Old Man River
Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 5:20 pm
The world’s fascination with the Mississippi River, which is the American Queen Steamboat Company’s backyard, is easy to understand. She is the queen of rivers, by far the largest in North America, and has been part of the vital lifeblood of America since long before we became a nation. Native tribes first used the river for transport and sustenance and little has changed since. The timeless Mississippi River is massive and operates on a scale that truly boggles the mind.
From its headwaters in Minnesota the river wanders for 2,350 miles before it reaches the Gulf of Mexico and is the largest drainage system on the continent. But the path of the river is only part of the story. Along with her tributaries such as the Ohio and Missouri rivers, the river drains 31 of our 50 states, totaling 1.2 million square miles, and the banks of the Mississippi help define the borders of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
The river has always hosted human habitation thanks to its cyclical flooding. Each time the river would pour over its banks (which was usually at least once every season), the floodwaters spread across the plains on either side. The Mississippi is not a clear blue river; it is a rich cinnamon-brown as a result of the soil that it carries suspended in the water. When the river floods, this soil and its nutrients spread out across the land and when the river recedes, the result is fertile farmland left behind. Various Native American tribes cultivated these lands and also established settlements near the river, since the flowing waters were a natural highway system. When Europeans arrived, they saw the wisdom in the location of the Native American settlements which were placed close enough to the river to use it as a navigational conduit but high enough to avoid the periodic floods. By the 19th century, as America spread westward, settlers sought the same advantages and, in many cases, either created new communities next to Indian villages or, in some cases, attempted to push the tribes off the land in a series of bloody skirmishes.
With the advent of riverboats in the 1800s, particularly the period just before the Civil War, the Mississippi River became the super highway of its day, and for the Confederacy, its importance in moving cotton and other raw products south to New Orleans was paramount. From New Orleans, goods were offloaded to ocean-going vessels which delivered their cargos all over the world. As the dark clouds of war descended on the nation, the river was a vital supply route for men and provisions for both Confederate and Union forces. It became clear that whoever controlled the Mississippi River would win the war. As a result, some of the most poignant battlefields of the Civil War are situated either directly next to or only a short distance from the Mississippi River. Today, the American Queen provides access to the fields where brother fought against brother and the solemn rows of tombstones mark the price paid to keep a nation from splitting apart.
But the problem of flooding along the river had still not been solved. Sometimes when the water levels rose, the river pushed into fields and across valleys before emptying back into the main channel miles downstream. This didn’t have to occur very often for the river’s course to change permanently, and the temporary outlet became the new course of the river itself. Not only was this a bit of a problem for riverfront communities that would suddenly find themselves hundreds of yard from the water’s edge, but it made navigation on the erratic river a challenge.
The twists and turns of the river, the silting of the banks during the spring thaws, and the presence of huge trees embedded into the muddy bottom turned the river into an obstacle course. When boats weren’t running aground on sandbars, being pushed out of the channel or finding the river now turned left instead of right, they were goring themselves on the trees sticking from the water. Known as snags, these obstructions could tear right through the fragile wooden hull of a riverboat and either sink it or rupture the temperamental boilers resulting in a rather noisy and dramatic end to the journey.
Of course, today vessels like the American Queen are made of steel and it’s impossible for a snag to do such damage. More importantly, the Army Corps of Engineers has spent the last 150 years taming the mighty Mississippi River with constant dredging to maintain channels and the deployment of specially-designed vessels to search for and remove snags. Dykes, levees, locks and dams have not completely kept Old Man River from spilling over its banks now and then, but it is a far rarer occurrence than it once was. By restricting the water flow between well-established boundaries, the Army Corps of Engineers has also vastly reduced the number of snags that occur since trees are rarely uprooted by the cyclical flooding so common in the last century.
As our guests travel this incredible river and see the handiwork of engineers in the levees, locks and other manmade structures, the scope of what has been achieved begins to take hold. The Mississippi River was a wild beast that has largely now been tamed for purposes of commerce. Though the river will sometimes show its wild side, you can be assured that the engineers will be making alterations so that the river that exasperated Mark Twain as a steamboat pilot is that much safer. On any American Queen Steamboat Company journey, the river is far more than just how the American Queen gets from place to place. It is a part of the voyage itself: a silent but timeless presence, rich with history that our Riverlorian is eager to impart to each and every guest.
From its headwaters in Minnesota the river wanders for 2,350 miles before it reaches the Gulf of Mexico and is the largest drainage system on the continent. But the path of the river is only part of the story. Along with her tributaries such as the Ohio and Missouri rivers, the river drains 31 of our 50 states, totaling 1.2 million square miles, and the banks of the Mississippi help define the borders of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
The river has always hosted human habitation thanks to its cyclical flooding. Each time the river would pour over its banks (which was usually at least once every season), the floodwaters spread across the plains on either side. The Mississippi is not a clear blue river; it is a rich cinnamon-brown as a result of the soil that it carries suspended in the water. When the river floods, this soil and its nutrients spread out across the land and when the river recedes, the result is fertile farmland left behind. Various Native American tribes cultivated these lands and also established settlements near the river, since the flowing waters were a natural highway system. When Europeans arrived, they saw the wisdom in the location of the Native American settlements which were placed close enough to the river to use it as a navigational conduit but high enough to avoid the periodic floods. By the 19th century, as America spread westward, settlers sought the same advantages and, in many cases, either created new communities next to Indian villages or, in some cases, attempted to push the tribes off the land in a series of bloody skirmishes.
With the advent of riverboats in the 1800s, particularly the period just before the Civil War, the Mississippi River became the super highway of its day, and for the Confederacy, its importance in moving cotton and other raw products south to New Orleans was paramount. From New Orleans, goods were offloaded to ocean-going vessels which delivered their cargos all over the world. As the dark clouds of war descended on the nation, the river was a vital supply route for men and provisions for both Confederate and Union forces. It became clear that whoever controlled the Mississippi River would win the war. As a result, some of the most poignant battlefields of the Civil War are situated either directly next to or only a short distance from the Mississippi River. Today, the American Queen provides access to the fields where brother fought against brother and the solemn rows of tombstones mark the price paid to keep a nation from splitting apart.
But the problem of flooding along the river had still not been solved. Sometimes when the water levels rose, the river pushed into fields and across valleys before emptying back into the main channel miles downstream. This didn’t have to occur very often for the river’s course to change permanently, and the temporary outlet became the new course of the river itself. Not only was this a bit of a problem for riverfront communities that would suddenly find themselves hundreds of yard from the water’s edge, but it made navigation on the erratic river a challenge.
The twists and turns of the river, the silting of the banks during the spring thaws, and the presence of huge trees embedded into the muddy bottom turned the river into an obstacle course. When boats weren’t running aground on sandbars, being pushed out of the channel or finding the river now turned left instead of right, they were goring themselves on the trees sticking from the water. Known as snags, these obstructions could tear right through the fragile wooden hull of a riverboat and either sink it or rupture the temperamental boilers resulting in a rather noisy and dramatic end to the journey.
Of course, today vessels like the American Queen are made of steel and it’s impossible for a snag to do such damage. More importantly, the Army Corps of Engineers has spent the last 150 years taming the mighty Mississippi River with constant dredging to maintain channels and the deployment of specially-designed vessels to search for and remove snags. Dykes, levees, locks and dams have not completely kept Old Man River from spilling over its banks now and then, but it is a far rarer occurrence than it once was. By restricting the water flow between well-established boundaries, the Army Corps of Engineers has also vastly reduced the number of snags that occur since trees are rarely uprooted by the cyclical flooding so common in the last century.
As our guests travel this incredible river and see the handiwork of engineers in the levees, locks and other manmade structures, the scope of what has been achieved begins to take hold. The Mississippi River was a wild beast that has largely now been tamed for purposes of commerce. Though the river will sometimes show its wild side, you can be assured that the engineers will be making alterations so that the river that exasperated Mark Twain as a steamboat pilot is that much safer. On any American Queen Steamboat Company journey, the river is far more than just how the American Queen gets from place to place. It is a part of the voyage itself: a silent but timeless presence, rich with history that our Riverlorian is eager to impart to each and every guest.