goes through or forms the border of 10 states. Location: Illinois, United States. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. Echoing the beliefs of their counterparts downstream, Minneapolis boosters pointed to the divine purpose of their project. Kane, Rivalry, pp. 16 The folklore that people once waded across the Mississippi is true. 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. Minneapolis had captured title to the head of navigation, but the low dams had eliminated St. Pauls hope for securing hydropower. Together, the Grange, shippers and merchants, boosters in river towns and the Windom committee persuaded Congress to authorize the 41/2-foot channel project. Sherman once said, Grant is brave, honest, & true, but not a Genius.. It flows south at a speed of 1.2 miles per hour to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico and forms the second largest drainage system in North America after the Hudson Bay. 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. .dodging reefs and hunting the best water.22 Poor hunters often fell prey to the river they hunted. Sandbars determined the river's controlling depththe minimum depth for navigation at low water. 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. Saint Paul In 1855 a railroad entered Galena. . As more settlers arrived in the late 1770s and early 1800s, however, the need for more reliable ways to cross rivers became evident. The solution, they insisted, lay in improving the nation's waterways, especially the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Harold B. Schonberger, Transportation to the Seaboard: The Communication Revolution and American Foreign Policy, 1860-1900, (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Corporation, 1971), p. 21. 1851 (age 35), Goddard, George He came from England with his wife and seven children, five of whom died before reaching Utah. 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. Not even a severe t-storm watch was issued. Mississippi River, the longest river of North America, draining with its major tributaries an area of approximately 1.2 million square miles (3.1 million square km), or about one-eighth of the entire continent. They also demanded a navigable river so they could deliver the bounty of their labor and their new land to the country and the world. Anfinson, Secret History, Minnesota History 54:6 (Summer 1995):254-67. Two of the 1850's most significant corporate developments was the original New York Central Railroad's formation on May 17, 1853 and the Erie Railroad's completion in the spring of 1851. . The first European settlement in the Twin Cities area was Fort Snelling. 1780-81. 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. June 4, 2021 7:50 AM. For months he had studied them, conferred with subordinates, undertaken personal reconnaissances and endured failures. Between 1823 and 1847, most boats carried lead and worked around Galena, Illinois. Acknowledging the obvious local appearance of its request, the state touted the projects interregional benefits. He lists 99 boats counting for 965 arrivals in 1857 and 62 boats as accounting for the 1,090 arrivals in 1858. A significant historical month for this entry is October 1885. and also create a 30 second speech as if you were that person. Twice during December 1862, Grant ordered thrusts against the city from the north. Below Red Wing, water from the reservoirs had little effect.68. And in a speech before the Senate, he asserted that it was an admitted fact that present transportation facilities between the interior and the seaboard were totally inadequate. These transportation networks, he charged, were controlled by powerful monopolies who dictate their own terms to the people. 11, (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1909), pp. Over the next nine years he worked his way up to become a cub pilot. . As the state failed to return it, the Corps did not begin work. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. In 1854 the Minnesota Pioneer,a St. Paul newspaper, reported that passengers and freight overflowed from every steamboat that arrived and that the present tonnage on the river is by no means sufficient to handle one-half the business of the trade.3 While two steamboats often left St. Paul each day, they could not carry goods away as quickly as merchants and farmers deposited it, and many upper river cities mirrored St. Paul.4 Each steamboat that docked created new business and a greater backlog, as more immigrants disembarked to establish farms and businesses.5, Spurred by Indian land cessions that opened much of the Midwest between 1820 and 1860, by Iowa's statehood in 1846 and Wisconsin's in 1848 and by the creation of the Minnesota Territory in 1849, passenger traffic on the upper river boomed. . The first railroad bridge across the Mississippi was open for business. Kane, Rivalry, pp. No. With Warren's arrival in St. Paul in August, the Corps established a permanent stake in how the upper Mississippi River would be managed and changed. I am very well but much perplexed, he admitted to his wife. It required the company to spend $25,000 on the project before February 1, 1871. It did, however, authorize the Corps of Engineers to survey the reach between Fort Snelling and St. Anthony Falls, along with its general survey of the upper Mississippi River. The Windom Committee Spurred by the Granger movement and navigation conventionspartly out of fear and partly out of a genuine concern to help farmers and businessesMinnesota Senator William Windom asked the Senate to establish a committee to examine the transportation problem and recommend solutions to it. The upper river, stretching from the headwaters down to the Twin Cities, was not used by barge traffic. In addition to its transport role for goods, the river acted as a conduit for the slaves' journey to the Deep South. Between 1800 and 1860, 'at least 875,000 . . 651-293-0200 William Washburn went so far as to purchase land at one of the reservoir sites in anticipation of a private or federal project there and later gave the land to the government. Annual Report, 1873, p. 411; Annual Report, 1874, p. 287. Sherman advocated a withdrawal of the army to Memphis, where it could regroup and then move south. The Upper Mississippi, that is the Mississippi from its source to the mouth of the Missouri, drains 173,000 sq. 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.

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