MISSISSIPPI RIVER 



3853 



MISSISSIPPI RIVER 



Man has not tamely submitted to the rav- 

 ages of the river, and the methods resorted to 

 for protection have been various. First of all, 

 there have been constructed works, which by 

 confining the river in a narrower bed have com- 



LOWER COURSE, AND DELTA 



pelled it to scour out a deeper channel. These 

 are not masonry walls, but dams composed of 

 piles driven into great heaps of brush. Then 

 there are the dams or levees which protect the 

 river banks throughout much of the region be- 

 low Cairo, 111., where the great river receives 

 the Ohio, for south of that is the flood locality. 

 In moderate flood years the levees afford ade- 

 quate protection, but when an unusual flood 

 occurs, breaks or crevasses appear here and 

 there, and the water spreads over the lowlands. 

 Jetties for deepening the channel have been 

 constructed, especially in the region of the 

 "passes," into which the river divides as it finds 

 its way across the delta. See JETTY. 



Power Dams. Several great power dams 

 have been built at various points on the river. 

 The first is at Bemidji, thirty-two miles below 

 Lake Itasca, and there are others at Grand 

 Rapids and at Brainerd, 300 miles from Be- 

 midji. From Brainerd to Minneapolis, a dis- 

 tance of 150 miles, there is a fall of 444 feet, 

 about 135 of which is utilized by six power 

 dams. A large lock and power dam, completed 

 in 1915, was built by the United States govern- 

 ment between Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and 

 at Keokuk, Iowa, the Des Moines Rapids have 

 been replaced by a beautiful artificial lake 

 about a mile wide and from fifty to sixty miles 

 long, through the construction of a magnificent 

 concrete dam (see KEOKUK, IOWA, subhead 

 Keokuk Dam). 



Commerce. Back in the days of the Indians 

 and the early settlers, everything which the 

 North had to sell to the South went down the 

 Mississippi, but there was little commerce up 

 stream, owing to the difficulty of making head- 

 way against the current. It was cheaper and 



easier to abandon the rough rafts on which the 

 goods were floated down than to bring them 

 back again. But when the steamboat came 

 these conditions changed. The first steamboat 

 to ply on the Mississippi began its trips in 1811, 

 but not until six years later did a steamboat 

 find its way as far north as Saint Louis. Boats 

 of the new pattern multiplied rapidly, and by 

 1835 there were no fewer than 230 engaged in 

 traffic up and down the river, and the number 

 continued to grow. There were skins and lum- 

 ber from the far north, grains and other farm 

 products from the central region, and coal from 

 that section served by the Ohio all to be sent 

 down the river; while the South sent back to 

 the North its cotton, its fruit and its sugar 

 cane. 



Cities sprang up along the banks: Minne- 

 apolis and Saint Paul, Winona, La Crosse, Keo- 

 kuk, Dubuque, Davenport, Rock Island, Bur- 

 lington, Quincy, Saint Louis, Cairo, Memphis, 

 Vicksburg, Baton Rouge and New Orleans ; and 

 river navigation became a great science. It 

 had its dangers many of them and a sur- 

 prisingly large number of boats were lost. Fire 

 destroyed many, and snags and rocks many 

 more. Life on the river, largely because of this 

 element of danger, became the great adventure 

 to the dwellers on its banks, and to be a river- 

 pilot was the supreme ambition of many a boy. 

 Mark Twain had it with the rest, and was able 

 to gratify it; and of his impressions he has 

 written most interestingly in Life on the Missis- 

 sippi. 



From 1860 to 1885 was the great period of 

 river commerce. Since the latter date there has 

 been a steady decline, and in recent years not 

 more than one-sixth as many boats ply the 

 river as were to be found there in 1860. Many 

 of the river ports are still busy and active, but 

 more of them have lost the pleasant bustle 

 which made their riversides alive. The great 

 floating palaces, a trip on which was at one 

 time looked upon as the height of luxury, no 

 longer exist, and the occasional pleasure boats 

 are not crowded with passengers as in the old_ 

 days. The change has come largely with the 

 increased mileage and efficiency of the railroads, 

 but the uncertainty and irregularity insepa- 

 rable from river navigation have done their 

 part. 



In very recent times a return of the lost ac- 

 tivity has been prophesied. More than one city 

 is improving its docks, and companies have 

 been formed for the construction of great river 

 barges. If all that these signs foretell comes 



