THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER TENDS TO WANDER as it makes its way from 

Minnesota to Louisiana. But for businesses shipping goods via river transportation, a migrating navigation channel is a problem, like a Memphis-based 

trucking firm finding that Interstate 55 no longer runs through town. 

“The river naturally wants to meander. As you look at the scars over time, 

it’s all over the map,” said Barry Sullivan, chief of the U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers’ Mat Sinking Unit based out of the Vicksburg District. 

Sullivan’s unit basically works to keep the river flowing in the same channel 

where it has recently flowed. They accomplish that task by placing protective 

mats called revetment at strategic points along the Mississippi. By creating a 

physical barrier against the river’s relentless current, revetment reduces riverbank erosion and protects levees.

“The Mississippi River is an integral part of our nation’s infrastructure and 

moves over 650 million tons of cargo every year. The Mat Sinking Unit is the 

only vessel of its kind in the world and has placed concrete revetment along the 

Mississippi River channel for almost 80 years,” said Julie Vignes, Operations 

Chief, Vicksburg District. 

The Corps of Engineers first started building these protective structures in the 

1800s. Workers created revetment by cutting willow trees and weaving them 

into mats. The mats were floated in place and sunk to the river bottom with 

cannon ball-sized boulders, a slow and labor-intensive process. Concrete was 

first tried as a mat material in 1917.

MISSISSIPPI VALLEY DIVISION · FALL 2021

ARMOR 1 will keep the 

meandering Mississippi 

in place through robotics

Continued on page 2 >>

Controlling a River 

with a Mind of its Own 

Our Mississippi is a newsletter of the 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about 

its work in the Mississippi River Basin toward 

both economic and ecological integrity of the 

river system. It is published by the U.S. Army 

Corps of Engineers, Mississippi Valley Division, 

in accordance with AR 360-1 for its Mississippi 

Valley workforce and external audiences and 

collaborative partners including other Corps’ 

districts and stakeholders within the division’s 

area of responsibility. The views and opinions 

expressed are not necessarily those of the 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Army 

or the U.S. Department of Defense.

ABOVE: Artist rendering for the new ARMOR 1, a 

machine that will double the production rate of 

the current Mat Sinking Unit used to stabilize 

river banks.
Today, the Corps uses articulated concrete mats 

made of individual blocks stitched together with 

cable. Each mat, also called a square, covers 100 

square feet. In its 2020-2021 season, the Mat Sinking 

Unit placed 266,000 squares of articulated concrete 

mat, an equivalent of 610 acres. 

Making the mats is still a labor-intensive process. The 

Mat Sinking Unit uses cranes to move concrete mats 

one at a time from a supply barge onto the deck of a 

mat building plant. There, deck workers use a 60-pound 

pneumatic tool to tie the pieces together with cable. A 

worker may tie 1,000 connections in a ten-hour period.

Built in 1948, the Mat Sinking Unit is showing its 

age. Replacement parts are no longer available and 

must be custom manufactured. Maintenance costs 

are running $5–6 million per year.

The need for the next generation of equipment to 

take over the critical task of protecting the navigation 

channel is clear. The new system, called ARMOR 1, 

has been under development since 2013 and should 

take to the river in 2023.

“ARMOR 1 is one of a kind in the world. There’s 

nothing like it out there,” said John Cross, project 

manager for ARMOR 1 and a retired U.S. Army 

colonel. “It introduces robotics to do a lot of the hard 

manual labor tasks that we’ve been relying on for so 

many years. And it makes everything a lot safer, a lot 

quicker and much more reliable.”

ARMOR 1 USES SIX ROBOTIC CRANES to move 

large flat concrete mats from a supply barge to a 

roller deck. Each mat weighs one ton and measures 

25 feet long by 4 feet wide by 4 inches thick. Each 

crane can handle two mats at a time and communicates with the other cranes to anticipate where 

the next mat is needed. “Other robotics on the deck 

stitch all these pieces together and so you have one 

big piece of concrete mattress,” Cross said.

ARMOR 1 can assemble up to 4,000 pieces per 

day, double the maximum capacity of the current 

Mat Sinking Unit, which currently averages 1,200 

pieces per day due to mechanical breakdowns.

And the need for that capacity is on-going. Annually, 

Corps hydraulic engineers survey the Mississippi for 

areas of erosion or levee damage from Cairo, Illinois 

to its mouth south of New Orleans. Cross estimates 

the Corps has laid more than 1,000 miles of revetment over that stretch. 

ARMOR 1 also incorporates technology that 

makes it more adaptable to today’s increasingly long 

flood periods. The new system includes sensors that 

can detect whether the mat is flat on the river bottom 

as it is laid out, spuds that anchor the mat while it is 

being placed, and a winching system that can measure stress and adjust automatically, avoiding the 

safety hazard of broken cables.

“I’m also very happy that we’re improving the 

safety. Our workers out there do a good job in very 

tough conditions. We need to give them the best 

operating environment we can and that’s something 

that personally concerns me that we make sure folks 

are as safe as possible,” Cross said. 

TO DEVELOP THE NEW SYSTEM, Cross tapped 

expertise from across the country. The project 

team includes the Corps’ Marine Design Center in 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the National Robotics 

Engineering Center at Carnegie Mellon University 

in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the Bristol Harbor 

Group in Rhode Island. The American Bureau of 

Shipping in Houston, Texas is certifying the system’s 

marine safety.

“It’s been a really great team,” Cross said. “I think 

the robotics were the most exciting for me, how we 

went from a concept to a design to a prototype.”

The last prototype test run, completed in September 

2020, demonstrated that the robotics are fully functional although refinements continue. Thoma-Sea 

Marine Constructors in Lockport, Louisiana, began 

building the hull in 2021. 

An integral part of ARMOR 1’s success will be its 

people. Beginning in early 2022, crews will start to 

be trained on the new system, in collaboration with 

Hinds Community College in Vicksburg, Mississippi. 

“It’s a very cool thing. We’re working with them to 

come up with a curriculum and they’re going to help 

us do some of the introductory training and then do 

sustainment training over time,” Cross said.

The price tag for ARMOR 1 totals $125 million, 

which compares very favorably to the $108 million cost (adjusted to today’s dollars) of the old Mat 

Sinking Unit. “It is just a small drop in the bucket to 

make sure that we have freedom of navigation down 

the river and safety for our cities and towns along the 

river,” Cross said. 

“We want the Mississippi River to stay where it’s at. 

We don’t want to lose our ports. And we don’t want to 

lose our cities and towns and infrastructure. ARMOR 

1 will help us prevent the river meandering and try to 

keep it within its banks for the future.” —D.D.

LEFT: ARMOR 1 is under construction at the Thoma-Sea 

shipyard in Louisiana with a full trial test planned for 

2022. The USACE Vicksburg District is partnering with 

Hinds Community College to train workers to run the 

new robotic system.

The aging Mat 

Sinking Unit is not 

easily or quickly 

repaired. When 

something breaks, 

replacement 

parts are no longer available 

and have to be repaired on-site 

or custom manufactured. A 

better, more modern system 

is needed and John Cross sees 

the solution in robotics.

Mapping the meandering to set 

a course for the future 

In 1944, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cartographer Harold Fisk studied and mapped 

the historic geology of the Mississippi River 

Valley. He created maps famous today both 

for the beauty of the colorful meanders 

and the research so comprehensive that it 

explained the establishment of the river’s 

historic courses and also explained factors 

that would shape future behavior and 

help agencies like USACE better tame the 

Mighty Mississippi for human use. 

Fisk’s team used detailed topographic 

maps, extensive use of aerial photography 

and historical accounts of the river valley, 

including narratives from Spanish explorers 

of the 16th century, to help identify abandoned courses of the Mississippi River and 

its tributaries. Data from approximately 

16,000 soil borings were incorporated 

as well. The report’s results would drive 

Mississippi River engineering for decades. 

The most impressive aspect of Fisk’s 

report were several volumes of colored, 

detailed topographical and geological 

maps (like the one on page 1) that trace 

significant river course changes over the 

last 2,000 years. For instance, the river 

has taken at least three different routes 

through Louisiana to the Gulf of Mexico; 

its present course through New Orleans 

dates only to around 650 years ago.

2 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi Valley Division
Renovating a Riverfront

Memphis River Parks Partnership and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers join forces to transform a key river park.

I

t’s a major Memphis project that has been 30 years in the making, now 

morphing into one of the most ambitious public parks along the Mississippi 

River’s long, meandering riverfront there. It’s Tom Lee Park, the place dedicated to the hero Tom Lee, who in 1925 pulled more than 30 people out of 

the river when the M.E. Norman steamer overturned.

The park at the end of Beale Street was dedicated to him in 1954. Then in 

1992, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) constructed a muchneeded dike, which expanded the park to the 30 riverfront acres, space that the 

city of Memphis expected to turn into a world-class park back then.

“Basically, they didn’t have the money to do it,” explains George Abbott, the 

director of external affairs for the Memphis River Parks Partnership, the nonprofit 

organization that is spearheading the long-awaited expansion. “The city put the 

project on hold due to budget constraints at the time. So now, almost 30 years 

later, is when we’re finally building that park.”

The partnership is working in conjunction with USACE the work rooted in a 

partnership with the Corps of Engineers and designed so it doesn’t impact the 

stability of the dike, says Cory Williams, chief of the Geotechnical Engineering 

Branch of the Corps Memphis District.

“Since the 1930s, the Corps of Engineers has put millions of dollars worth of 

work out into the river to stabilize the bank. We constructed that mile-long dike that 

parallels Riverside Drive in the 1990s, so we have this big investment. We want what 

they’re doing to expand it to be consistent with our original design,” he explains.

The park project is centered on a four-zone master plan design focused on limiting erosion and increasing flood protection as well as boosting opportunities for 

recreation, Abbott notes. The park’s four quadrants include the “Civic Gateway,” 

the “Active Core,” the “Community Batture” and the “Habitat Terrace,” each created with different key features.

The Civic Gateway will have the Gateway Plaza, a lovely entrance with a view of 

Beale Street Landing, as well as a reimagined Cutbank Bluff, complete with views 

and handicapped accessibility. At the Active Core, visitors will find everything 

from a kids’ play deck and for-everyone fitness areas to a large “Civic Canopy” 

that provides shade for sports and events. This area will host Memphis in May 

once again, a longtime Tom Lee Park festival that will return to its home once the 

renovation is complete.

The Community Batture is a place where families can barbecue, wander in 

the restored riparian forest, hang out in the hammock grove and visit the Tom 

Lee Memorial that features picturesque views of the Mississippi River. Finally, the 

Habitat Terrace is a place for nature lovers, especially children who can learn about 

the ecology of the river firsthand in outdoor classrooms. And this is the spot where 

the Canopy Walk is designed to become an iconic Memphis destination, a massive 

platform with high-up treetop views of the river and Harahan Bridge.

“Let me say, apart from my role as part of the Army Corps of Engineers, I’m 

excited about the park,” Williams says. “I know that it’s going to be extremely 

popular. I think the most exciting thing, the thing that I’m going to look forward to 

is walking out and looking at the river, from that [Canopy Walk] structure on the 

south end, the elevated structure. I think it’s going to give a unique and beautiful 

view of the downtown area and the river. And you have the bridges, it’s between 

both the bridges, I think it’s gonna be a really fantastic thing.” —J.P.

Our Mississippi · Fall 2021 3

Mark Manning, Cartographer, 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Memphis District

“If you don’t like your work, you’re going to have a long day. I get paid to 

get in a boat, punch on a computer and ride on the Mississippi River all 

day long.”

“The first flood control mission I was on was in ‘91, and I’ve done 

every one since. On the first I was low man on the totem pole. I wasn’t 

doing much but toting sandbags, looking for sand boils. Now most of 

the floods I’m doing discharge measurements getting crucial flows. They 

send me on reconnaissance missions they can’t get to by land. I’ll boat 

in and do data collection.

“Another reason for mapping is for navigation purposes. When I first 

started, we’d go out and survey the actual channel of the river, and turn 

it over to my supervisor. They’d say, ‘Do we need to go in and dig that 

channel out? Is it too shallow for barges to get through?’

“The old-style maps we used to generate would shoot out a piece of 

paper with numbers that were the depths of the river. You had to hand 

contour that. We’d contour every five feet, and I’d lay that over our master plan so I could draw on the dikes and other structures. You got to 

actually look at the depths, think about it and interpret which way you 

thought the river was going. I might draw a straight line across; another 

guy might curl that around and come back. Then they put me on computer, which was pretty darn nice after hand contouring for five or six 

years.

“I have surveyed from Rosedale, Mississippi, below the end of our 

district, to Cairo, Illinois and have seen every bank of the river for the last 

20 years. One time I was doing an environmental survey. I saw a big old 

log floating, then later, I noticed it was back upstream. It was an old snapping turtle, a loggerhead, that must have been 300 or 400 pounds. She 

looked like a dinosaur with spikes almost three inches long. That’s when 

I got on the bandwagon. Instead of just worrying about navigation and 

commodities, there’s another branch of our work that deals with nature. 

I’d like my daughter one day to see a turtle like that.”

My MISSISSIPPI
WHEN HURRICANE IDA MADE LANDFALL

on Aug. 29, the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, it hit with 

maximum sustained winds of 150 mph. Its strength made it 

the second most intense hurricane to strike Louisiana, second 

only to Katrina. 

It also provided the first major test of the massive Corps 

of Engineers-created Hurricane & Storm Damage Risk 

Reduction System (HSDRRS) designed to protect the city and 

avoid a Katrina-type catastrophe in the future.

Over the past ten years, the Corps has strengthened the 

levees, floodwalls, gated structures and pump stations that 

form the 133-mile Greater New Orleans perimeter system, as 

well as improved approximately 70 miles of interior risk reduction structures. Among its technically-advanced engineering 

solutions, the HSDRRS now includes the world’s largest surge 

barrier of its kind, the IHNC-Lake Borgne 

Surge Barrier, and the largest drainage pump 

station in the world, the GIWW-West Closure 

Complex. The HSDRRS is capable of defending against a 100–year level of storm surge, 

also known as a storm that has a one percent 

chance of occurring in any given year. 

The system performed as designed, and 

there was no overtopping of the system, 

despite early National Weather Service projections. Two key state levee systems within 

the hurricane’s path also held. 

That doesn’t mean help wasn’t needed 

in the disaster’s wake. Corps teams that 

provide emergency power, that ‘unwater’ 

flooded spaces, that do emergency roofing 

work to protect homes—and more—were 

called to work in partnership with local, state 

and other federal agencies. 

The Corps, led by its Mississippi Valley 

Division, deployed its Temporary Power 

Planning and Response Team, its Temporary 

Roofing planning group and temporary subject 

matter experts in debris removal, hydraulics, 

infrastructure assessment and more.

The Power Restoration Task Force, which 

partners with the state of Louisiana, FEMA 

and Department of Energy, was immediately deployed. It installed its first generator 

Aug. 31 at the Southeast Louisiana Veterans 

Home. Installation priorities included hospitals, medical facilities and nursing homes. 

The Corps also received a FEMA mission 

assignment for temporary roof installations, a priority mission called Operation 

Blue Roof. The Corps’s Unwatering team 

also was deployed to remove excess water 

in South Louisiana. Pumps were deployed 

to Kraemer in LaFourche Parish and Lafitte in Jefferson Parish. In lower 

Plaquemines Paris, the Corps will undertake controlled engineering cuts in 

levees to promote drainage.

While the storm reduction system held, there were still significant impacts 

to federal navigation channels in Southeast Louisiana. All four major ports on 

the Mississippi River were temporarily shut down due to the loss of electrical 

power and the fouling of the river caused by scores of sunken, submerged, and 

grounded barges and vessels up and down the river as well as nine grounded 

deep draft vessels. Downed high-tension power lines that hung across the river 

at water level from a tower in New Orleans knocked down by the winds closed 

the busiest river in the U.S. to North-South traffic at that point for six days until 

the lines were cut by explosives and removed. The inoperability of numerous 

bridges across federal waterways due to storm damage posed a challenge to 

teams moving dredging and other equipment.

Special Corps 

teams aid in 

Ida response 

FROM TOP: USACE teams, led by 

the USACE Mississippi Valley Division, survey flooding and other 

damage by air. Major General 

Diana Holland shares news about 

task force efforts. This pump was 

moved to the Plaquemines Parish 

as one piece of the Unwatering 

Mission. And Operation Blue Roof, 

illustrated in bottom photo, is a 

priority mission managed by the 

Corps for the Federal Emergency 

Management Agency (FEMA). The 

free service protects homes quickly 

with temporary roofing covers.

The system performed 

as designed, and there 

was no overtopping 

of the system, despite 

early National 

Weather Service 

projections. Two key 

state levee systems 

within the hurricane’s 

path also held.

4 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi Valley Division

PHOTOS: U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS.
T

hree years ago, a coalition of Mississippi River cities mayors decided that someone needed to do 

something about the plastics and other waste flowing down the river and into the Gulf of Mexico. 

And they decided that someone would be them. Through their Mississippi River Cities and Towns 

Initiative (MRTCI)—a close partner of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers—they became the first 

river system to join the Clean Seas Initiative of the United Nations Environmental Program and the 

National Geographic Society.

The first step toward a solution, they decided, would be to see what—down to each individual piece of trash—

they were dealing with. They partnered with the University of Georgia, which developed a Debris Tracker app, 

and sent volunteers out to systematically comb the banks of three river towns (St. Paul, Minnesota, St. Louis, 

Missouri, and Baton Rouge, La.) throughout 2020.

What volunteers found was a whopping 81,000 pieces of trash, including 11,000 cigarette butts, 10,000 styrofoam fragments, 7,000 food wrappers, 6,500 beverage bottles and 3,600 metal cans.

The findings weren’t a total shock to river mayors, says Jennifer Wendt, the plastic waste reduction campaign manager for MRCTI. After all, the debris is inundating their city riverbanks as it makes its way to the 

Gulf and then to the ocean. The next step, she says, will be sharing the data with mayors so they can develop 

specific initiatives that target efforts to reduce trash.

The Mississippi River watershed drains 40 percent of the 

continental U.S., so a soda bottle from Great Falls, Montana, 

could float into the sea with a cigarette butt from Olean, New 

York, 1,641 miles east. And this is just one system.

“There are around 8 million tons of plastic entering the 

ocean each year. Most of it — around 80 percent — originates 

from land-based sources including rivers like the Mississippi 

as well as coastlines,” said Barbara Hendrie, North American 

director of the United Nations Environment Programme 

(UNEP).

MRCTI is an organization of 101 mayors of communities along the river. It launched the plastic pollution initiative to help fill gaps in data about the plastic pollution flowing into the Mississippi River specifically, Hendrie said.

“We are working to fill this important data gap by answering three important questions: What is it? How 

did it get here? What can we do about it?”

The river mayors quickly found company in their concerns, Wendt said, getting partners from each city and 

finding 100 organizations eager to join. Thousands of volunteers have searched designated quadrants of river 

bank and logged debris counts on

“We gave people a specific method to follow for them to walk in a path about a meter wide and count 

all of the items they saw in that path for 30 minutes,” said Jenna Jambeck, a professor of engineering at the 

University of Georgia and co-creator of the Debris Tracker deployed by UNEP. “This method gives us data that 

is comparable across cities and around the world.”

In about one year, volunteers counted items on 111 square kilometers (27,429 acres) of riverbank. Nearly 

three-quarters of the trash was some type of plastic — cigarette butts, foam fragments, food wrappers, beverage bottles and broken pieces of hard plastic.

“One of the things that struck me was the number of plastic bottles and aluminum cans,” Jambeck said. 

“Plastic bottles are very recyclable and aluminum cans even have value, yet they still end up in the environment.”

Resulting actions will include usual efforts at picking up trash and recycling, she said, and extend to reducing the plastics that are manufactured introduced into the environment. Many restaurants, she noted, have 

switched from styrofoam to paper containers for carry-out food. The American Beverage Association is striving to recycle 100 percent of its plastic bottles through an “Every Bottle Back” program. 

Many communities and businesses are providing bottle refill stations to reduce purchases of water in disposable bottles. The plastics initiative has engaged thousands of 

people, a sign that progress awaits, Jambeck said. —R.S.

More on the 

plastic initiative: 

debristracker.org

The first step to cleaning up 

river trash? Knowing exactly 

what you’re dealing with

PLASTICS BE GONE

“There are around 8 million tons of 

plastic entering the ocean each year. 

Most of it ... originates from landbased sources including rivers like the 

Mississippi as well as coast lines,” 

—BARBARA HENDRIE, NORTH AMERICAN DIRECTOR, 

THE UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME

Our Mississippi · Fall 2021 5

Mitchell Serjogins, 

Working Supervisor Lock and 

Dam 4; St. Paul District Dive team 

member; Alma, Wisconsin 

“I’ve always been a river rat. I’ve been in the 

water, on the water my whole life, I blame my parents. My first time I was on the river I was two 

months old, always on Pool 5. I have a 1 1⁄2 year 

old son, and I’m raising him the same way. 

“As soon as I got on the Corps, I was asking 

about the dive team. In 2017, they sent me down; 

they had to see if I was able to handle it. Our district’s dive team is quite a bit different than those 

of other districts. We have a team set to dive 

three to four months a year. It’s all we do June to 

September, and we get to be a pretty tight-knit 

group.

“Anything underwater that needs to be done 

is what we do. Diving is usually a last-case scenario. If there’s any way to do it top side, we 

always do it that way. But we do inspecting of 

gates, some of the concrete structures. Last 

week we dove below every gate on the dam—

that was 28 gates, Next week I’ll be going with 

the team dredging the lower gates of Lower St. 

Anthony Falls. We’ll do the inspection of the new 

gates and Lock and Dam 2, and the week after 

we’ll assist the Portland District in Oregon.

“I always like it. It’s the only time involving 

my job where you are by yourself, in full control 

of what you’re doing. In some cases in cleaner 

water you can actually see stuff, but most times, 

you can put your hand right to your face and 

can’t see it. You’re doing everything by feel.

“I’ve touched fish before, and when you have 

decent visibility they sometimes spook you. We 

did a periodic inspection in the Headwaters, and I 

was checking a wing wall along the dam. I turned 

around and there were hundreds of sunfish following me.

I think the most fun I’ve had on a dive is setting bulkheads that were 80,000 pounds. We’d 

sit underneath the barge, and once we got it set 

would unhook the shackles. Everything went 

well; nobody got hurt. I want to give the dive team 

as a whole a shout-out. Safety is always the key 

factor. They call it the most dangerous job in the 

Corps of Engineers. I don’t see it being dangerous when I’m with the crew I work with.”

My MISSISSIPPI
I

t’s not hard to find 

ways to celebrate the 

35th anniversary of the 

Upper Mississippi River 

Restoration Program.

You could go birdwatching in a spot where there’s 

more waterfowl than ever, dip a line in a pool now teaming 

with fish, maybe paddle a backwater that’s quite a bit clearer 

than it was 35 years ago—and by no accident.

In 1986, Congress declared the Upper Mississippi River 

System as both a nationally significant ecosystem and nationally significant commercial navigation system and provided 

for the system to be regulated as such. Through one immediate 

action, it authorized the Upper Mississippi River Restoration 

program (UMRR) and made it the first federal program to 

combine ecosystem restoration, monitoring, and science on 

a large river system. 

Results and Plans 

UMRR has focused primarily on two of the six initially authorized elements: habitat rehabilitation and enhancement 

projects and long term resource monitoring, research, and 

analysis. These two elements have comprised the essence of 

UMRR from the beginning.

Habitat projects have restored and connected more than 

100,000 acres along the Upper Mississippi River, with an additional 75,000 acres of habitat projects planned for the next 

decade. These provide vital habitat for diverse fish and wildlife species including rare and endangered ones, says Marshall 

Plumley, UMRR regional program manager. The program has 

another 24 projects in planning, design or construction, he 

says, projects expected to have an even greater impact due to 

lessons learned and methodologies improved.

“For the last 35 years our understanding of the UMRS and 

how it functions and responds to change has grown exponentially,” he said. “I envision that will continue and accelerate 

which will drive more robust and effective restoration on the 

Upper Mississippi River System.”

The program has created islands for more sheltered habitat, 

restored forests, dredged pools where fish can now overwinter. 

Its long-term resource monitoring arm has been key in informing and measuring the other effort’s results and in developing 

an impressive database of information on the system.

Each year, UMRR LTRM field station staff members use 

consistent, standardized methods to collect water quality, 

aquatic plant and fisheries data in six study reaches that span 

over 900 miles of the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers 

(Pool 4, Pool 8, Pool 13, Pool 26 and Open River reach of the 

Upper Mississippi and La Grange Pool of the Illinois River.) 

The resulting database is considered one of the most extensive and comprehensive databases on any large river system 

in the world, and its methodology has been adopted by several others, says Jeff Houser, science director. 

The monitoring reveals patterns and trends, establishes 

current state benchmarks for comparison to future conditions, serves as an early warning of change and more, he says. 

Both parts of the program also depend on key partnerships. 

Though administration is done through the U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers, the U.S. Geological Survey heads the monitoring and 

many agencies contribute to the field and restoration work. 

Says Plumley: “Successful management of the Upper 

Mississippi River requires thoughtful and meaningful coordination among numerous agencies, organizations, and individuals 

with varying but related mandates and missions.”

MONITORING REVEALS 

KEY TRENDS 

Water Quality

In the Upper Impounded Reach 

(Navigation Pools 2 through 13), 

some aspects of water quality have 

improved. The biggest change has 

been the increase in water clarity 

from 1993, partly due to projectrelated reductions in input of 

suspended sediment and changes 

in vegetation (see below).

Submerged Aquatic Vegetation

The submersed aquatic vegetation in the Upper Mississippi 

experienced a ‘crash’ in the late 

1980s for reasons that remain 

poorly understood. Low vegetation abundance and much 

murkier water remained until the 

early 2000s when, in the Upper 

Impounded Reach, vegetation 

abundance and water clarity 

began to increase.

Fish

The most dramatic change in 

fish populations has been the 

remarkable increase in the 

amount of invasive bighead 

carp with evidence that sport 

fish have declined where the 

carp have become established. 

There is evidence that sport fish 

have declined in the LTRM study 

reaches where bighead carp have 

established and become common. 

A similar decline has not been 

detected in the study reaches 

where bighead carp are not abundant (Navigation Pools 4, 8 and 

13). In fact, recreationally valued 

native fish have increased in parts 

of the Upper Impounded Reach.

Water Levels

From 1940 to 2019 there has been 

a general increase in the magnitude and duration of high river 

discharge. This is one of the few 

long-term trends that is true for the 

entire system. One consequence 

of this change is that floodplain 

forests are struggling to regenerate 

in areas where there are currently 

mature trees. Extensive sections 

of dead trees are evident on the 

floodplain. 

—JEFF HOUSER, SCIENCE DIRECTOR

Restoration Program marks 35 

years of environmental wins

6 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi Valley Division
Celebrate through exploration

Most of this year’s 35th anniversary events will be virtual, but there are many ways to honor the success 

of UMRR projects through outdoor recreation and exploring the Upper Mississippi River. To celebrate, try 

one of these suggestions by Sabrina Chandler, Refuge Manager, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Upper 

Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge:

• Drop a line in Polander Lake, Pool 5, in 

Winona County, Minnesota. Here, projectrelated dredging increased deep water habitat 

for fish. The pretty recreational lake is popular 

for trout fishing, especially since UMRR projects increased habitat diversity and improved 

water quality in the backwater area favored by 

paddlefish.

• Ice fish, Lake Onalaska, Pool 7, in La Crosse 

County, Wisconsin. Here, dredging increased 

deep water habitat for fish. Today, anglers find 

largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, channel 

catfish, black crappie, walleye, bluegill, pumpkinseed sunfish, yellow perch and northern pike.

• Go bird watching, Brownsville Overlook 

along the Pool 8 Islands, Genoa, Wisconsin. 

Projects constructed islands to protect aquatic 

vegetation and reduce sedimentation, increasing 

food supplies and adding loafing structures for 

migratory waterfowl. Today, it’s a birdwatcher’s 

paradise of eagles, pelicans, coots, ducks, tundra 

swans and more. 

• Hunt waterfowl, Pool 9 Islands, Crawford 

County, Wisconsin. Here, horseshoe-shaped 

islands were constructed to protect aquatic 

plant beds and shallow waters, providing food 

and shelter in this mallard and canvasback 

mecca. Some 300,000 ducks at a time have 

been spotted during migration and outfitters 

offer guide services that cater to hunters.

• Paddle Ambrough Slough, Pool 10, upstream 

of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Restoration of 

2,500 acres of backwater wetlands improved 

water quality by increasing water depth, reducing siltation and improving aquatic vegetation to 

enhance habitat for fish, mussels, waterfowl—

and those who want to paddle amid them.

Pool 12: Making room for fish to winter

Anyone who has bundled up inside a shanty on a frozen Midwestern lake and looked down under the ice 

below knows that fish, too, are hearty souls that can thrive even in the middle of winter. But to do so, they 

need at least six feet of water under that ice—something increasingly hard to find as sediment fills the 

backwater habitats of the Upper Mississippi River. 

However, if the increasing number of fishing boats is any indication, a restoration project in Mississippi 

River Pool 12 is making a difference. The UMRR project launched with its first contract award in 2013 will 

hold a virtual ribbon cutting in November to signify the end of the construction of better habitat for fish 

to overwinter and in four different lakes within the pool located in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Rock 

Island District, just downstream of Dubuque, Iowa. 

What sets this project apart is the way that follow-up efforts will track construction of better winter 

fish habitat in four different lakes within the pool, says Julie Millhollin, the project manager. Future 

efforts will track the response of fish including whether or not they swim from pool to pool or how far 

they travel to their winter getaways.

The dredged material wasn’t just disposed of. Instead, it was moved to land adjacent to the pool to help 

boost forest restoration efforts as well. Teams planted vegetation and specific tree species designed to 

broaden the variety in areas heavily dominated by silver maple. Future projects, Millhollin says, will focus 

on forest plantings across the pool. —K.S.

ICE FISHING: HERT NIKS. EAGLE: PHILIPP PILZ. CANOE: MICHAEL NIESSL. ALL VIA UNSPLASH.

Our Mississippi · Fall 2021 7
National Loon 

Center opens

A STOREFRONT CALLED THE NEST may sound unassuming. But its opening in Crosslake, Minnesota 

marks the first physical presence of a community effort to preserve lakes and loons—with their haunting 

calls and iconic connection to the North—in the Mississippi headwaters and beyond.

Opened in June 2021, The Nest serves as a welcome center for the National Loon Center Foundation, a 

nonprofit organization with the mission to be “an interactive educational destination that transforms visitors into champions for loons and freshwater everywhere.”

The National Loon Center’s permanent home, still in the planning stages, will be located at the U.S. Army 

Corps of Engineers’ Cross Lake Recreation Area, just across the highway from The Nest welcome center.

“Establishing ourselves here on the square is the first tangible proof to the public that the Loon Center 

is not just a future vision, but that it’s operating now, has exciting programs and things to do, and current 

research efforts underway,” said Jon Mobeck, the National Loon Center’s new executive director.

The National Loon Center launched its first educational programs, called Loon Lab, this summer. A partnership with the Gull Lake Sailing School of Brainerd, Minnesota offered children and adults on-the-water 

experience learning about loons, their behavior and habitat, and the importance of protecting freshwater 

lakes and rivers. The volunteer instructors used a curriculum designed jointly by the National Loon Center 

and researchers from the University of Minnesota.

2021 also marked the start of a loon research project, led by Dr. Walter Piper, a professor with Chapman 

University and chief science advisor to the National Loon Center. He has studied loon populations in 

Wisconsin for more than 20 years and is establishing a parallel study of Minnesota’s loon population. This 

summer’s activity included banding loons on the Whitefish Chain of Lakes.

“We’ve noticed that the population in Wisconsin is declining. We want to see if that pattern is consistent 

here. And if it is, then that means that we need to do a lot of conservation work to help the loons,” Mobeck said.

Piper also leads the National Loon Center’s Scientific Learning Council, comprised of nationally recognized biologists, ecologists, and wildlife scientists.

The Council’s immediate task is guiding development of exhibits for the National Loon Center’s worldclass educational facility, slated to open in the spring of 2024, Mobeck said. It will include a boardwalk, dock, 

and shoreline restoration with recreational access.

“Outdoor exhibits are being installed this year,” Mobeck said. The first one describes the meanings of various loon calls. Others will be about aquatic invasive species and the effect of lead fishing tackle on loons.

“Signage explaining the National Loon Center and what they do is being installed in the interpretive garden at 

our entrance. We plan to finish before the end of summer,” said Corrine Hodapp, Supervisory Park Ranger of the 

Cross Lake Recreation Area, the most visited of the Corps’ St. Paul District recreation facilities. The Paul Bunyan 

Scenic Byway Association is a key partner in establishing and maintaining this garden and the new signage.

The shoreline restoration project also exemplifies another strong partnership. When the recreation area 

closes for the season, work will begin on installation of a boardwalk, dock, including a boat slip for a floating 

classroom, and shoreline plantings. These projects should improve water quality and demonstrate how to 

preserve lakefront habitat.

“The Corps’ focus (in this project) is where the land meets the water. We don’t want to impact our current 

users. We want people to be able to use the walkways, sit on benches, and enjoy looking out over the water,” 

Hodapp said.

Mobeck concurred. “We really want to make sure that the exact areas that we are restoring are of the 

highest benefit to the Army Corps. That’s very much a joint effort to make sure that we’re effecting the right 

change here,” he said. —D.D.

Christine Brewer, 65, 

Grammy Award winning Opera Singer

“I grew up in Grand Tower, the southern Illinois town 

named for the grand tower or Tower Rock that juts 

about 60 feet above the Mississippi River. When I 

lived there, a ferry connected Grand Tower to Wittenburg, Missouri.

“My family often picnicked in Devil’s Backbone 

Park, but my mother would never let us swim in the 

river because of the swift current and whirlpools 

at Grand Tower. I didn’t learn to swim until I was an 

adult, and now I do it every day in part as a good 

exercise for my lungs.

“I can’t remember a time I wasn’t performing. 

My mother was in a musical group called the Shawnee Trio. My brothers and I often sang specials at 

my grandparents’ church in McClure, another river 

town about 25 miles south. Once we did a gospel 

sing at Devils Backbone Park with the river as our 

backdrop.

“Becoming an opera singer was something I 

never considered until I was in college. Over the 

years, I have had the opportunity to perform on 

some of the world’s grandest stages, Paris, London, 

New York at the Metropolitan Opera and symphony 

halls in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Italy. 

Performing before the Queen of England was a 

highlight, as was a private performance for Prince 

Charles.

“When I am asked to lead workshops, I tell students that it doesn’t matter what you are singing, 

you must connect emotionally to the music.

“I get a little weepy when I sing “Mira” from the 

musical Carnival by Bob Merrill. I can bring that 

number more to life because of my childhood on 

the river. It kind of sums up my life.

I came from the town of Mira, 

beyond the bridges of St. Clair.

I guess you’ve never heard of Mira,

It’s very small, but still it’s there.

They have the very greenest trees, 

and skies as bright as flame,

But what I liked the best in Mira,

Was everybody knew my name.

Can you imagine that? 

Can you imagine that?

Everybody knew my name. 

“I’m relying heavily on my memories of Grand 

Tower as I prepare for my next performance – a cabaret in December at the Blue Strawberry in St. Louis 

called ‘From Grand Tower to Grand Opera.’” —D.L.M.

Loon preservation and learning to be 

a new feature of popular Corps’ Cross 

Lake recreation area

8 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi Valley Division

My MISSISSIPPI
Lower Mississippi gets restoration boost

TWO FEASIBILITY STUDIES—among just 10 authorized 

across the nation—will look for the most viable ways to restore 

the river’s ecosystem in and around Memphis, Tennessee, and 

in ways that won’t interfere with other U.S. Army Corps missions 

like flood control and navigation. 

Both are exciting opportunities for the Corps’ Mississippi 

Valley Division and the river’s southern stretches, says Col. 

Zachary Miller, commander of the Memphis District. Feasibility 

studies are a first step toward recommended improvement 

options and funding approval for plan construction.

“We’ve done an incredible job over many, many decades of 

taming this river and making it useful for our economy for all 

the citizens and the farmers and the industries that work and 

live along the river,” he said. “But that has resulted in some disconnection between the river and some of the natural habitat. 

About 80 percent of natural floodplain of the Mississippi River 

is disconnected from the river now, and while we cannot reconnect all that, we can certainly go a long way toward creating an 

environment that’s conducive to the many plants and animals 

and fish that call this region home.”

Funded in conjunction with major partners, both studies seek 

to improve critical habitat that’s already home to rare or endangered aquatic life, wildlife and natural systems. The Hatchie/

Loosahatchie, feasibility study is being in conducted in a cost 

share agreement with the Lower Mississippi River Conservation 

Committee (LMRCC); for the Running Reelfoot Bayou study, the 

Corps is partnering with the West Tennessee River Basin Authority. 

Running Reelfoot

The Corps is no stranger to the 20-mile channel between 

Reelfoot Lake and the Lake Isom National Wildlife Refuge to 

the Obion River that makes up the boundaries of Running 

Reelfoot. The Corps 50 years ago re-engineered to control 

flooding in the bordering agricultural lands of the study area 

known as Running Reelfoot. 

The original flood control project did help farmers, but as an 

unintended result, there was a loss of wetlands and bottomland 

forest, in part due to the way farms over time encroached on the 

channel, says Jase Ray, the study’s project manager. Enlarging 

and deepening the channel for flood control also resulted in a 

loss of the stream’s natural meanders, he said. 

If nothing is done, the bayou will continue to degrade, habitat 

will not improve and downstream flooding may increase. That 

all threatens one of the state’s most popular spots for both wildlife and vacationers. Reelfoot Lake State Park on 15,000 acre 

Reelfoot Lake, noted for its fishing, 

boating and viewing of resident bald 

eagles and migrating waterfowl as 

well as the majestic Cypress trees 

that rise above the water. The lake 

itself is considered a threatened 

national natural landmark; it is a 

natural lake formed during the 1812 

New Madrid earthquakes when for 

a short time the Mississippi River 

flowed backward.

The end goal, Ray says, is to 

keep flooding at bay but to restore 

the natural ecosystem that existed 

prior to the flood control project. 

Hatchie/Loosahatchie

This $3 million, three-year study on a 39-mile reach of the 

Mississippi River, beginning at the mouth of the Hatchie River 

and extending south to the Wolf River Harbor, is the first to be 

studied of the eight stretches recommended for improvement 

through the Lower Mississippi River Resource Assessment.

Resource managers decided to concentrate on one stretch at 

a time in the larger effort to improve habitat and allow people to 

interact recreationally on the lower river, says Marsha Raus, the 

original project manager. Recreation doesn’t drive the improvements but can be seen as a bonus of restoration efforts, she 

says. On the key ecological side, study teams will likely look at 

restoring river species like river cane, (also known as canebrake) 

a type of now nearly eradicated bamboo that was once expansive in this stretch of the river and important for use as wildlife 

cover and erosion control. The project also will look at restoring 

the original structure and functions of the river—things such as 

side channels and other aquatic habitat, floodplain forests and 

now scarce communities of vegetation. The study will look at 

optimizing habitat, too, for the many endangered and threatened species found within its reaches.

Perhaps most importantly, the study offers an opportunity to 

think comprehensively about lower river restoration opportunities, says Angie Rodgers, LMRCC coordinator. 

“We truly believe that navigation and flood risk management 

can be managed in balance with ecosystem restoration on this 

39 mile stretch,” she said. “Since 2006, we’ve been conducting 

habitat restoration on the river in partnership with the Corps, but 

we’ve not had the capacity to manage such a large stretch.” —K.S.

Two key feasibility studies are 

looking at options for keeping 

two stretches of the Mississippi 

River pristine. The areas already 

are home to mammals, turtles, 

bald eagles, migratory waterfowl, 

songbirds, endangered bats, fish 

and more but are at risk for further degradation.

Our Mississippi · Fall 2021 9

BREWER: CHRISTIAN STEINER. 
400 years before Christopher Columbus 

arrived in the New World, Native Americans 

of the Mississippi Valley constructed one of 

the world’s largest cities.

In the year 1000, 10 miles east of modernday St. Louis, the city of Cahokia was home 

to some of North America’s best farmers, 

thanks to the fertile soil of the Mississippi 

floodplain. The Cahokians were also excellent traders, bartering their corn and other 

products all along the Mississippi River. But 

they were especially famous for their earthen 

mounds, constructed as building platforms 

and burial sites.

You can still see those mounds today, 

including Monk’s Mound, the granddaddy of 

them all. Monk’s Mound is the largest earthworks in the Americas, covering an area equal 

to 101⁄2 football fields and standing as tall as 

three school buses stacked end to end! To build 

this massive mound, ordinary Mississippians 

gathered straw baskets of dirt, one after 

another, adding to the pile day after day. If you 

built Monk’s Mound today, a classroom of 30 

students would have to fill, carry and dump 

eight 55-pound baskets of dirt every day. And 

it would take 167 years to finish!

What happened to Cahokia? Archaeologists aren’t sure, but many believe 

that climate change destroyed the local farming culture. Whatever the cause, 

Cahokia was abandoned by the year 1400. But the Cahokia Mounds remain, 

a reminder of a great civilization that thrived on the banks of the Mississippi 

1,000 years ago. CAHOKIAMOUNDS.ORG

Morgan Gates, licensed 

park guide, author 

and owner of Haunted 

Vicksburg, Vicksburg, 

Mississippi 

“I’m a retired educator from the 

Vicksburg-Warren School District, 

I have a master’s degree in history 

and education. I love history; it’s my 

passion. Today I’m a licensed guide 

at the Vicksburg National Military 

Park, and I lead a ghost tour called 

Haunted Vicksburg. A little history, a 

little mystery. Why not? I was born on 

Halloween by the way. 

“Vicksburg is a great place for 

both. It is over 200 years old, it was 

the site of the most complex campaign in the Civil War, and it’s located 

on the banks of the Mighty Mississippi. The history runs as deep and wide here as the 

Mississippi River itself. History gets a bad rap as a dry and boring subject full of dull facts 

and meaningless dates, but it’s not—not if it’s done right, anyway. 

“So let me share a story. It is the story of a young Irish immigrant that fought with the 

95th Illinois regiment. He was the smallest fellow in the regiment, but he was as tough as 

anyone. His small size made him an ideal scout, and he would sneak up to the Confederate line and gather information. He was captured, but his guards underestimated him 

and he overpowered them and escaped back to the Union lines. Many years later back in 

Illinois he was working for a Senator when he was accidentally hit by a car. When the doctor treated his broken leg, he discovered that Albert was really a woman whose real name 

was Jenny Hodgers. Perhaps we should call history His-Story, or in this case Her-Story. 

“Of course, everyone loves a ghost story, and Vicksburg has all the right ingredients 

to make it a very haunted town: the horrible history and the raw power of the Mississippi 

River. People have been touched, hair has been pulled. We have a playful little girl ghost 

named Maggie who likes to play peek-a-boo with our guests. You don’t have to believe in 

ghosts to enjoy my tour, but you may leave a little more convinced than when you arrived.” 

My MISSISSIPPI

Play your own version of 

America’s first pastime

Long before baseball was invented, the Native Americans of Cahokia played a 

game called Tchung-kee (also known as Chunkey). Grown men and athletes 

competed with one another for fame and prizes, and thousands of fans gathered to cheer on their favorites. Children also played Tchung-kee, practicing 

for the day when they might have the chance to prove their strength and skill. 

Although Cahokians used clay disks and spears, you can try a simpler version 

with a Frisbee and sticks.

HOW TO PLAY TCHUNG-KEE

1. Gather all players at one end of a field or playground. Balancing the Frisbee 

on its edge, one player rolls the disk away from the group. (If you don’t have 

a Frisbee, use a ball.)

2. All players run alongside the Frisbee and toss their sticks ahead of them, 

aiming for the point where they believe the Frisbee will come to a rest. 

Cahokians often added bird feathers or streamers to their sticks to help 

them travel a quick and straight path.

3. The stick that lands closest to the point where the Frisbee stops earns a point.

4. Allow each player a turn to roll the Frisbee. The player to earn 20 points 

first wins.

Explore America’s first big city OUR MISSISSIPPI KIDS

Tchung-kee, a Mandan Game Played with a Ring and Pole, painting by 

George Catlin, 1833, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum.

10 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi Valley Division
OUR MISSISSIPPI TRAVEL

Say oui to Missouri’s historic French rivertown

The U.S. Congress ratified 

the Show-Me State’s statehood on August 10, 1821, 

making this the state’s bicentennial year. But decades before 

Missouri became the 24th U.S. 

state, the little settlement of Ste. 

Genevieve became its first town.

French Canadian settlers 

founded Ste. Genevieve sometime in the 1740s in what was 

then French territory, and the 

French influence is still obvious 

throughout.

The Mississippi River’s Le Grand 

Champ (the Big Field) in modernday southeastern Missouri drew 

the immigrants, who raised 

wheat, corn, and other produce 

in the river’s rich bottomland—

facts you’ll learn on a tour of Ste. 

Genevieve National Historic Park.

“This region was the bread basket for New Orleans, given its proximity to 

the Mississippi,” says Claire Casey, a National Park Service ranger.

Beyond the Mississippi’s value as an agricultural resource, the river naturally 

also served as an important means of transportation. Settlers took advantage of 

the fertile land along the Mississippi for agriculture. They then used the river to 

transport their goods to New Orleans and throughout the region.

Persistent flooding eventually caused the residents of Ste. Genevieve to 

relocate their town three miles inland—the devastating flood of 1785 marked 

a final turning point—but the streets of historic Ste. Genevieve still bear the 

look of a remarkably old town by Midwestern standards, lined as they are with 

late 18th- and early 19th-century buildings.

The Green Tree Tavern ranks as the town’s oldest, dating from 1790. The 

former inn, tobacco store and Masonic lodge displays an excellent example 

of Ste. Genevieve’s unique French Colonial architecture. Unlike traditional 

American log homes, these colonial buildings were constructed following the 

poteaux-sur-sol (post-on-sill) or poteaux-en-terre (post-in-earth) methods, in 

which logs were oriented vertically rather than horizontally and either supported on a stone sill or set directly in the earth.

The tavern also sits at a raised elevation and includes a gallery, a broad colonnaded porch that completely encircles the building. Both building features 

were characteristic of French Colonial architecture of the time and designed 

to maximize cool breezes during Missouri’s hot, humid summers.

Not far from the Green Tavern sits the Amoureux House. Built in 1792, the 

building is named for Pélagie Amoureux, a freed African American woman 

who lived here with her family before and after the Civil War.

The Centre for French Colonial Life uses special exhibits and demonstrations to flesh out Ste. Genevieve’s culture, one described by curators as a creole 

of French as well as African, Native American, Spanish, Caribbean, Canadian 

and German traditions. The colony’s possession in the late 18th century by 

the Spanish and, not many years later, by the Americans surely plays a role 

in creating this cultural mélange. But credit is also given to the Mississippi 

River itself, which transported diverse cultures alongside its travelers, and left 

a lasting imprint on the region’s cuisine, music, religious life and festivals.

Tucked between Ste. Genevieve’s numerous historic buildings lie an assortment of attractive boutiques and gift shops, winery tasting rooms and coffee 

shops. And while you’ll see restaurant menus that reflect Ste. Genevieve’s 

cultural diversity—Cajun rice, German schnitzels, and Southern fried 

chicken—you won’t find much traditional French food.

For that, you’ll have to attend Ste. Genevieve’s annual festivals, all of which 

feature French foods from centuries ago: La Veillée, a summer festival, featuring colonial French folk dancing, folk tales and historic home tours; Le 

Réveillon, with the traditional music, decorations and customs of a colonial 

French Christmas; and La Guiannée, a centuries-old New Year’s Eve tradition 

reminiscent of a caroling party, and traditionally celebrated by descendants 

of French settlers.

Or you might just walk down the quaint old streets of 

Ste. Genevieve, where 275 years of history lie visible at 

every turn. —A.E.

For more: 

visitstegen.com

The Centre for Colonial Life showcases 

early life in this town 

founded by French 

Canadian settlers, 

from the unusual 

architecture to the 

frequent use of the 

town’s logo with a 

French flair.

The Great River Road has a color tour for you

The Mississippi River celebrates “Drive the Great River Road Month” each September, encouraging road trippers to explore 

the waterway in autumn, when the river’s lush green trees turn a dozen shades of red and yellow. But the show lingers along 

the Mississippi, with peak color beginning in mid-September in the North and extending into early November in the South. 

Pack up the car and get ready for a rainbow-colored road trip. With a fall foliage tour this long, there’s a stretch at peak color 

whenever you can get away. 

Minnesota 

Twin Cities to La Crescent, 140 miles

Peak Color: Late Sept. to Mid-Oct.

The cityscape of the Twin Cities contrasts sharply with the natural beauty 

of the Mississippi. Visit Minneapolis’ 

Minnehaha Falls, particularly beautiful 

when surrounded by brilliant hardwood trees, and St. Paul’s Raspberry 

Island, in the middle of the river, before 

heading south. The Great River Road 

twists and turns through a spectacular 

show of autumn color, through small 

towns and forests, with plenty of 

scenic overlooks along the way. Mustsees include Barn Bluff in Red Wing, 

Frontenac State Park in Frontenac, 

and Great River Bluffs State Park near 

Winona. 

Iowa

Davenport to McGregor, 160 miles 

Peak Color: Mid-Oct.

The Quad Cities offer a chance to see 

the Mississippi’s fall beauty from the 

water, on board themed river cruises, 

before driving the Great River Road 

north to Dubuque. There, Iowa’s 

longest-running farmers market sells 

fall goodies like apples, pears and 

cider, and Dubuque’s Riverwalk leads 

through a vibrant riverside canopy 

of trees. The road trip ends at Pike’s 

Peak State Park near McGregor. 

One of Iowa’s most photographed 

destinations, the park overlooks the 

Mississippi from a 500-foot bluff, 

especially striking in autumn. 

Tennessee

Memphis to Tiptonville, 130 miles 

Peak Color: Mid- to Late-Oct.

Board a riverboat, hop on a public 

bike, paddle a kayak or just walk along 

the water at Memphis’ urban river 

parks, including Tom Lee, Mud Island 

and Chickasaw Heritage Parks. The 

Great River Road leads upriver from 

Memphis to Fort Pillow State Historic 

Park, where piles of colorful leaves 

litter the trails and the Mississippi 

sparkles between the trees. Along the 

walk, look for fortifications from Fort 

Pillow’s Civil War times. The Tennessee 

color tour ends in Tiptonville and 

Reelfoot Lake State Park, popular for 

its fishing and boating. Reelfoot Lake 

is a remnant of the Mississippi itself, 

when a series of earthquakes tempoMore ideas: experiencemississippiriver.com rarily diverted the river in 1811–12.

Our Mississippi · Fall 2021 11
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Diane Kolak

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Meyer

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Richard Stoff

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636-899-0076

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651-290-5247

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901-544-0761

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636-899-0086

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309-794-5341

Questions or Comments:

U.S.A.C.E. REGIONAL OUTREACH SPECIALISTS

US Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul

PM-E Bluhm

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St. Paul, MN 55101

In its draft disposition study for the Upper Saint Anthony lock and dam, the U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers (Corps) recommends a tentatively selected alternative that the Corps step away from 

any ownership of the facilities and that it offers a cash incentive to the new owner to offset maintenance costs.

Release of the draft report and subsequent 60-day public comment period are the latest steps 

in a process that began when navigation at Upper Saint Anthony Falls stopped in 2015 with the 

Congressionally mandated closure of the locks to prevent the spread of invasive carp. The cessation of navigation ended the Corps’ original, primary mission at the site. 

Nan Bischoff, project manager, and her planning team have been working through the more 

than 110 letters received during the public comment period. Responses came from a variety of 

river advocacy groups, neighborhood associations, tribal communities and more. Few public 

comments supported the Corps’ likely recommendation of disposition. That means that while the 

Corps’ likely recommendation of disposition is in the best interest of the federal government, she 

says, it will not be a popular decision.

The ultimate resolution of what happens at Saint Anthony Falls lies with Congress which 

decides whether or not to act on the report’s recommendation. The required disposition study for 

Lower Saint Anthony Falls and Lock and Dam 1 will not start until after the Upper Saint Anthony 

Falls study is done. —D.D.

Fishing line litter can be deadly to wildlife 

The Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary, managed by the 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in West Alton, Missouri, has 

seen more than 100,000 additional visitors in the past year, 

bringing both opportunity and challenges.

Many of the new visitors have come looking for fishing 

experiences, including many new to the sport. That has contributed to a considerable increase in fishing line discarded 

along the sanctuary shores.

This particular type of litter isn’t just unsightly; it’s deadly. 

Wildlife that gets tangled in the line is more at the mercy of 

predators and often unable to find food. Additionally, lead 

weights used to sink fishing line has also become ingested and 

can cause poisoning.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in part through a grant 

awarded to the Mississippi River Water Trail Association 

from the National Environmental Education Foundation, has 

established fishing line receptacles around Riverlands. Use 

them—or make your own.

HOW TO BUILD

tinyurl.com/555fv8kz

HOW TO RECYCLE

tinyurl.com/5b3nazmt

Draft Report Recommends Disposal of 

Upper Saint Anthony Falls Lock and Dam