Mississippi River Valley

“ The Mississippi River, from Cairo south, runs through a rich alluvial valley of many miles in width, bound on the east by land running from eighty up to two or more hundred feet above the river. On the west side the highest land, except in a few places, is but little above the highest water. Through this valley the river meanders in the most tortuous way, varying in direction to all points of the compass. At places it runs to the very foot of the bluffs. After leaving Memphis, there are no such highlands coming to the water's edge on the east shore until Vicksburg is reached. ”

“ Higher up, the prairies within the river valley become more numerous and extensive, till at length no woodlands appear, except tracts of small size, situated at the points formed by the meanders of the river.
The bottoms on the Upper Mississippi (that part of the Mississippi situated above its confluence with the Missouri being distinguished by this appellation) contain less woodland, in proportion to their extent, than those of the Missouri. The prairies upon this river also become more numerous and extensive as we proceed upward. ”

“ Anthony’s Falls, may be considered as the termination of this tract. Above this point, although the Mississippi has some rich alluvions, as at the mouth of Sandy Lake River, its vegetation assumes generally an alpine character, and a large portion of the wide area of its valley, is traversed by pine ridges, with innumerable intervening lakes, and extensive tracts of, what the natives denominate, mushkeegs. ”

“ This we are not yet prepared to do; on the contrary, there are many facts going to establish for the mound-builders very high antiquity, and tending to the conclusion that the degree of civilization which they possessed was attained by a course of development in the Mississippi valley. It is not impossible that future investigations may show that the agriculture and civilization of the Mexicans, Central Americans, and Peruvians, had its origin among the builders of the ancient monuments on the banks of the great Mississippi river,—the Nile and the Ganges of North America. ”

“ The lower Mississippi valley, including the Arkansas, etc., furnished 32 per cent.
During March, April and May, 1882, the time of highest stage of the water of the lower Mississippi, the outflow at Red River Landing and through the Atchafalaya measured 82.7 cubic miles. During this time there flowed through the upper Mississippi river above St. Louis, 14 per cent. of the amount; through the Ohio, 38 per cent., and through the Missouri 6 per cent.; while the rivers of the lower Mississippi valley contributed 41 percent. The water that passed Omaha was 1.92 cubic miles, or 2 per cent. ”

“ The Unica or White river, the Strawberry, Spring river, Currents and Black rivers, descend from it, and join the Mississippi. The Great and Little Osage, and the Gasconade, flow into the Missouri. The great plains, and sand-desert, which stretches at the eastern foot of the Rocky mountains, lie west of it. It is not less than two hundred miles in breadth. No part of the central regions of the Mississippi valley exhibits such a variety in its geological constituents, or such a striking mineralogical development. Its bodies of the ore of iron called iron-glance, are unparalleled. ”

“ And the history of the Red River valley shows that it has long been plagued by such disasters and burdened by their costs. [20]
Floods pay no respect to state lines. [21] Their effective control in the Mississippi valley has become increasingly a subject of national concern [22] in recognition of the fact that single states are impotent to cope with them effectively. The methods of dealing with them have elicited a contrariety of views. [23]
The idea of reservoir control on the tributaries of the Mississippi is not new. ”

“ The Mississippi river is the great cosmopolitan which unites all people, which gives a definite purpose to their activity, and determines their abode, and which enables the life of every zone, the inhabitants themselves and their products, to circulate from the one end to the other of this great central valley. ”

“ Assuming, then, that the lowest terrace, on the Scioto river for example, has been formed since the era of the mounds, we must next consider that the excavating power of the Western rivers diminishes yearly, in proportion as they approximate towards a general level. On the lower Mississippi,—where alone the ancient monuments are sometimes invaded by the water,—the bed of the stream is rising, from the deposition of the materials brought down from the upper tributaries, where the excavating process is going on. ”

“ It has, however, but a single wall and ditch; the latter is from two to four feet deep, the former of proportionate height. There is a gateway or unexcavated passage across the ditch, but no corresponding opening in the embankment. There is, however, a narrow, unprotected space between the left end of the defences and the bluff. The elevation of the ground is here about two hundred feet above the river, the soil sandy, and lately put under cultivation. The bluff is steep and difficult of ascent. Water is found in the adjacent ravines, which are narrow and deep. ”

“ The valley which is watered by the Mississippi seems formed to be the bed of this mighty river, which like a god of antiquity dispenses both good and evil in its course. On the shores of the stream nature displays an inexhaustible fertility; in proportion as you recede from its banks, the powers of vegetation languish, the soil becomes poor, and the plants that survive have a sickly growth. ”

“ The ditches were filled, sandbanks formed in many places, and the sugar-cane fields covered with the débris of the Mississippi. There were two or three crevasses of nearly equal magnitude between Port Hudson and the mouth of Red river, and upper Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi suffered terribly from the overflow, caused in great part by the breaking away of the newly built levees. The entire valley of Red river, whose bottoms furnish perhaps the best cotton lands in the world, was inundated below Jefferson, Texas. Many of the best buildings in Shreveport and Alexandria were undermined. ”

“ The night dew was heavy on this elevation, and a dense fog prevailed at the hour of our embarkation (5 o'clock A. M., on the 27th) . The pine lands come in with the valley of Pine River, a large and important stream tributary from the west, which has a connection with Leech Lake. These lands characterize both banks of the Mississippi to the entrance of the River De Corbeau. We were seven hours, with a strong current, in passing through this tract. It is to be observed that ancient fires have been permitted to run through these forests, destroying immense quantities of the timber. ”

“ This is, in fact, the origin of that extensive diffusion of these species, which is found in the valley of the Upper Mississippi, as at Lake Pepin, &c., and which has even been traced, in small pieces, as low as St. Louis and Herculaneum in Missouri. [227] We may conclude that the ancient sandstones, slates, and rubblestone, and amygdaloids, of which traces still remain, were swept from the summit of the Mississippi by those ancient floods which appear to have diffused the boulder drift from the North. ”

“ As a farming country, it presents the greatest facilities for raising stock and [199] grains, and it is one of the most favored parts of the Mississippi Valley; the climate has a delightful serenity, and it must, as soon as the Indian title is extinguished, [136] become one of the most attractive fields for the emigrant. To the ordinary advantages of an agricultural market town, it must add that of being a depot for the commerce between the northern and southern sections of the Union, and a great thoroughfare for strangers, merchants, and travellers. ”

“ Paul, the modern Minnesota River empties into the Mississippi, but the ancient condition was the converse. At Ft. Snelling, the valleys form one continuous nearly straight course, about a mile wide, bounded by bluffs 150 feet high. The valley of the Minnesota is large, but the modern river is small. The uppermost valley of the Mississippi enters this common valley at nearly right angles, and is only a quarter of a mile wide and is completely filled by the river. Though this body of water is now the more important, yet in former days it was relatively a small tributary. ”

“ In the magnitude of the area enclosed, this work exceeds any hill-work now known in the country; although the wall is considerably less in length than that of “Fort Ancient,” on the Little Miami river. It evinces great labor, and bears the impress of a numerous people. The valley in which it is situated was a favorite one with the race of the mounds; and the hill overlooks a number of extensive groups of ancient works, the bearings of which are indicated by arrows on the plan. ”

“ The space which each band periodically traverses, in this effort, is extensive, and subjects them to casualties, which they would otherwise escape. Their condition is still further imbittered by hostilities with the Sioux tribes, who occupy the whole line of their western frontier. They cover the entire north-western angle of the United States, extending down the Mississippi valley on both banks, as145 low as the Wadub, being the first stream above Sac river. ”

“ The fact of the existence, within the valley of the Mississippi river and its tributaries, of many ancient monuments of human labor and skill, seems to have escaped the notice of the adventurers who first made known to the world the extent and fertility of that vast region. ”

“ Peter's Valley, 154 Mean velocity of current of Mississippi River, 126 Metallic masses, 100 Metallic minerals, 340 Meteorological journal kept at Chicago, 424 Meteorology, 418 Metoswa rapids, 229 Metunna Rapids, 266 Micaceous oxide of iron, 111 Michigan—its population at various periods, 46 Michilimackinac, 57, 311 Michilimackinac first becomes a capital for the fur trade, 68 ”

“ From the Alleghenies, from the Rocky Mountains, from the Black Hills, the Ozarks, and the prairies of Minnesota, the streams are ever bringing down fine, fertile soil into the Mississippi, which spreads it at times of high water over fields, forests, and swamps and carries some of it into the gulf. So great is the amount of fine soil carried by the great river that every year it would make a vast block a square mile in area and four hundred feet high. ”

“ Complete in itself, the source of life, health, fine climate, fertility, wealth, and countless blessings to all its shores and valleys, it is divided by lofty barriers from all the other chief water systems of the United States. The Mississippi rises in the highlands of Minnesota at Lake Itasca, more than one hundred miles west of Lake Superior, and gathers in its course all the rivers of its valley. ”

“ The new-found source of the Mississippi is a sparkling little gem of a lake, situated above and beyond Lake Itasca. It nestles among the pines of an unfrequented and wild region of Northern Minnesota, many miles from the nearest white settlement, and just on the dividing ridge which forms the great watershed of North America. Within a few miles of it can be found lakes and streams, whose waters are tributary to the Red River of the North and the Yellowstone, thus reaching the sea thousands of miles from the mouth of the mighty Mississippi, which flows in a limpid brook from Lake Glazier. ”

“ The old town is said to have been about a mile below the present settlement, which was commenced by Mr. Dubuque and his associates, in 1783. The prairie is most eligibly situated along the margin of the stream, above whose floods it is elevated. It consists of a heavy stratum of diluvial pebbles and boulders, which is picturesquely bounded by lofty cliffs of the silurian [105] limestones, and their accompanying column of stratification. The village has the old and shabby look of all the antique French towns on the Mississippi, and in the great lake basins ”

“ I know not how else to account for the light which has suddenly burst upon us from this bank of the Mississippi, and which has at once proved it to be as valuable for the purposes of agriculture as for those of mining, and as sylvan in its appearance as if it were not fringed, as it were, with rocks, and lying at a great elevation above the water. This elevation is so considerable as to permit a lively descent in the streams, forming numerous mill-seats. The surface of the country is not, however, broken, but may be compared to the heavy and lazy-rolling waves of the sea after a tempest. ”

“ These visits of gentlemen of wealth, to the great area of the upper lakes, may be noticed as commencing with this year. People seem to have suddenly waked up in the East, and are just becoming aware that there is a West--to which they hie, in a measure, as one who hunts for a pleasant land fancied in dreams. But the great Mississippi Valley is a waking reality. Fifty years will tell her story on the population and resources of the world. ”

“ The greatest admirers of the river, the people who sing its praises with the most emphasis, are the ones who go off on a tangent of temper quickest when they find a new caving of river-bank headed toward the newest and most expensive levee, built to protect great plantations, while just across the stream arise worthless bluffs and useless sand-bars. Talk to a Mississippi River man,—shanty-boater, pilot, raftsman, plantation owner, or city merchant,—and he will brag about the river wonders. ”

“ At no other time is the Mississippi so impressive and majestic as during "high water." When the river is out of its banks near the crest of the levees, excitement and dread is in the heart of every lowlander. If anything happens, the blow will fall on him. At such times, every man has his duty to perform. Cattle, horses, and hogs are driven to the highlands,—perhaps rafted across the sipe water to Crowley's ridge, or driven swimming by canoe men from knoll to knoll, to safety above overflows. ”