Neosho River

“ The height above the valley commands all that wide prairie that ripples in treeless fertility from as far as even an Indian can see until it breaks off with that cliff that walls the Neosho bottom lands up and down for many a mile. To the southwest the open black lowlands along Fingal's Creek beckoned as temptingly to the settler as did the Neosho Valley itself. The divide between the two, the river and its tributary, coming down from the northwest makes a high promontory. Its eastern side is the rocky ledge of the bluff. ”

“ Adults were taken most frequently in quiet water, but depth and bottom-type varied. The greatest concentrations occurred in mouths of creeks during times of high water; occasionally, large numbers were taken in a shallow backwater near the head of a riffle at the middle Neosho station. River carpsucker feed on the bottom but seem partly pelagic in habit. They were taken readily by means of the shocker and gill nets at all depths. The population of C. carpio in the Neosho River probably was depleted by drought, although many individuals survived in the larger pools. ”

“ The blue sucker was taken rarely in the Neosho River and not at all in the Marais des Cygnes in my study. Cross (personal com [Pg 375] munication) obtained several blue suckers in collections made in the mainstream of the Neosho River in 1952; both young and adults occupied swift, deep riffles. The species seemingly declined in abundance during the drought, and at the conclusion of my study (1959) had not regained the level of abundance found in 1952. ”

“ Council Grove by the Neosho River was the end of civilization for the freighter. Beyond it the wilderness spread its untamed lengths, and excepting Bent's Fort far up the Arkansas River on the line of the first old trail, rarely followed now, it held not a sign of civilization for the traveler until he should reach the first outposts of the Mexican almost in the shadow of Santa Fé. It is no wonder that wagon-trains mobilized here, waiting for an increase in numbers before they dared to start on westward. ”

“ Local Variability of the Fauna in Different Areas at the Upper Neosho Station, 1959
The shallow areas in which the shocker was used in 1959 are the prevalent habitat in the upper Neosho River. The relative abundance of fishes found in these areas is presented in Table 13. The red shiner was most abundant and was followed (in decreasing order) by long-eared sunfish, minnows of the genus Pimephales, green sunfish, red-finned shiner, channel catfish, and stoneroller. Other species combined comprise less than ten per cent of the population. ”

“ The wooded Neosho Valley grew dark before the evening lights had left the prairies beyond the west bluff, and the waters that sang all day a song of cheer as they rippled over the rocky river bed seemed always after nightfall to gurgle murderously as they went their way down the black-shadowed valley.
The main street was as broad as an Eastern boulevard. Space counted for nothing in planning towns in a land made up of distances. At the end of this street stood the "Last Chance" general store, the outpost of civilization. ”

“ A specimen of Carpiodes velifer taken at the lower station on the Neosho in 1958 provided the only record of the species in Kansas since 1924. Many specimens, now in the University of Kansas [Pg 378] Museum of Natural History, were taken from the Neosho River system by personnel of the State Biological Survey prior to 1912. The species has declined greatly in abundance in the past 50 years. ”

“ Young produced in 1958 in the Neosho River attained an average total length of three inches by 26 August, and young produced in 1959 attained an average size of 3.5 inches by 11 September. Both groups probably continued growth until October, and may have averaged four inches total length at that time. ”

“ But we are of opinion that this is too narrow a construction of the language describing the point at which the two roads mentioned in the same statute were expected to meet and cross each other. The construction thus asserted requires that the exact point of the high ground on the north of the Neosho river should be ascertained with great precision where the railroad of the other company, coming from the north, enters the valley. ”

“ Sept. 5th, further up Little Osage r.; 6th, over divide to Arkansan waters of the Neosho r.; 7th, approaching the Neosho; 8th, across this river; 9th, further along S. of it; 10th, across subdivide of Vermilion river basin; 11th, heading this river, and across subdivide into Neosho basin again; 12th, across Cottonwood fork of the Neosho; 14th, further along this fork; 15th, across divide from these Arkansan to Missourian waters again; 16th, nearing Smoky Hill r.; 17th, across this river. (Total distance from the Osage villages about 210 m., by Pike's mileages of Sept. 1st-17th about 250 m.) ”

“ This apparent stability in size may have been due to an influx of the faster-growing individuals from a smaller size-group, coupled with mortality of most individuals more than 14 inches in length.
Young-of-the-year were taken at every station. Extensive seining along a gravel bar at the lower Neosho station indicated that the young are highly selective for quiet, shallow water with mud bottom. In these areas, young-of-the-year carpsucker were often the most abundant fish.
River carpsucker were collected more readily by use of the shocker after dark than in daylight (Table 9, p. 402) . ”

“ The daylight was never so welcome before, and never a grander sunrise filled the earth with its splendor. I was up on the bluff patrolling the northwest boundary when the dawn began to purple the east. Oh, many a time have I watched the sunrise beyond the Neosho Valley, but on this rare May morning every shaft of light, every tint of roseate beauty along the horizon, every heap of feathery mist that decked the Plains, with the Neosho, bank-full, sweeping like molten silver below it—all these took on a new loveliness. ”

“ For the species listed in Table 10, the following usually applies: abundant=more than three fish caught per hour; common=one to three fish caught per hour; rare=less than one fish caught per hour.
Tables 12-16 list all fish obtained at the upper Neosho station by means of the shocker, seines, and rotenone. ”

“ Holding an inquest over the engine, we pronounced it dead.
In the drear fag end of the windy day, soaked from much wading and weary of paddling with little headway, we made camp in a clump of scarlet bull-berry bushes; and by the evening fire two talked of railroad stations, one talked of home, and I thought of that one of the "soldiers three" who "swore quietly into the sky."
The Milk River illusion was lost. Two hundred miles below was the mouth of the Yellowstone—the first station in the long journey. A few days back we had longed for gasoline; but there was no one to sell. ”

“ The Nile here enters a rocky valley between Gebel Kookoo and the western mountains, and foams and frets around and against rock and island, until, suddenly contracting, it breaks into a roaring torrent, and dashes furiously onward in the shadow of perpendicular cliffs. Waterfall succeeds to waterfall, and it is difficult to identify the swollen, thunderous, angry river with the calm clear stream that brightens the fertile pastures of Shooa. ”

“ It was a rare day in summer when we thus meandered over the alluring trail, past the Takakkaw falls—Canada's highest Niagara—past the Laughing falls and the Twin falls, and many another no less beautiful, to the great Yoho glacier at the uppper end of the valley, with its giant caverns, showing strangely blue and green, and from the throats of which the streams had their birth that later made the Yoho river. ”

“ The man of sixty years may smile at the intensity of feeling in the boy of twenty-one, but that makes it no easier for the boy. I watched the sun go down that night, and then I waited through the dark hour till the moon, now past the full, should once more illumine the Neosho Valley. Although I have always been a lover of nature, that sunset and the purple twilight following, the darkness of the early evening hour and the glorious moonrise are tinged with a sorrow I have never quite lost even in the happier years since then. ”

“ Each of these propositions, which threatened to modify the natural character and unity of the reservation, was strenuously resisted by Park administrations and the public generally.
In 1919 an irrigation project was sponsored by Idaho interests. It was a comprehensive plan that contemplated a dam on Yellowstone River, thereby raising the level of Yellowstone Lake. The water from this mighty reservoir would then be tapped by a tunnel through the Continental Divide, which would deliver the water into the Snake River. Other dams were designed to impound water along Fall and Bechler rivers. ”

“ The plateau which stretches between the two rivers Tom and Chulym, affluents of the Obi, at a height of between 800 and 900 feet above the level of the plain, is extremely fertile, the vegetation being most varied, and the whole region is vastly superior in point of picturesqueness to any hitherto visited. The valley of the Yenissei, dominated to the east by mountains and traversed by the magnificent river, is extremely beautiful. The water runs rapidly, is remarkably clear, and in more than one place the majestic stream widens to over 1,000 yards. ”

“ But the great flood of the spring had swept the valley clean. Where the year before there were prosperous ranch establishments with gasoline pumping plants, there was only desolation now. It was as though we traveled in the path of a devastating army. Perhaps the summer of 1908 was the most unfavorable season for such a trip in the last fifty years. Steamboating on the upper river is only a memory. There are now no wood-yards as formerly. We found ourselves with no certainty of procuring grub and oil; our engine became more and more untrustworthy; our paddles had been lost. ”

“ Suckers, minnows and catfishes constitute the main fauna of the Neosho and Marais des Cygnes rivers, because these families contain many species that have generalized habitat-requirements. Many of these fish are able to live successfully in either ponds or flowing waters and others are capable of long migrations. Because these fish predominate in the streams of Kansas, attempts should be made to utilize them more effectively. ”

“ Mrs. Page had the Post Office Department change the name from Slab Creek to Neskowin . In 1925 the U. S . Geographic Board was requested to change the name of the stream itself from Slab Creek to Neskowin Creek , and this was done , on October 7 of that year . NESMITH POINT , Multnomah County . Nesmith Point , elevation 3878 feet , is the highest point on the cliffs overlooking the Columbia River in the gorge through the Cascade Range . It is just south of Warrendale and east of Yeon Mountain . ”

“ The Tioga Road follows around the western margin of the lake to Tenaya Lake Lodge, about one and a half miles distant, where good accommodations will be found. The road continues up the canyon to Tuolumne Meadows, seven and a half miles distant, and to Mono Lake.
Our return trail starts just below the lake. Crossing the meadow it mounts the east slope steadily climbing 1000 feet up the rough granite to Forsyth Pass, two and a half miles distant. Fine views are obtained all along the trail. Near the summit a small shallow lake can be seen east of the trail. ”

“ In preglacial times the beds of all rivers and water courses had worn down to an even slope, so that there were very few, if any, waterfalls such as we have to-day. As we have before stated, Niagara River as well as the St. Lawrence River is a new outlet for the drainage of the great lakes. A part of this drainage formerly had its outlet through the Mohawk Valley into the Hudson, which is now filled up with glacial drift. The evidence is so conclusive that it is no longer doubted that the Niagara River dates from the time that the ice receded from that point. ”

“ The water in this spring is constantly boiling, rising sometimes to a height of four or five feet. The Upper and Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River, which are respectively one hundred and sixty and three hundred and fifty feet high, are very imposing, but hardly more so than the Nevada and Vernal Falls in the Yosemite, although the volume of water is a little larger. The river rises in Yellowstone Lake, which is in the southeastern part of the park, flows north, and going over the falls plunges down into the cañon. ”

“ The water-soaked bank shows fissures and help is implored—bells are rung, fleet horsemen arouse the neighborhood, the people assemble and try to stop the break. But the crumbling levee soon gives way, and the swollen and muddy current pours through with a roar like Niagara, the waters spreading afar over the lowlands, and thus by reducing the stream-level bringing relief to the river, but converting the adjacent region 422 for many miles into a turbid lake and ruining the crops. ”

“ The Nevada Fall is 600 feet high and is usually ranked next to the Yosemite in general interest among the five main falls of the Valley. Coming through the Little Yosemite in tranquil reaches, the river is first broken into rapids on a moraine boulder-bar that crosses the lower end of the Valley. Thence it pursues its way to the head of the fall in a rough, solid rock channel, dashing on side angles, heaving in heavy surging masses against elbow knobs, and swirling and swashing in pot-holes without a moment’s rest. ”