Des Moines River

“ When I first saw the country west of the Missouri River it was without civil government, inhabited almost exclusively by Indians. The few white men in it were voyageurs, or connected in some way with the United States army. It was supposed to be uninhabitable, without any natural resources or productiveness, a vast expanse of arid plains, broken here and there with barren, snow-capped mountains. Even Iowa was unsettled west of the Des Moines River. ”

“ The Des Moines River flows through it in a southeasterly direction for a distance of forty-five miles, having numerous tributaries and borders of excellent timber, dividing the county about equally between woodland and prairie. Coal and building stone are abundant as well as water power. The first settler in the county was Abel Galland who took a claim near where Farmington stands, in 1832.
The first white man who built a cabin where Keosauqua now stands was John Silvers who took a claim in 1835. ”

“ Honey Creek, ordinarily a small stream coming from the prairie south and west of the town of Boone, winds its way through the forest in a westerly direction emptying into the Des Moines not far from the railroad bridge which was first built across the river near the coal town of Moingona. The banks of the river here rise to a great height. The grade of the railroad, down the valley of Honey Creek, descends rapidly and not far from the Shelly cabin the track crosses the creek on a bridge of considerable elevation. ”

“ Des Moines appeared to Bradley to be very great and very noisy. It was the largest city he had ever seen. He was born in Eastern Wisconsin on a farm, and his early life had been spent far from any populous centre; very largely, indeed, in the timber-lands. He had been in Lacrosse, that is to say, he changed cars there, and Rock River and Iowa City were the only towns he had ever lived in.
He had the preconception that Des Moines was a fine city, but its streets seemed endless to him that cold, clear night that he got off the train and walked up the sidewalk. ”

“ But fear was not a part of these men's nature; or if it existed, it lay so deep, buried beneath religious zeal and pious trust, that its voice never reached the upper air. Leaving the boatmen with the canoes, near the mouth of the river now called Des Moines, Marquette and Joliet set out alone, to follow up the trail, and seek the people who had made it. It led them to an open prairie, one of the most beautiful in the present state of Iowa, and crossing this, a distance of six miles, they at last found themselves in the vicinity of three Indian villages. ”

“ It is a highly notorious geographical object, and a very proper one to govern a national boundary; but the name called for in the act of Congress of 1820, and in the constitution of Missouri, is 'the rapids of the River Des Moines.' Then, and ever since, the great rapid in the Mississippi River has been known by a different name. ”

“ In the day time the town perfectly filled with teams, fitting out making up companies, loading up, and preparing to cross the river. I have been told that the ferries were four weeks behind, we had our passage engaged for this morning but it has rained all day and all we have done is to load up. I have not seen or heard of any of the Troy Grove [16] people ...
We crossed the Des Moines 10 miles below the fort, and should have crossed some distance below at Red Rock had the road been fit to travel, and feed to be had. Our cattle have lived on grass a most of the time since crossing this river. ”

“ Des Moines river land grant, I, 237, 240, 248, 249, 253, 255, 358; decisions of courts concerning, III, 223, 229, 230, 232, 233, 234, 243; decisions of attorneys-general, 217, 220, 222; extent of, 92, 215, 216, 217, 220, 221, 222, 224, 227; sale of lands, 221, 222, 223, 225; settlers, 165, 226, 230, 232, 235, 240, 241, 242, 243; value of, 246.
Des Moines, town of, location, I, 108, 164; mounds near, 19; origin of name, 33; removal of capital to, 351.
De Soto, I, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 42.
Desperadoes in Mississippi valley, I, 331, 337, 339, 340. ”

“ The next morning, 10th, we passed Deer creek, and at the distance of five miles, the two rivers called by the French the two Charatons, a corruption of Thieraton, the first of which is thirty, the second seventy yards wide, and enter the Missouri together. They are both navigable for boats: the country through which they pass is broken, rich, and thickly covered with timber. The Ayauway nation, [13] consisting of three hundred men, have a village near its head-waters on the river De Moines. ”

“ From the Missouri to Salt river, good springs are scarce, and in several counties it is difficult to obtain permanent water by digging wells. Artificial wells, as they may be called, are made by digging a well forty or fifty feet deep, and replenishing it with a current of rain water from the roof of the dwelling house. Much of the prairie land in this part of the State is inferior to the first quality of prairie land in Illinois, as the soil is more clayey, and does not so readily absorb the water. Between Salt river and Des Moines, is a beautiful and rich country of land. ”

“ Among its chief buildings are the new State house, the State arsenal, university, and opera-houses. There are coal-mines in the vicinity, and the manufactures and other industries are varied and rapidly increasing. Pop. 104,052 (1917) .
Des Moines, the largest river in the state of Iowa, rises in the S.W. of Minnesota, and flows in a south-easterly direction till it falls into the Mississippi about 4 miles below Keokuk, after a course of 300 miles.
Desmoncus, a genus of tropical American climbing palms, scrambling by means of stout hooks which are modified leaflets. ”

“ There are steep bluffs along the river banks, caused by the wearing away of the drift and rocks by the water. The State is covered with prairie land, with no swamps or natural forests. The water system is divided into two parts, those rivers flowing into the Mississippi in the E., and those flowing into the Missouri in the W. Among the former are the Upper Iowa, Turkey, Maquoketa, Wapsipinicon, Cedar, Iowa, Skunk, Des Moines, and Boone, while the Missouri system includes the Chariton, Grand Platte, Nodaway, Nishnabotna, Boyer, Maple, Little Sioux, Rock, and Floyd rivers. ”

“ It is an important manufacturing and commercial city, and is noted for its extensive insurance interests and its exceptional railroad facilities, which include the lines of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific; the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy; the Chicago Great Western; the Chicago and Northwestern; the Wabash; and the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul. Des Moines was settled in 1846, incorporated as the town of Fort Des Moines in 1851, and in 1857 was chartered as a city and became the capital of the State. ”

“ Grandest of American rivers though it is, you will be glad to get away from it to a noble stream like the Columbia, to a headstrong flood like the Missouri, or an inland sea like the Mississippi; on them at least you can draw a full breath and speak aloud without a feeling that the silent mountains may fall on you or the raging river swallow you up.
In the vast territory lying between the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean the rivers are fast being harnessed for a work that will one day make the most barren spots fertile. ”

“ Passing along the boundary of the Mound-builders’ territory towards the west, we find the great lakes in all cases to have served as its limit on the north. Mr. Henry Gillman has described in several publications [12] his exploration of mounds in Michigan and the lakes. One of the richest mounds in relics and human remains is known as “the Great Mound of the River Rouge,” situated on the stream from which it takes its name, near the Detroit River and about four and a half miles from the centre of the city of Detroit. ”

“ Irrigation is claiming every year more of the flow of Western rivers. Even the tricksy old Missouri is contributing somewhat to irrigation, but in the queerest possible way.
With all its other eccentricities, the Missouri River leaks badly; for you know there are leaky rivers as well as leaky boats. The government [Pg 63] engineers once measured the flow of the Missouri away up in Montana, and again some hundred miles further down stream. ”

“ The Missouri River would constitute nearly the whole of its western boundary. In the northerly part the Mouse and Pembina Rivers are among its largest streams; in the middle flows the large and finely wooded Shayenne, "whose valley possesses a fertile soil and offers many inducements to its settlement;" while towards the south it would have the Jacques, the Big Sioux, the Vermillion, and the head waters of the St. Peter's. In its supply of copious streams, nature seems there to have been lavish. ”

“ Away up here in the mountains, the Missouri, which subsequently becomes one of the most treacherous and destructive rivers in the universe, runs through picturesque cañons and over great gorges of rock, finally leaving the State a great river, though still insignificant in comparison with the volume it is to assume, and the drainage work it is to accomplish farther away from the mighty hills among which it had its source. ”

“ Des Moines is the seat of Des Moines College (Baptist) , established in 1865; Drake University (Christian) , founded in 1881; and three other colleges, including two medical schools. It has public parks, and several bridges across the two rivers. The Iowa State Fair is held here. An army post for a regiment of cavalry has recently been established at the city. Des Moines and the surrounding region are underlaid with vast deposits of bituminous coal, a material advantage which has contributed to the rapid growth of the manufacturing industries. ”

“ The waters of the Missouri are as swift as those of the Yukon, but the river flows for a thousand miles through the soft muds of the Western prairies, instead of through the banks of firm gravel, and it eats its way here and there when and where it chooses, and no man can prevent. Hence the railways, while they traverse the general course of the great valley of the Missouri, do not dare follow too closely the river banks, but they rather keep far away and have just as little to do with the treacherous stream as they may. ”

“ As they came panting and puffing up the hill the captain of the Reliables saw this, stopped, waved his hand back at his company and said,
"They have beat us, boys; you can go back."
There is one good thing about Des Moines, according to the advertisements they are running in the magazines. ”

“ During its long course from the far away Rockies to its junction with the mighty Mississippi, the Missouri River penetrates every variety of country one can think of. In many places it passes through vast stretches of prairie land, where, as far as the eye can reach, the country is like a billowy sea, being covered with grass. ”

“ For several miles below the rapids the current of the Missouri becomes stronger as you approach, and the spurs of the mountains advance towards the river, which is deep and not more than seventy yards wide: at the rapids the river is closely hemmed in on both sides by the hills, and foams for half a mile over the rocks which obstruct its channel. The low grounds are now not more than a few yards in width, but they furnish room for an Indian road which winds under the hills on the north side of the river. ”

“ If the quantity of rain and snow falling at all seasons in a given district depended on itself for the supply, then the amount of water precipitated would, were the winds out of consideration, be determined by the amount of lake, river, and ocean surface within its own boundaries. In this event Minnesota would among the States occupy the very highest place on the scale,—with, perhaps, a single exception,—since the whole face of the commonwealth is dotted all over with lakes, sliced with rivers, and skirted in addition by a great inland sea. ”

“ There are between eight and nine hundred of these people living along Grand river and its tributaries, but many of their most populous villages are on land now belonging to the United States.
This river is the largest stream that waters the west part of the peninsula of Michigan, being two hundred and seventy miles in length, its windings included, and navigable two hundred and forty miles for batteaux; receiving in its course a great number of tributary streams, among which are Portage, Red Cedar, Looking Glass, Soft Maple, Muscota, Flat, Rouge and Thorn Apple rivers. ”

“ These farms are mostly in a flourishing condition, are fenced and under good cultivation, divided into meadows and fields of every variety of grain. The village is delightfully situated. As an evidence of its prosperity it supported two ably conducted daily papers and three weeklies, three banks and several graded schools. I was now eighty-two miles from Des Moines. The prairie here is gently undulating and the soil composed of vegetable mould and sand. Atlantic, I infer from its busy [435] appearance, has a destiny above that which it has attained. ”

“ The navigation of the Missouri is thought to be the most hazardous and difficult of any of the Western rivers, owing to its mad, impetuous current, to the innumerable obstructions in its bed, and the incessant variation of its channel.165 Insurance and pilotage [252] upon this river are higher than on others; the season of navigation is briefer, and steamers never pursue their course after dusk. Its vast length and numerous tributaries render it liable, also, to frequent floods, of which three are expected every year. ”