Zebulon Pike and Stephen Long both not only commented on how confined the river became above Hastings, they rowed its width to see how few strokes they needed. Sandbars posed the most persistent and frequent problem. He questioned the value of removing boulders, believing that the steep grade and rapid current required locks and dams. 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. Meeker, Kane says, retained some shares of the company for himself, as did his friends. Grant rejected any idea of a retreat. Such improvements were beyond the ability of the individual states and had to be undertaken by the federal government, they declared.50. . 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. 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. 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. Harold B. Schonberger, Transportation to the Seaboard: The Communication Revolution and American Foreign Policy, 1860-1900, (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Corporation, 1971), p. 21. Marker is on Levee Street north of Clay Street, on the left when traveling north. 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. While the Minnesota legislature appointed someone else to finish Norton's term, Windom won the seat in 1871. Deep was anything over three feet. Lauren McCoy dove deep to explore how it was a means of freedom. Contrary to most histories that follow Dixon, A Traffic History, p. 48, in saying that there were thirteen bridges across the Mississippi River by 1880, Patrick Brunet, The Corps of Engineers and Navigation Improvements on the Channel of Upper Mississippi River to 1939, Masters Thesis, (Austin, University of Texas, 1977), p. 46, says that there were fourteen bridges across the river by 1877, and he lists them. 2, Appendix CC, Reports on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard, p. 455. American Memory Project, Library of Congress. . He estimated that Lock and Dam 1 would cost $568,222 and that Lock and Dam 2 would cost $598,235. a splashing began. The parish seat is Edgard, an unincorporated area, and the largest city is LaPlace, which is also unincorporated.. St. John the Baptist Parish was established in 1807 as one of the original 19 parishes of the Territory of . Direct communication, they pleaded, is both natural and necessary, and the all-beneficent Creator has graciously anticipated the wants and necessities of unborn millions in having given us exactly such a continuous means of supply and exchange from the Falls of St. Anthony to the Gulf of Mexico. The petition even cited editorials from the St. Paul papers stressing the importance of Minneapolis to the region's economy. In response, farmers in the Midwest and throughout the nation joined the first national farm movement, called the Grange or Patrons of Husbandry. Opponents to the amendment included waterpower magnates William D. Washburn and Richard Chute. Annual Report, 1875, Part 2, Vol. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. 65-66; Roald Tweet, A History of Navigation Improvements on the Rock Island Rapids, (Rock Island District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, April 1980):2; John O. Jensen, Gently Down the Stream: An Inquiry into the History of Transportation on the Northern Mississippi River and the Potential for Submerged Cultural Resources, Wisconsin Archeologist 73:1-2 (March-June, 1992):71, says that only about 20 boats were operating above Galena before 1847. 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. This map displays the three land-based migration routes from the Carolinas and eastern Georgia to the newly opened lands of southern Mississippi. But City West soon declined and passed out of existence. St. Paul District, Corps of Engineers. The Twin Cities had to see that the entire Mississippi River was remade. Then, they would move to the next troublesome reach. The Upper Mississippi, that is the Mississippi from its source to the mouth of the Missouri, drains 173,000 sq. 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. Sitting on a bluff on the rivers eastern bank and shielded to the north by a maze of swamps, bayous and bluffs, Vicksburg posed a multitude of problems to Union planners. As Cook had worked for the Washburns, Meeker expected a negative report. 21-22. Reeling from Chicago's increasing dominance over the region's trade, they saw the river as their best counteroffensive. After the war, he settled in New York. Over the next year, the Grange founded nearly 12,000 chapters and claimed over 858,000 members. Railroad expansion following the Civil War accelerated the pace of the Midwest's unprecedented population and agricultural growth. Many trees fell into the water to become snags. Those that swayed back and forth with the current they called sawyers. Throughout his article (pp. Thompson gives a rule which is better adapted to the present project (the 6-foot channel), in which he places the dams in straight reaches the full channel width apart, increasing the space 25 per cent on the convex side and diminishing it 25 per cent on the concave side, depending on the degree of curvature. The project would permanently reshape the river between Lock and Dam 1 (the Ford Dam) and St. Anthony Falls. "This was like a day after he crossed the river. A circular trail connected the head of navigation of the Mississippi River with Pembina, North Dakota. Kelley and Grangers in the upper Mississippi River valley saw the river as an essential route to domestic and foreign markets. 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. Considering the traumas . 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. For wing dams, the suggested proportion of brush to rock was two to one, although where the current was strong, the ratio might increase to a ratio of three or four portions of brush for every one of rock. 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 other words, Congress asked the Corps to determine how to establish a continuous, 4-foot channel for the upper river at low water. 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. St. Paul suffered a double setback. 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. Pilots, Merrick recounted, had to study the nightmares first. Edward L. Pross, A History of Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Bills, 1866-1933, Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1938, p. 44. As steamboats evolved and as the region's population and production grew, the river's limitations as a navigation route would become unacceptable and Midwesterners would repeatedly call for its improvement as a commercial artery. 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. Washington Crossing the Delaware By Emanuel Leutze Beautiful Detailed Print . The area is ideal for classic resort cabin or camping vacations. No. If the company failed to do so, the state threatened to rescind the grant and issue it to another company. Rocks and rapids were a greater problem for steamboats trying to ply the river above St. Paul. 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. The Mississippi flows for some 2,300 miles, from Minneapolis to New Orleans, and into the Gulf of Mexico. 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. In St. Louis, the Mississippi remained above flood stage for 144 days between April 1 and September 30, 1993. In 1836, the ferry carried a 23-year-old New Yorker named Nelson Dewey across the river. 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. Woods, Knights, pp. In these reaches, Warren found that the river seems, as it were, lost, and indecisive which way to go and the pilot is scarcely able to find the line of deepest water even in daylight, and is unable to proceed at night with any confidence.31 The small pools behind the bars would play an important part in Warren's strategy for navigation improvement on the upper river. The Vicksburg Riverfront Murals are located on the Yazoo Diversion Canal levee wall. Petersen, Captains, p. 235; Tweet, History of Transportation on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, pp. 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. Ibid., pp. Upstream from Vicksburg, the river bent north in a broad loop before turning south again, forming a peninsula opposite the city. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. His . Further work on the project, he declared, had to wait until the Engineers could take borings, which they could not do until the state returned the grant. The lock and dam project hopelessly mired, the Corps, during its 1890 survey, evaluated removing boulders and rocks to encourage navigation.88 Major Alexander Mackenzie, the Rock Island District commander who had taken over this part of the river with the change in funding in 1888, suspected that Congress might authorize the Corps to remove the boulders in lieu of building locks and dams, even though it had authorized $25,000 to plan for a lock and dam in 1873. pdf i74-mrc-bro.pdf (663.5 kB) Download the I-74 Mississippi River Crossings Brochure. From Minneapolis' perspective, the channel improvement works on the upper Mississippi River only benefitted its principal rivalSt. But it held little chance of success and was eventually abandoned. Over the next year, he began developing plans, determining that the Engineers could build one lock and dam with a 17-foot lift. 1780-81. . m., over which the annual rainfall averages 34.7 in., and its discharge per second into the Lower Mississippi varies from 25,000 cub. Major General Ulysses S. Grant stood over maps searching for answers. The Mississippi River touches 31 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces and is one of the largest rivers in the world. In turn, the Federal army would have to march south over poor roads and await the arrival of the transports. Major Francis R. Shunk to Minneapolis Mayor J. C. Haynes, February 17, 1909. The bridge was completed on June 30, 1956. 44-45. In 1867, they held, according to one historian, the most important navigation improvement convention before 1873. 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. In this way, pilots hoped to walk their boat over the bar. AP US History (Sem 1) | Lesson 4.2 Assignment: Antebellum Reformers Project Directions: For this assignment you will choose a major reformer from the Antebellum era (1815-1861) and conduct independent research. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. U.S. Congress, House, Survey of Upper Mississippi River, 39th Congress, 2d sess., House Ex. Midwestern farmers sent grain to Chicago, and Chicago merchants and eastern manufacturers sent their goods back on the railroads. Prior to the war, with a few exceptions, Congress and/or the President had opposed a federal role in internal improvements.26, The 1866 act provided for the first project to focus on the whole upper river.27 It directed the Corps to survey the Mississippi River between St. Anthony Falls and the Rock Island Rapids, with a view to ascertain the feasible means, by economizing the water of the stream, of insuring the passage, at all navigable seasons, of boats drawing four feet of water. On November 20, 1855, the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad, which later became part of the Rock Island System, operated the first . 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 . 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. Dewey was lured to Cassville by its promise as the potential capital of the Wisconsin Territory. Ibid. Minnesota's population jumped from 6,077 to 172,023, Iowa's from 192,000 to 674,913, Wisconsin's from 305,391 to 775,881 and Illinois' from 851,470 to 1,711,951.9 Passenger traffic became so important to the steamboat trade that by 1850 passenger receipts exceeded freight receipts.10, Before 1866, during the heyday of steamboats, the upper Mississippi River still possessed most of its natural character. Frederic Paxson, American Frontier, 1763-1893, (Chicago: The Riverside Press, 1924), p. 517. Annual Report, 1894, pp. The many islands dividing the river disbursed the little water available into side channels and sloughs. During its 1872 to 1873 session, Congress temporarily ended debate over the project, when it refused to amend the land grant.84. While some arrived by way of the Great Lakes, many settlers entering Iowa, Minnesota and western Wisconsin made part of their journey on the upper river.6 Historian Roald Tweet contends that, The number of immigrants boarding boats at St. Louis and traveling upriver to St. Paul dwarfed the 1849 gold rush to California and Oregon.7 More than one million passengers arrived at or left from St. Louis in 1855 alone.8 As a result, the population of the four upper river states above Missouri ballooned between 1850 and 1860. Steamboat traffic grew quickly after 1823. Of specific note is the intersection where the Three-Chopped Way intersected with the . 341, pp. 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. 1; see U.S. Congress, House, Survey of the Upper Mississippi River, Exec. The effort to channel the river away from the defenders cannons had been underway for weeks. In his next report to the Chief of Engineers, Warren stated that new surveys showed that the Corps would have to build a second lock and dam, locating it near the mouth of Minnehaha Creek, about one-half mile below Lock and Dam No. Snags were such frequent and treacherous hazards that steamboat pilots named them (Figure 3). 196-97, 199; Tweet, History of Transportation, 38-39. From this work, Warren contended that in its natural state the Mississippi River's navigation channel frequently changed and that the Corps would have to survey the river each year until they understood how it worked.29 In some reaches, Warren reported, sandbars moved in waves along the channel bottom, looking something like snowdrifts. The committee recommended that Congress authorize surveys and get cost estimates prepared as early as possible in order to mature a plan for the radical improvement of the river, and of all its navigable tributaries.58 The committee suggested that the Corps establish a channel of 41/2 to 6 feet for the upper Mississippi River.59 To create a channel of these depths, the committee acknowledged, would require constricting the river with wing dams and closing dams.60. Led by Ignatius Donnelly, Grange supporters had organized the People's Anti-Monopoly party, with a platform striking at monopolies, advocating state railroad controls, and denouncing postwar corruption. 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.
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