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. This ferry crossed the Mississippi River near the small town of Batchtownin Calhoun Countyinto Lincoln County, Missouri connecting with Route 79. Annual Report, 1890, p. 2034; Annual Report, 1892, pp. Hundreds of wing dams and closing dams studded the rivers banks from St. Paul to St. Louis. You will then create a visual (posterboard, glogster, MS Word, etc.) 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). 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. 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 XV Corps commander argued that Porters gunboats and transports could not run past Vicksburgs batteries. 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. . In doing so, they would contribute to the drive for navigation improvement at the same time they were throttling shipping on the river. Historical Features are physical or cultural features that are no longer visible on the landscape. 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). Low water was based on the rivers elevation in 1864, when a severe drought occurred. Ibid., pp. Steamboat traffic grew quickly after 1823. Mississippi was given title to more than three million acres of swamp and overflow land along its northwestern border with the Mississippi River. 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 Mississippi flows for some 2,300 miles, from Minneapolis to New Orleans, and into the Gulf of Mexico. Edward L. Pross, A History of Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Bills, 1866-1933, Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1938, p. 44. Despite the frustrations and controversies, he had assured his wife: Vicksburg will be a hard job. Doc. 123-24. Trees filled and enshrouded it. He lists 99 boats counting for 965 arrivals in 1857 and 62 boats as accounting for the 1,090 arrivals in 1858. The small streams were crossed by fording; the larger ones by swimming the teams, wagons and all. Gone now, the island lay some three miles below the falls, in Minneapolis. Military supplies and furs would dominate the much smaller steamboat trade above Galena. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. The first railroad bridge across the Mississippi was open for business. 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. Annual Report, 1875, p. 302. Annual Report, 1894, pp. Just below this mantle lay a soft sandstone layer. The four broad projects are known as the 4-, 41/2-, 6- and 9-foot channel projects. 58, pp. 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 . In 1880, however, it finally authorized an experimental dam for Lake Winnibigoshish and authorized the remaining dams shortly afterwards. Photo by Henry P. Bosse. 196-97, 199; Tweet, History of Transportation, 38-39. On the night of April 16, with Grant watching from a transport, Porters fleet of gunboats, steamers and barges successfully ran the Confederate batteries, losing only one transport to Southern fire. From this time forward, the Corps' role in the river would become as deep and broad as the river itself. 109, pp. . In other words, Congress asked the Corps to determine how to establish a continuous, 4-foot channel for the upper river at low water. All demanded the federal presence, the federal expertise and the federal dollars. 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. On April 30, Porters gunboats passed Grand Gulfs guns and began ferrying McClernands infantry and artillery across the river. 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. A traveler glides down the river, without much disturbance due to the shallow draft of the vessel. They would have to focus the river's current into one main channel and block off the myriad side channels. This image pair shows the area around St. Louis, Missouri, in August 1991 and 1993. In December 1872, he had introduced a resolution to address the transportation problem. In 1876, he returned to Wisconsin to becomefittinglya railway agent. 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. From 1850 to 1870, it delivered supplies and furs on two-wheeled carts between St. Paul, Minnesota and the frontier. 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. 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 endeavor would be difficult and risky, requiring Rear Adm. David Dixon Porters fleet to pass by Vicksburgs heavy guns. And Congress had authorized, that year, a sixth dam for the Headwaters, the one at Gull Lake. Ibid. In 1855 a railroad entered Galena. Support for the project came from the company's stockholders, navigation boosters and city business leaders. While the river naturally eroded its banks, closing dams and wing dams accelerated erosion by increasing the channel's velocity and volume. Reeling from Chicago's increasing dominance over the region's trade, they saw the river as their best counteroffensive. Kane jumps to the construction of Lock and Dam 2, without discussing who made the final push for the project. II The Midwest, (The University of Alabama Press, 1973), pp. 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. Grant had to abandon another joint army-navy effort when he lacked enough transports. During the late summer or early fall, when the Mississippi usually became a shallow, slow-moving stream, the wing dams could not direct enough water down the channel to scour it. issues at that time included . During the 1850s, traffic soared. The Corps simply did not have the funding, equipment, personnel or authority to make significant and permanent changes. a splashing began. 152-53. All the campaigns, labors, hardships and exposures from the month of December previous to this time that had been made and endured, were for the accomplishment of this one object. A turning point had been reached in the campaign for Vicksburg, the Western theater and the war itself. For physical reasons, a single lock and dam must lie entirely within the limits of Minneapolis, or entirely within the limits of St. Paul. Having accomplished nothing as the deadline approached, the company spent $26,000 during late 1870 and early 1871. Congress rejected Meeker's request and the Minnesota Legislature's petition for a land grant in support of a lock and dam in 1866. At 692 miles, the Yellowstone River ranks . . 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. Barns credits Kelley with founding the Grange, recognizing the role of others, particularly of Miss Carrie Hall, Kelley's niece. From the St. Croix to the Illinois River it varied from 18 to 24 inches.15 A few miles below St. Paul, the river sometimes became so shallow that boats would have to stop within sight of the city.16 The folklore that people once waded across the Mississippi is true. But it held little chance of success and was eventually abandoned. This is the general phone line at the Mississippi River Visitor Center. Alberta Kirchner Hill spent 19 summers (1898-1917) with her father's fleet as they built the dams for the government. While the Minnesota legislature appointed someone else to finish Norton's term, Windom won the seat in 1871. Heretofore I have had nothing to do but fight the enemy. He learned that Minneapolis and St. Anthony (the community on the rivers east bank that merged with Minneapolis in 1872) had funded the removal of boulders to encourage steamboats to travel above St. Paul. . No. He moved on to represent Minnesota in the U.S. House for 6 years as a Republican. Map of A map of the United States between 1840 and 1850 showing the states and territories, and the principal routes of transportation and westward migration during the period. .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. . 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. 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. Where necessary, the Engineers would return and add more wing dams, closing dams and shore protection. 247, 40th Cong., 2d sess., p. 9. Subsequently he turned to newspaper editing and publishing.20 Railroads have got enough for the present. Some steamboats might land only once, while others returned many times. . The density of channel constriction works and the degree to which they physically and ecologically changed the river increased gradually over the project's history. Kane, Rivalry, p. 322, suggests that the federal government recognized its obligation for improving navigation in 1873 by authorizing $25,000 for the project. 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, Petersen, Captains, p. 235; Tweet, History of Transportation on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, pp. 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. 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. At Rock Island in 1856, the Chicago and Rock Island became the first railroad to cross the Mississippi. 55101. As a result, Warren favored dredging. Annual Report, 1895, pp. In St. Louis, the Mississippi remained above flood stage for 144 days between April 1 and September 30, 1993. 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. Nate [Nathan] Daly, Tracks and Trails: Incidents in the Life of a Minnesota Pioneer, (Walker, Minnesota: Cass County Pioneer, 1931), p. 18. Little and Ives Company, 1944), p. 166; Hartsough, Canoe, pp. Responding in part to Minneapolis business and political interests, he requested $235,665 to construct a lock and dam at Meeker Island, which lay between Minneapolis and St. Paul. From the St. Croix to the Illinois River it varied from 18 to 24 inches.