SEX, LIES AND SCANDAL IN TWO RIVERS

Between and A. Both civilizations supported large populations at their height; the Chaco Canyon Puebloans numbered between 6, and 15, [] and estimates for the Hohokam range between 30, and , These sedentary peoples heavily exploited their surroundings, practicing logging and harvesting of other resources on a large scale. The construction of irrigation canals may have led to a significant change in the morphology of many waterways in the Colorado River basin. Prior to human contact, rivers such as the Gila, Salt and Chaco were shallow perennial streams with low, vegetated banks and large floodplains.

In time, flash floods caused significant downcutting on irrigation canals, which in turn led to the entrenchment of the original streams into arroyos , making agriculture difficult. The Navajo were an Athabaskan people who migrated from the north into the Colorado River basin around A. The Mohave have lived along the rich bottomlands of the lower Colorado below Black Canyon since A. They were fishermen — navigating the river on rafts made of reeds to catch Gila trout and Colorado pikeminnow — and farmers, relying on the annual floods of the river rather than irrigation to water their crops.

Missionaries sought to convert indigenous peoples to Christianity — an effort sometimes successful, such as in Father Eusebio Francisco Kino 's encounter with the "docile Pimas of the Gila Valley [who] readily accepted Kino and his Christian teachings". The Spanish introduced sheep and goats to the Navajo, who came to rely heavily on them for meat, milk and wool.

The use of horses spread through the basin via trade between the various tribes and greatly facilitated hunting, communications and travel for indigenous peoples. More warlike groups such as the Utes and Navajos often used horses to their advantage in raids against tribes that were slower to adopt them, such as the Goshutes and Southern Paiutes. The gradual influx of European and American explorers, fortune seekers and settlers into the region eventually led to conflicts that forced many Native Americans off their traditional lands.

In what is now known as the Long Walk of the Navajo, the captives were marched from Arizona to Fort Sumner in New Mexico, and many died along the route.

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Four years later, the Navajo signed a treaty that moved them onto a reservation in the Four Corners region that is now known as the Navajo Nation. The Mohave were expelled from their territory after a series of minor skirmishes and raids on wagon trains passing through the area in the late s, culminating in an battle with American forces that concluded the Mohave War. The construction of dams has often had negative impacts on tribal peoples, such as the Chemehuevi when their riverside lands were flooded after the completion of Parker Dam in Ten Native American tribes in the basin now hold or continue to claim water rights to the Colorado River.

The first federally funded irrigation project in the U. An early motive was the search for the Seven Cities of Gold , or "Cibola", rumored to have been built by Native Americans somewhere in the desert Southwest. According to a United States Geological Survey publication, it is likely that Francisco de Ulloa was the first European to see the Colorado River when in he sailed to the head of the Gulf of California. After failing at an attempt to descend to the river, they left the area, defeated by the difficult terrain and torrid weather. The name Rio Colorado "Red River" was first applied to the Colorado by Father Eusebio Francisco Kino in his maps and written reports resulting from his explorations to the Colorado River Delta and his discovery that California was not an island but a peninsula Kino's map, "Paso por Tierra a la California," is the first known map to label the river as the Colorado.

Smith called the Colorado the "Seedskeedee", as the Green River in Wyoming was known to fur trappers, correctly believing it to be a continuation of the Green and not a separate river as others believed under the Buenaventura myth. Between and the U. Army explored the lower reach of the Colorado River from the Gulf of California, looking for the river to provide a less expensive route to supply the remote post of Fort Yuma.

Wilcox and then by its longboat commanded by Lieutenant George Derby. Later Lieutenant Derby, in his expedition report, recommended that a shallow draft sternwheel steamboat would be the way to send supplies up river to the fort. Hartshorne , brought two barges and tons of supplies arriving at the river's mouth in February , on the United States transport schooner Sierra Nevada under Captain Wilcox.

Poling the barges up the Colorado, the first barge sank with its cargo a total loss. The second was finally, after a long struggle poled up to Fort Yuma, but what little it carried was soon consumed by the garrison. Subsequently, wagons again were sent from the fort to haul the balance of the supplies overland from the estuary through the marshes and woodlands of the Delta. At last Derby's recommendation was heeded and in November , the Uncle Sam , a foot long side-wheel paddle steamer , built by Domingo Marcucci , became the first steamboat on the Colorado River.

It was assembled and launched in the estuary, 30 miles above the mouth of the Colorado River. Equipped with only a horsepower engine, the Uncle Sam could only carry 35 tons of supplies, taking 15 days to make the first mile trip. It made many trips up and down the river, taking four months to finish carrying the supplies for the fort, improving its time up river to 12 days. Negligence caused it to sink at its dock below Fort Yuma, and was then washed away before it could be raised, in the spring flood of Turnbull in financial difficulty, disappeared. Nevertheless, he had shown the worth of steamboats to solve Fort Yuma's supply problem.

Johnson and his partners, all having learned lessons from their failed attempts ascending the Colorado and with the example of the Uncle Sam , brought the parts of a more powerful side-wheel steamboat, the General Jesup , with them to the mouth of the Colorado from San Francisco. There it was reassembled at a landing in the upper tidewater of the river and reached Fort Yuma, January 18, This new boat, capable of carrying 50 tons of cargo, was very successful making round trips from the estuary to the fort in only four or five days.

The second Corps of Topographical Engineers expedition passed along and crossed the Colorado was the Pacific Railroad Survey expedition along the 35th parallel north from Oklahoma to Los Angeles , led by Lt. Johnson was instrumental in getting the support for Congressional funding a military expedition up the river.

With those funds Johnson expected to provide the transportation for the expedition but was angry and disappointed when the commander of the expedition Lt. Joseph Christmas Ives rejected his offer of one of his steamboats. Before Ives could finish reassembling his steamer in the delta, George A. Johnson set off from Fort Yuma on December 31, , conducting his own exploration of the river above the fort in his steamboat General Jesup.

Running low on food he turned back. Ives and his men used a specially built steamboat, the shallow-draft U. Explorer , and traveled up the river as far as Black Canyon. Part 1, 85—87 After experiencing numerous groundings and accidents and having been inhibited by low water in the river, Ives declared: It seems intended by nature that the Colorado River, along the greater portion of its lonely and majestic way, shall be forever unvisited and undisturbed.

In that year Captain Robert T. Rogers , commanding the steamer Esmeralda with a barge and ninety tons of freight, reached Callville, Nevada , on October 8, Mellon in the Gila left El Dorado Canyon landing, steamed up through the rapids in Black Canyon, making record time to Callville and tied up overnight.

Next morning he to steamed up through the rapids in Boulder Canyon to reach the mouth of the Virgin River at Rioville July 8, From to , Rioville, Nevada was the high water Head of Navigation for the steamboats and the mining company sloop Sou'Wester that carried the salt needed for the reduction of silver ore from there to the mills at El Dorado Canyon. Because of the dramatic drop in elevation of the two rivers, there were rumors of huge waterfalls and violent rapids, and Native American tales strengthened their credibility. Thomas, Nevada , near present-day Hoover Dam. After braving the rapids of the Gates of Lodore , Cataract Canyon and other gorges along the Colorado, the party arrived at the mouth of the Little Colorado River, where Powell noted down arguably the most famous words ever written about the Grand Canyon of the Colorado: We are now ready to start on our way down the Great Unknown.

Our boats, tied to a common stake, are chafing each other, as they are tossed by the fretful river. They ride high and buoyant, for their loads are lighter than we could desire. We have but a month's rations remaining. The flour has been re-sifted through the mosquito net sieve; the spoiled bacon has been dried, and the worst of it boiled; the few pounds of dried apples have been spread in the sun, and re-shrunken to their normal bulk; the sugar has all melted, and gone on its way down the river; but we have a large sack of coffee.

The lighting of the boats has this advantage: We are three-quarters of a mile in the depths of the earth, and the great river shrinks into insignificance, as it dashes its angry waves against the walls and cliffs, that rise to the world above; they are but puny ripples, and we but pigmies, running up and down the sands, or lost among the boulders.

We have an unknown distance yet to run; an unknown river yet to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls rise over the river, we know not; Ah, well! The men talk as cheerfully as ever; jests are bandied about freely this morning; but to me the cheer is somber and the jests are ghastly. They were killed by Native Americans after making it to the rim of the canyon; two days later, the expedition ran the last of the Grand Canyon rapids and reached St. In what is perhaps a twist of irony, modern-day Lake Powell, which floods Glen Canyon, is also named for their leader.

In , the Uncle Sam was launched to provide supplies to the U. Army outpost at Fort Yuma. Although this vessel accidentally foundered and sank early in its career, commercial traffic quickly proliferated because river transport was much cheaper than hauling freight over land. Under Brigham Young 's grand vision for a "vast empire in the desert", [] the State of Deseret Mormon settlers were among the first whites to establish a permanent presence in the watershed, Fort Clara or Fort Santa Clara , in the winter of along the Santa Clara River , tributary of the Virgin River. From to , Mormon colonists founded St.

Stone's Ferry was established by these colonists on the Colorado at the mouth of the Virgin River to carry their produce on a wagon road to the mining districts of Mohave County, Arizona to the south. Also, in , a steamboat landing was established at Callville , intended as an outlet to the Pacific Ocean via the Colorado River, for Mormon settlements in the Great Basin. These settlements reached a peak population of about before being abandoned in , and for nearly a decade these valleys became a haven for outlaws and cattle rustlers. From to , Colorado Steam Navigation Company steamboats carried the salt, operating up river in the high spring flood waters, through Boulder Canyon , to the landing at Rioville at the mouth of the Virgin River.

From to the Southwestern Mining Company, largest in El Dorado Canyon, brought in a foot sloop the Sou'Wester that sailed up and down river carrying the salt in the low water time of year until it was wrecked in the Quick and Dirty Rapids of Black Canyon. Mormons founded settlements along the Duchesne River Valley in the s, and populated the Little Colorado River valley later in the century, settling in towns such as St.

These early settlers were impressed by the extensive ruins of the Hohokam civilization that previously occupied the Gila River valley, and are said to have "envisioned their new agricultural civilization rising as the mythical phoenix bird from the ashes of Hohokam society". One of the main reasons the Mormons were able to colonize Arizona was the existence of Jacob Hamblin 's ferry across the Colorado at Lee's Ferry then known as Pahreah Crossing , which began running in March John Doyle Lee established a more permanent ferry system at the site in One reason Lee chose to run the ferry was to flee from Mormon leaders who held him responsible for the Mountain Meadows Massacre , in which emigrants in a wagon train were killed by a local militia disguised as Native Americans.

Even though it was located along a major travel route, Lee's Ferry was very isolated, and there Lee and his family established the aptly named Lonely Dell Ranch. In , a group of adventurers from Georgia discovered gold along the Blue River in Colorado and established the mining boomtown of Breckenridge.

Mining remains a substantial contributor to the economy of the upper basin and has led to acid mine drainage problems in some regional streams and rivers. Prior to , the upper Colorado River above the confluence with the Green River in Utah had assumed various names. Through the mids, the river between Green River and the Gunnison River was most commonly known as the Grand River. The latter name did not become consistently applied until the s. Taylor saw the fact that the Colorado River started outside the border of his state as an "abomination".

Meanwhile, large-scale development was also beginning on the opposite end of the Colorado River. In , entrepreneurs of the California Development Company CDC looked to the Imperial Valley of southern California as an excellent location to develop agriculture irrigated by the waters of the river. Engineer George Chaffey was hired to design the Alamo Canal , which split off from the Colorado River near Pilot Knob , curved south into Mexico, and dumped into the Alamo River , a dry arroyo which had historically carried flood flows of the Colorado into the Salton Sink.

With a stable year-round flow in the Alamo River, irrigators in the Imperial Valley were able to begin large-scale farming, and small towns in the region started to expand with the influx of job-seeking migrants. It was not long before the Colorado River began to wreak havoc with its erratic flows. In autumn, the river would drop below the level of the canal inlet, and temporary brush diversion dams had to be constructed. In early , heavy floods destroyed the headworks of the canal, and water began to flow uncontrolled down the canal towards the Salton Sink. On August 9, the entire flow of the Colorado swerved into the canal and began to flood the bottom of the Imperial Valley.

In a desperate gamble to close the breach, crews of the Southern Pacific Railroad , whose tracks ran through the valley, attempted to dam the Colorado above the canal, only to see their work demolished by a flash flood. After the immediate flooding threat passed, it was realized that a more permanent solution would be needed to rein in the Colorado.

In , six U. Each was given rights to 7. Hoover was the tallest dam in the world at the time of construction and also had the world's largest hydroelectric power plant. The All-American Canal, built as a permanent replacement for the Alamo Canal, is so named because it lies completely within the U. The Lower Basin states also sought to develop the Colorado for municipal supplies. Central Arizona initially relied on the Gila River and its tributaries through projects such as the Theodore Roosevelt and Coolidge Dams — completed in and , respectively.

Roosevelt was the first large dam constructed by the USBR and provided the water needed to start large-scale agricultural and urban development in the region. Nevada officials, believing that groundwater resources in the southern part of the state were sufficient for future growth, were more concerned with securing a large amount of the dam's power supply than water from the Colorado; thus they settled for the smallest allocation of all the states in the Colorado River Compact.

Water use had increased significantly by the s, and more water was being diverted out of the Colorado River basin to the Front Range corridor, the Salt Lake City area in Utah, and the Rio Grande basin in New Mexico. There was also the concern that drought could impair the upper basin's ability to deliver the required 7. National Park Service and environmentalist groups such as the Sierra Club. This was primarily because of Glen Canyon's remote location and the result that most of the American public did not even know of the existence of the impressive gorge; the few who did contended that it had much greater scenic value than Echo Park.

Sierra Club leader David Brower fought the dam both during the construction and for many years afterwards until his death in Brower strongly believed that he was personally responsible for the failure to prevent Glen Canyon's flooding, calling it his "greatest mistake, greatest sin". Agricultural and urban growth in Arizona eventually outstripped the capacity of local rivers; these concerns were reflected in the creation of a Pacific Southwest Water Plan in the s, which aimed to build a project that would permit Arizona to fully utilize its 2.

The Pacific Southwest Water Plan was the first major proposal to divert water to the Colorado Basin from other river basins — namely, from the wetter northwestern United States. It was intended to boost supplies for the Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada as well as Mexico, thus allowing the Upper Basin states to retain native Colorado River flows for their own use. Although there was still a surplus of water in the Colorado Basin during the midth century, the Bureau of Reclamation predicted, correctly, that eventually population growth would outstrip the available supply and require the transfer of water from other sources.

The original version of the plan proposed to divert water from the Trinity River in northern California to reduce Southern California's dependence on the Colorado, allowing more water to be pumped, by exchange, to central Arizona. Because of the large amount of power that would be required to pump Colorado River water to Arizona, the CAP originally included provisions for hydroelectric dams at Bridge Canyon and Marble Canyon , which would have flooded large portions of the Colorado within the Grand Canyon and dewatered much of the remainder.

As a result, the Grand Canyon dams were removed from the CAP agenda, the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park were extended to preclude any further development in the area, and the pumping power was replaced by the building of the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station near Page, Arizona, in Various estimates place the time it would take for Powell to completely fill with silt at to years.

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Dams trapping sediment not only pose damage to river habitat but also threaten future operations of the Colorado River reservoir system. Historically, the delta with its large freshwater outflow and extensive salt marshes provided an important breeding ground for aquatic species in the Gulf. Today's desiccated delta, at only a fraction of its former size, no longer provides suitable habitat, and populations of fish, shrimp and sea mammals in the gulf have seen a dramatic decline. Reduced flows have led to increases in the concentration of certain substances in the lower river that have impacted water quality.

Salinity is one of the major issues and also leads to the corrosion of pipelines in agricultural and urban areas. The Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act was passed in , mandating conservation practices including the reduction of saline drainage. The program reduced the annual load by about 1. Further efforts have been made to combat the salt issue in the lower Colorado, including the construction of a desalination plant at Yuma. Agricultural runoff containing pesticide residues has also been concentrated in the lower river in greater amounts.

Toxins derived from pesticides have led to fish kills; six of these events were recorded between and alone. Both rivers and the sea are among the most polluted bodies of water in the United States, posing dangers not only to aquatic life but to contact by humans and migrating birds.

Large dams such as Hoover and Glen Canyon typically release water from lower levels of their reservoirs, resulting in stable and relatively cold year-round temperatures in long reaches of the river. In November , the U. The water will be used to provide both an annual base flow and a spring "pulse flow" to mimic the river's original snowmelt-driven regime. When the Colorado River Compact was drafted in the s, it was based on barely 30 years of streamflow records that suggested an average annual flow of In late , Lake Mead dropped to just 8 feet 2.

The Colorado River and its tributaries often nourish extensive corridors of riparian growth as they traverse the arid desert regions of the watershed. Although riparian zones represent a relatively small proportion of the basin and have been affected by engineering projects and river diversion in many places, they have the greatest biodiversity of any habitat in the basin. More than 1, species of plants grow in the Colorado River watershed, ranging from the creosote bush , saguaro cactus , and Joshua trees of the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts to the forests of the Rocky Mountains and other uplands, composed mainly of ponderosa pine , subalpine fir , Douglas-fir and Engelmann spruce.

Some arid regions of the watershed, such as the upper Green River valley in Wyoming, Canyonlands National Park in Utah and the San Pedro River valley in Arizona and Sonora, supported extensive reaches of grassland roamed by large mammals such as buffalo and antelope as late as the s. Near Tucson, Arizona, "where now there is only powder-dry desert, the grass once reached as high as the head of a man on horse back". Rivers and streams in the Colorado basin were once home to 49 species of native fish, of which 42 were endemic.

Engineering projects and river regulation have led to the extinction of four species and severe declines in the populations of 40 species. Clear, cold water released by dams has significantly changed characteristics of habitat for these and other Colorado River basin fishes. Famed for its dramatic rapids and canyons, the Colorado is one of the most desirable whitewater rivers in the United States, and its Grand Canyon section — run by more than 22, people annually [] — has been called the "granddaddy of rafting trips".

Several other sections of the river and its tributaries are popular whitewater runs, and many of these are also served by commercial outfitters. The Colorado's Cataract Canyon and many reaches in the Colorado headwaters are even more heavily used than the Grand Canyon, and about 60, boaters run a single 4. Fisheries have declined in many streams in the watershed, especially in the Rocky Mountains, because of polluted runoff from mining and agricultural activities.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Colorado River disambiguation. Course of the Colorado River. List of tributaries of the Colorado River. List of flora of the Lower Colorado River Valley. Also note that the SIB "Southerly International Boundary" is the point at which the Colorado ceases to form the border and passes entirely into Mexico. Census Bureau [86] and the State of Colorado.

Mississippi River

Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved February 18, Retrieved July 2, Archived from the original PDF on May 1, Retrieved July 11, National Water Information System. Retrieved April 21, Archived from the original on April 29, The New York Times. Retrieved October 14, Archived from the original on March 9, The Colorado River Returns to the Sea".

Retrieved May 19, Retrieved March 12, Fall River Pass, Colorado quad". Retrieved June 24, Retrieved July 14, Archived from the original PDF on October 15, Archived from the original PDF on April 2, Retrieved February 19, Colorado River Storage Project. Archived from the original on June 3, Archived from the original on January 9, Geological Survey Professional Paper —D. Retrieved November 2, American Society of Civil Engineers. Archived from the original on March 27, Draft Environmental Impact Statement: Archived from the original PDF on January 20, Retrieved April 4, Blythe NE, California quad".

San Diego State University. Wyoming State Water Plan. Archived from the original on November 25, Retrieved February 25, Archived from the original on June 26, Retrieved February 26, Arizona Navigable Stream Adjudication Commission. Archived from the original PDF on April 22, Retrieved October 19, Retrieved April 17, Retrieved June 27, Archived from the original PDF on July 14, Journal of Arid Environments.

Archived from the original on January 20, Shortages Likely on Colorado River by ". Archived from the original PDF on June 9, Colorado River Water Users Association. Retrieved July 13, Retrieved April 27, Archived from the original PDF on June 3, Colorado River Basin Water Management: Evaluating and Adjusting to Hydroclimatic Variability. Archived from the original on March 4, Retrieved March 4, Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Commission for Environmental Cooperation. Archived from the original on April 14, Archived from the original on November 7, University of Colorado, Boulder. Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences. California Institute of Technology. Retrieved February 29, Salton Sea Database Program. Archived from the original on November 27, Grand Canyon River Guides.

Institute for Creation Research. Land Use History of North America. Archived from the original on June 29, Retrieved April 9, Bureau of Land Management. Archived from the original on June 23, Georgia College and State University. Archived from the original on June 8, Land Use History of North America: Archived from the original on February 14, Retrieved October 21, Grand Canyons of the Earth. Archived from the original PDF on May 12, Chaco Culture National Historic Park. Evaluating Models of Chaco: University of Colorado Boulder. Pueblo Grande Museum Profiles No. Archived from the original on December 24, Climate, Ecosystems and Society".

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The Hohokam and Pueblo Grande". Pueblo Grande Museum Archaeological Park. Archived from the original on May 8, Retrieved April 10, A Dictionary of the Havasupai Language. University of California, Berkeley. The Mississippi River runs through or along 10 states, from Minnesota to Louisiana , and is used to define portions of these states' borders, with Wisconsin , Illinois , Kentucky , Tennessee , and Mississippi along the east side of the river, and Iowa , Missouri , and Arkansas along its west side.

Substantial parts of both Minnesota and Louisiana are on either side of the river, although the Mississippi defines part of the boundary of each of these states. In all of these cases, the middle of the riverbed at the time the borders were established was used as the line to define the borders between adjacent states. Also, due to a meander in the river, a small part of western Kentucky is contiguous with Tennessee, but isolated from the rest of its state.

Many of the communities along the Mississippi River are listed below; most have either historic significance or cultural lore connecting them to the river. They are sequenced from the source of the river to its end. The earliest bridge across the Mississippi River was built in It spanned the river in Minneapolis where the current Hennepin Avenue Bridge is located.

The first railroad bridge across the Mississippi was built in Steamboat captains of the day, fearful of competition from the railroads, considered the new bridge a hazard to navigation. Two weeks after the bridge opened, the steamboat Effie Afton rammed part of the bridge, setting it on fire. Legal proceedings ensued, with Abraham Lincoln defending the railroad.

The lawsuit went to the Supreme Court of the United States , which ruled in favor of the railroad. Below is a general overview of selected Mississippi bridges which have notable engineering or landmark significance, with their cities or locations. They are sequenced from the Upper Mississippi's source to the Lower Mississippi's mouth.

A clear channel is needed for the barges and other vessels that make the main stem Mississippi one of the great commercial waterways of the world. The task of maintaining a navigation channel is the responsibility of the United States Army Corps of Engineers , which was established in Steamboats entered trade in the s, so the period — became the golden age of steamboats.

As there were few roads or rails in the lands of the Louisiana Purchase, river traffic was an ideal solution. Cotton, timber and food came down the river, as did Appalachian coal. The port of New Orleans boomed as it was the trans-shipment point to deep sea ocean vessels. As a result, the image of the twin stacked, wedding cake Mississippi steamer entered into American mythology.

Steamers worked the entire route from the trickles of Montana, to the Ohio River; down the Missouri and Tennessee, to the main channel of the Mississippi. Only with the arrival of the railroads in the s did steamboat traffic diminish. Steamboats remained a feature until the s. Most have been superseded by pusher tugs. A few survive as icons—the Delta Queen and the River Queen for instance. A series of 29 locks and dams on the upper Mississippi, most of which were built in the s, is designed primarily to maintain a 9-foot-deep 2.

The dams make the river deeper and wider but do not stop it. No flood control is intended. During periods of high flow, the gates, some of which are submersible, are completely opened and the dams simply cease to function. Louis, the Mississippi is relatively free-flowing, although it is constrained by numerous levees and directed by numerous wing dams.

Long Bridge to traverse the Mississippi to Baton Rouge. In , there were surveys of the two major obstacles on the upper Mississippi, the Des Moines Rapids and the Rock Island Rapids , where the river was shallow and the riverbed was rock. Both rapids were considered virtually impassable. The canal allowed shipping between these important waterways. In , the canal was replaced by the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.

The second canal, in addition to shipping, also allowed Chicago to address specific health issues typhoid fever , cholera and other waterborne diseases by sending its waste down the Illinois and Mississippi river systems rather than polluting its water source of Lake Michigan. The Corps of Engineers recommended the excavation of a 5-foot-deep 1. Lee endorsed the project in The Corps later also began excavating the Rock Island Rapids. By , it had become evident that excavation was impractical, and it was decided to build a canal around the Des Moines Rapids. The canal opened in , but the Rock Island Rapids remained an obstacle.

In , Congress authorized the Corps to establish a 4. The channel project was complete when the Moline Lock, which bypassed the Rock Island Rapids, opened in To improve navigation between St. The dams, which were built beginning in the s, stored spring run-off which was released during low water to help maintain channel depth.

In , Congress authorized a 6-foot-deep 1. In , construction was complete on Lock and Dam No. Built by a private power company Union Electric Company of St. Louis to generate electricity originally for streetcars in St. Louis , the Keokuk dam was one of the largest hydro-electric plants in the world at the time. The dam also eliminated the Des Moines Rapids. Lock and Dam No. Before the Great Mississippi Flood of , the Corps's primary strategy was to close off as many side channels as possible to increase the flow in the main river.

It was thought that the river's velocity would scour off bottom sediments , deepening the river and decreasing the possibility of flooding. The flood proved this to be so wrong that communities threatened by the flood began to create their own levee breaks to relieve the force of the rising river. The Rivers and Harbors Act of authorized the 9-foot 2. Twenty-three new locks and dams were built on the upper Mississippi in the s in addition to the three already in existence. Until the s, there was no dam below Lock and Dam 26 at Alton, Illinois.

It also serves to protect the St. Louis city water intakes during times of low water. Eventually the Atchafalaya River would capture the Mississippi River and become its main channel to the Gulf of Mexico, leaving New Orleans on a side channel. As a result, the U. Congress authorized a project called the Old River Control Structure , which has prevented the Mississippi River from leaving its current channel that drains into the Gulf via New Orleans.

Because the large scale of high-energy water flow threatened to damage the structure, an auxiliary flow control station was built adjacent to the standing control station. Beginning in the s, the Corps applied hydrological transport models to analyze flood flow and water quality of the Mississippi. The original Lock and Dam 26 was demolished. The Corps now actively creates and maintains spillways and floodways to divert periodic water surges into backwater channels and lakes, as well as route part of the Mississippi's flow into the Atchafalaya Basin and from there to the Gulf of Mexico , bypassing Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

Some experts blame urban sprawl for increases in both the risk and frequency of flooding on the Mississippi River. Some of the pre strategy is still in use today, with the Corps actively cutting the necks of horseshoe bends , allowing the water to move faster and reducing flood heights. The area of the Mississippi River basin was first settled by hunting and gathering Native American peoples and is considered one of the few independent centers of plant domestication in human history.

The lifestyle gradually became more settled after around BCE during what is now called the Woodland period , with increasing evidence of shelter construction, pottery , weaving and other practices. A network of trade routes referred to as the Hopewell interaction sphere was active along the waterways between about and CE, spreading common cultural practices over the entire area between the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes.

A period of more isolated communities followed, and agriculture introduced from Mesoamerica based on the Three Sisters maize, beans and squash gradually came to dominate. After around CE there arose an advanced agricultural society today referred to as the Mississippian culture , with evidence of highly stratified complex chiefdoms and large population centers. The most prominent of these, now called Cahokia , was occupied between about and CE [61] and at its peak numbered between 8, and 40, inhabitants, larger than London, England of that time.

At the time of first contact with Europeans, Cahokia and many other Mississippian cities had dispersed, and archaeological finds attest to increased social stress. French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette began exploring the Mississippi in the 17th century. Marquette proposed calling it the River of the Immaculate Conception.

When Louis Jolliet explored the Mississippi Valley in the 17th century, natives guided him to a quicker way to return to French Canada via the Illinois River. When he found the Chicago Portage , he remarked that a canal of "only half a league " less than 2 miles 3. The Treaty of Paris gave Great Britain rights to all land east of the Mississippi and Spain rights to land west of the Mississippi.

Spain also ceded Florida to Britain to regain Cuba , which the British occupied during the war. Britain then divided the territory into East and West Florida. Article 8 of the Treaty of Paris states, "The navigation of the river Mississippi, from its source to the ocean, shall forever remain free and open to the subjects of Great Britain and the citizens of the United States".

With this treaty, which ended the American Revolutionary War , Britain also ceded West Florida back to Spain to regain the Bahamas , which Spain had occupied during the war.

When France then sold the Louisiana Territory to the U. These aspirations ended when Spain was pressured into signing Pinckney's Treaty in The United States then secured effective control of the river when it bought the Louisiana Territory from France in the Louisiana Purchase of The last serious European challenge to U. In the Treaty of , the U. In effect, the U. So many settlers traveled westward through the Mississippi river basin, as well as settled in it, that Zadok Cramer wrote a guide book called The Navigator , detailing the features and dangers and navigable waterways of the area.

It was so popular that he updated and expanded it through 12 editions over a period of 25 years. The colonization of the area was barely slowed by the three earthquakes in and , estimated at approximately 8 on the Richter magnitude scale , that were centered near New Madrid, Missouri. Mark Twain's book, Life on the Mississippi , covered the steamboat commerce which took place from to on the river before more modern ships replaced the steamer.

The book was published first in serial form in Harper's Weekly in seven parts in The full version, including a passage from the then unfinished Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and works from other authors, was published by James R. Its maiden voyage occurred during the series of New Madrid earthquakes in — The Upper Mississippi was treacherous, unpredictable and to make traveling worse, the area was not properly mapped out or surveyed.

Until the s only two trips a year to the Twin Cities landings were made by steamboats which suggests it was not very profitable. Steamboat transport remained a viable industry, both in terms of passengers and freight until the end of the first decade of the 20th century. Among the several Mississippi River system steamboat companies was the noted Anchor Line , which, from to , operated a luxurious fleet of steamers between St. Louis and New Orleans. Italian explorer Giacomo Beltrami, wrote about his journey on the Virginia, which was the first steam boat to make it to Fort St.

He referred to his voyage as a promenade that was once a journey on the Mississippi. The steamboat era changed the economic and political life of the Mississippi, as well as the nature of travel itself. The Mississippi was completely changed by the steamboat era as it transformed into a flourishing tourists trade.

Control of the river was a strategic objective of both sides in the American Civil War. In Union forces coming down the river successfully cleared Confederate defenses at Island Number 10 and Memphis, Tennessee , while Naval forces coming upriver from the Gulf of Mexico captured New Orleans, Louisiana. The remaining major Confederate stronghold was on the heights overlooking the river at Vicksburg, Mississippi , and the Union's Vicksburg Campaign December to July , and the fall of Port Hudson , completed control of the lower Mississippi River.

The "Big Freeze" of —19 blocked river traffic north of Memphis, Tennessee, preventing transportation of coal from southern Illinois. This resulted in widespread shortages, high prices, and rationing of coal in January and February. In and , industrial accidents spilled 3.

The oil covered the Mississippi River from St. Paul to Lake Pepin, creating an ecological disaster and a demand to control water pollution. On October 20, , the automobile ferry, MV George Prince , was struck by a ship traveling upstream as the ferry attempted to cross from Destrehan, Louisiana , to Luling, Louisiana. Seventy-eight passengers and crew died; only eighteen survived the accident.

In , the water level of the Mississippi fell to 10 feet 3. The remains of wooden-hulled water craft were exposed in an area of 4. They dated to the late 19th to early 20th centuries. The fieldwork received national media attention as good news in the middle of a drought. The Great Flood of was another significant flood, primarily affecting the Mississippi above its confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois. Two portions of the Mississippi were designated as American Heritage Rivers in The assessment noted the aging navigation and flood control infrastructure along with multiple environmental problems.

In , Slovenian long-distance swimmer Martin Strel swam the entire length of the river, from Minnesota to Louisiana, over the course of 68 days. Geologists believe that the lower Mississippi could take a new course to the Gulf. Either of two new routes—through the Atchafalaya Basin or through Lake Pontchartrain —might become the Mississippi's main channel if flood-control structures are overtopped or heavily damaged during a severe flood. Army Corps of Engineers. There is a steep drop here away from the Mississippi's main channel into the Atchafalaya Basin. If this facility were to fail during a major flood, there is a strong concern the water would scour and erode the river bottom enough to capture the Mississippi's main channel.

The structure was nearly lost during the flood , but repairs and improvements were made after engineers studied the forces at play. In particular, the Corps of Engineers made many improvements and constructed additional facilities for routing water through the vicinity. These additional facilities give the Corps much more flexibility and potential flow capacity than they had in , which further reduces the risk of a catastrophic failure in this area during other major floods, such as that of Because the Morganza Spillway is slightly higher and well back from the river, it is normally dry on both sides.

Some geologists have noted that the possibility for course change into the Atchafalaya also exists in the area immediately north of the Old River Control Structure. The big one lies out there somewhere—when the structures can't release all the floodwaters and the levee is going to have to give way. That is when the river's going to jump its banks and try to break through. This spillway and an imperfect natural levee about 4—6 meters 12 to 20 feet high are all that prevents the Mississippi from taking a new, shorter course through Lake Pontchartrain to the Gulf of Mexico.

The sport of water skiing was invented on the river in a wide region between Minnesota and Wisconsin known as Lake Pepin. The other six National Park Service sites along the river are listed from north to south:. The Mississippi basin is home to a highly diverse aquatic fauna and has been called the "mother fauna" of North American fresh water. Among the fish species in the basin are numerous endemics , as well as relicts such as paddlefish , sturgeon , gar and bowfin.

Because of its size and high species diversity, the Mississippi basin is often divided into subregions. The Upper Mississippi River alone is home to about fish species, including walleye , sauger , large mouth bass , small mouth bass , white bass , northern pike , bluegill , crappie , channel catfish , flathead catfish , common shiner , freshwater drum and shovelnose sturgeon.

In addition to fish, several species of turtles such as snapping , musk , mud , map , cooter , painted and softshell turtles , American alligator , aquatic amphibians such as hellbender , mudpuppy , three-toed amphiuma and lesser siren , [] and cambarid crayfish such as the red swamp crayfish are native to the Mississippi basin. Numerous introduced species are found in the Mississippi and some of these are invasive. Among the introductions are fish such as Asian carp , including the silver carp that have become infamous for outcompeting native fish and their potentially dangerous jumping behavior.

They have spread throughout much of the basin, even approaching but not yet invading the Great Lakes. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For a different river in Canada, see Mississippi River Ontario. For other uses of "Mississippi", see Mississippi disambiguation. Misi-ziibi [1] , Dakota: Mihsi-siipiiwi [3] , Cheyenne: Beesniicie [6] , Pawnee: List of drainage basins by area.

List of locks and dams of the Upper Mississippi River. Woodland period , Hopewell tradition , and Mississippian culture. Steamboats of the Mississippi. This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. October Learn how and when to remove this template message. Retrieved August 19, Shaffer and John T.

Four Centuries of the Mississippi". American Heritage , vol. The other definition acknowledges "somewhat arbitrary decisions" and places the Mississippi's source at Lake Itasca, which is publicly accepted as the source, USGS. Retrieved February 22, United States Geological Survey. Archived from the original on March 5, Retrieved March 14, National Park Service ". Retrieved June 30, Retrieved March 1, Archived from the original on November 2, Archived from the original on January 8, Retrieved August 14, Anthony Falls Lock Closure".

US Army Corps of Engineers. Archived from the original on June 10, Retrieved November 6, Collaborative Planning Study July update. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Middle Mississippi River Partnership". Middle Mississippi River Partnership. Archived from the original on March 28, Retrieved May 25,