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. The Headwaters project provided for construction of the Winnibigoshish Dam in 1883-1884 and the completion of dams at Leech Lake (1884), Pokegama Falls (1884), Pine River (1886), Sandy Lake (1895), and Gull Lake (1912). 16 The folklore that people once waded across the Mississippi is true. 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. Their effort resulted in one of the most mysterious and ill-fated projects on the upper river. From St. Anthony Falls to downtown St. Paul, some 15 river miles, the river falls more than 100 feet. In turn, the Federal army would have to march south over poor roads and await the arrival of the transports. It had been nearly two years since Confederate forces had closed the Mississippi River to Union shipping. Over the next year, the Grange founded nearly 12,000 chapters and claimed over 858,000 members. Havighurst, A Wilderness Saga, p. 249; Merrick, Old Times, p. 232. 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. Bridges Over a dozen bridges cross the Mississippi River in the St. Louis metro area. In his next report, Warren had suggested a system of 41 reservoirs for the St. Croix, Chippewa, Wisconsin and Mississippi River basins. To secure their objective, the company needed support from businessmen in Minneapolis, and for that support, Minneapolis interests won back control of the company. Doc. . Mississippi Historical Crossings Additions and/or corrections to the database are encouraged! By Staff Writer Last Updated April 06, 2020. 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. Location. Contents 1Crossings 1.1Kentucky - Missouri 1.2Tennessee - Missouri 1.3Tennessee - Arkansas 1.4Mississippi - Arkansas 1.5Mississippi - Louisiana The Mississippi River, the state insisted, provided the natural link. 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. Hundreds of islands, some forming and others being cut away, divided the natural river, dispersing its waters into innumerable side channels and backwaters. In addition to the Mississippi River crossings, there are six Rock River crossings and another in the final design stage. Hundreds of miles of riverbank had been secured with riprap. Playing on the desire of Minneapolis navigation boosters, they proposed building a lock and dam between the two cities to aid navigation and to secure the hydropower for themselves.71, Meeker, a territorial judge and local entrepreneur, and Morrison, a St. Anthony Falls sawmill operator, lobbied for and obtained permission from the Minnesota Territorial Legislature to build their lock and dam near Meeker Island. From Minneapolis' perspective, the channel improvement works on the upper Mississippi River only benefitted its principal rivalSt. Frederic Paxson, American Frontier, 1763-1893, (Chicago: The Riverside Press, 1924), p. 517. .dodging reefs and hunting the best water.22 Poor hunters often fell prey to the river they hunted. Not only could the steamboat haul freight, but it had comfortable accommodations for passengers. Crossing the river was essential from the outset. Jeffery's 1776 Map of the Course of the Mississippi River from the Balise to Fort Chartres. Doc. 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, . . Military supplies and furs would dominate the much smaller steamboat trade above Galena. As Cook had worked for the Washburns, Meeker expected a negative report. 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. 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. 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. One dam would be blown up within 5 years of its completion and another would have to be redesigned and the completed part rebuilt. . 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. 1; see U.S. Congress, House, Survey of the Upper Mississippi River, Exec. 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. It came at the insistence of the states, farmers, business interests and the general public. Lucile M. Kane, Rivalry for a River: the Twin Cities and the Mississippi, Minnesota History 37:8 (December 1961):309-23. 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. 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. Mississippi River Crossing Needs and Other Crossing Strategies. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . The first enslaved Africans brought to the colony during the John Law Company period (1717-1731) were housed directly across from the settlement on the West Bank in what is now Algiers Point. 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. With river traffic failing and railroads monopolizing the regions transportation, many farmers and business interests believed they were facing a shipping crisis. By 1857, St. Paul had become a bustling port, with over 1,000 steamboat arrivals each year by some 62 to 99 boats.2, As rapidly as the number of steamboats increased, they could not keep pace with demand. . Ahead of him lay the capital at Jackson, and then Vicksburg. Close to Port Gibson is Grand Gulf military park. Wing and closing dam construction began at Pike Island at the mouth of the Minnesota River. The river pioneers once forded with their wagons and livestock no longer existed. 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. His prices were high$8 to cross a wagon at high water, falling to $6 by early July. 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. Doc. . 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. Nick is crossing the Mississippi for the first time, and feels the crossing will be "a big event". and finally crossing near St Cloud. Such improvements were beyond the ability of the individual states and had to be undertaken by the federal government, they declared.50. On April 30, Porters gunboats passed Grand Gulfs guns and began ferrying McClernands infantry and artillery across the river. A thick limestone mantle formed the riverbed. Those that bowed in and out of the water they labeled preachers. They would have to focus the river's current into one main channel and block off the myriad side channels. Assistant Engineer W.A. Date Posted: 9/18/2012 1:45:33 PM. Allied with them were sawmill operators and boom company operators William W. Eastman, John Martin, Sumner W. Farnham, James A. Lovejoy, and Joel B. Bassett. .65 Once the willow mats had been laid in the water, the workers would sink them with rock. The area is ideal for classic resort cabin or camping vacations. To get off, pilots sometimes used spars, long wood poles on which the front and back of the boats would be alternately jacked up and pushed forward. In this way, pilots hoped to walk their boat over the bar. 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. 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. The 4-foot project did not greatly alter the river's physical or ecological character and did not improve the river much for navigation, but it initiated a series of navigation projects that would do both. Where necessary, the Engineers would return and add more wing dams, closing dams and shore protection. Edward L. Pross, A History of Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Bills, 1866-1933, Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1938, p. 44. In August 1870, Kelley left Minnesota by steamboat for St. Louis to secure direct trade arrangements between Minnesota and Missouri. Demonstrating the Grange's early concern for improving the Mississippi River, the state Grange convention of 1869 featured the river. Popular wisdom at the beginning of the 19th century hypothesized it would take at least another 300 years, or most likely longer, to fill the area between the Mississippi and the Pacific coast. During its 1872 to 1873 session, Congress temporarily ended debate over the project, when it refused to amend the land grant.84. Shortly after the glaciers withdrew from southern Minnesota some 10,000 years ago, St. Anthony Falls stretched across the river valley near downtown St. Paul. In the South, although there were migrations to Mississippi and Louisiana, many more people went to Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas. 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. 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. It is a story with local and national significance. That destiny, they believed, was to become a commercial and industrial power as strong as the East, as well as the nation's breadbasket. Congress rejected Meeker's request and the Minnesota Legislature's petition for a land grant in support of a lock and dam in 1866. Alberta Kirchner Hill, Out With the Fleet, Minnesota History, (1961):286. 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 crossing back into Mississippi appears to have taken a physical toll on the animal. Minneapolis had captured title to the head of navigation, but the low dams had eliminated St. Pauls hope for securing hydropower. Annual Report, 1895, pp. Barns also argues that Kelley came away from his southern trip with the idea for the Grange, and that Kelley had a more radical organization in mind from the outset than Buck and other historians admit. Behind the bar lay a deep pool of water. 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. The first railroad bridge across the Mississippi was open for business. While steamboat traffic had remained strong before the Civil War, steamboats had begun losing passengers and grain to railroads. 1850: Birth of the levee system. 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). Granted, Mackenzie repeatedly called for locks and dams. Mackenzie added that the Corps would have to build a third lock and dam with a 10.1-foot lift to bring navigation to St. Anthony Falls and a fourth lock to bring navigation above it. Another wave soon followed. 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! Together, the Grange, shippers and merchants, boosters in river towns and the Windom committee persuaded Congress to authorize the 41/2-foot channel project. Second, was the idea of the Grange really his? The charming shops of downtown Bemidji / Lisa Meyers McClintick Other Sites Along the Great River. The upper river, stretching from the headwaters down to the Twin Cities, was not used by barge traffic. During its 1872 to 1873 session, Congress temporarily ended debate over the next year, the Grange early. 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