THE THUNDER OF FALLING WATER

has been reshaping this place on the Mississippi 

River since Ice Age glaciers retreated 12,000 

years ago. For centuries, people have been drawn 

to the only waterfalls on the Mississippi River 

for reasons aesthetic, spiritual, recreational, and commercial. 

Now, their form and function may change again, as the U.S. 

Army Corps of Engineers considers their role in the future of 

the Upper Saint Anthony Falls lock and dam in downtown 

Minneapolis with a study of the possibility of disposing this federal resource for a potentially new purpose.

At 49 feet, the Upper Saint Anthony Falls lock and dam is the 

first and tallest step in the navigation 

system of the Mississippi River. Its 

spillway protects the last stretch of 

limestone that forms Saint Anthony 

Falls, the only major falls on the 

entire Mississippi River. Without 

that hard cap, the river would continue its relentless erosion of the soft 

sandstone underneath, ultimately 

collapsing the falls entirely.

Saint Anthony Falls sits in the heart of a Minneapolis 

historic district, flanked by new luxury apartments, a hydroelectric plant, and an historic stone railroad bridge now used 

by more than 2 million pedestrians and bicyclists annually. 

Any future changes here occur amid the history and hopes of 

many interested citizens and organizations.

Disposition studies are relatively new and rare for the U. S. Army 

Corps of Engineers, said Nan Bischoff, project manager for the 

disposition study. Such studies examine what the Corps’ presence 

should be in projects that are no longer serving their authorized 

purposes. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers initiated a disposition 

study of Upper Saint Anthony Falls in 2018, just four years after 

Congress directed that the lock be closed to navigation, an action 

that also protected the upper Mississippi River from invasive carp.

Initially, the study also included two lock and dam facilities immediately downstream, Lower Saint Anthony Falls and 

Our Mississippi is a quarterly 

newsletter of the U.S. Army 

Corps of Engineers about its work 

in the Mississippi River Basin. It is 

published in cooperation with other 

state and federal agencies and 

other river interests with whom the 

Corps collaborates and partners 

toward long-term sustainability of 

the economic uses and ecological 

integrity of the river system.

FALL 2019

Lock closure opens a new chapter for 

the Mississippi’s only waterfalls

Continued on page 2 >>

ABOVE: An oil painting by 

American painter Albert 

Bierstadt (1830–1902) 

depicts Saint Anthony 

Falls in its natural state. 

The artwork hangs in the 

Thyssen-Bornemisza 

Museum in Madrid, Spain.

Forming the Future
Lock and Dam Number 1. However, in the fall 

of 2018, Congress passed the America’s Water 

Infrastructure Act which directed the Corps to 

conduct a separate, expedited study of Upper 

Saint Anthony Falls. That expedited study 

restarted in 2019, with public comment sessions held in August.

Bischoff and her team are currently seeking public comments on alternative visions for 

redevelopment of Upper Saint Anthony Falls 

and how the human environment, natural environment, and recreation opportunities could be 

maintained or improved. This comment period 

closes October 20, 2019 and a wide array of 

interests have already surfaced. 

The Minneapolis Public Works Department 

has expressed concern for maintaining the city’s 

water supply, which depends on intake pipes 

that lie upstream from the existing dam. An alliance of 18 organizations called the Friends of 

the Lock and Dam and the City of Minneapolis 

are advocating a community vision of the falls 

that emphasizes interpretation of history and 

place, experiential education, river access, and 

a trailhead to other experiences. Specific projects being explored include a visitor center, 

exhibition and events space, food and beverage 

options, open space, water access, and parking.

“Our vision is to implement the community’s 

vision,” said Kjersti Monson, CEO of The Falls 

Initiative for the Friends of the Lock and Dam. 

“There is so much constituency around the 

future of this site and the stories that it will 

tell. We want to work with the Corps to create 

something of national significance. It should be 

treated as such and protected as such. It should 

not be in private hands.” 

“It’s a fantastic site with tremendous potential” 

is how John Anfinson, superintendent of the 

Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, 

National Park Service, describes the future of 

the falls. “It is one of the most important sites 

on the Mississippi River. We clearly want to be 

part of the future of that site.”

While Anfinson said the National Park Service 

has no intention of owning any real estate 

there, he sees it as one of those places where 

the National Park Service should be doing interpretation. The National Park Service has been 

providing visitor management services at the 

Upper Saint Anthony Falls lock and dam since 

2016, connecting with 20,000 people annually 

over the 110-day summer open season.

Bischoff said she and her staff will use comments to prepare a preliminary draft disposition 

study report and environmental scoping document. The draft report will describe three 

alternatives: no action, a disposal option, and a 

partial disposal option. The public will have an 

opportunity to comment once it is published, 

likely by summer 2020. The Saint Paul District 

of the Corps is working to 

complete the expedited study 

by December 2020 and to 

restart the separate study for 

Lower Saint Anthony Falls 

and Lock and Dam Number 1 

in late 2020. —D.D.

Bischoff and her team are currently seeking public comments on 

alternative visions for redevelopment of Upper Saint Anthony 

Falls and how the human environment, natural environment, 

and recreation opportunities could be maintained or improved.

ABOVE: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is seeking public input on the future use of a now-closed Lock 

and Dam site being used for multiple purposes. In his work titled 12,000 Years at St. Anthony Falls, John 

Anfinson—a former Army Corps historian, now superintendent 

of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area—writes 

of tribes reaching under the spray to dig clay to decorate pots 

and canoes. He quotes early missionary explorer Father Louis 

Hennepin—the first European to see (and name) the falls. He 

described a Dakota man who offered his beaver robe decorated 

with porcupine quills to the cataract, praying that he could pass 

tranquilly—and later kill many buffalo.

By the mid- to late-1800s, the falls would become a pilgrimage site for writers, artists and tourists before becoming 

the economic engine for much of the Midwest and beyond. It 

makes sense then that the city of Minneapolis drew its name 

(minne—waterfall, and polis, city) from the great river’s only falls. 

Minneapolis became “the greatest direct-drive waterpower 

center the world has ever seen,” Anfinson wrote, particularly 

from 1880–1930, when it was the milling capitol of the world. 

Major food manufacturer General Mills is one of many that got 

its start at the falls—and still remains.

Later, the engineering structures that still stand today—part 

of the focus of a disposition study—allowed for trade goods to 

move upriver from St. Paul into Minneapolis ports. 

The falls have never had the vertical drop of the more famous 

Niagara Falls. But they were powerful enough to impress a writer 

for the Chicago Daily Tribune who wrote on June 13, 1864, of 

coming upon them during the famed Grand Excursion. He wrote: 

“[T]he native grandeur and beauty of the scene forces itself 

upon your heart, and compels you to bow down before the majesty 

and power of the God whose wrath, perhaps, forced the mighty 

rocks asunder, piled them in Titan heights upon each other, and 

sent the rushing waves of the Mississippi over them, roaring down 

their massive sides, as if in anger at their restraint. We spent three 

hours on this spot, and never were three hours of our life more 

pleasantly, and we hope more profitably spent.”

It was the competition for greater profits and related neardisaster that initially led to the involvement of the U.S. Army 

Corps of Engineers in the falls, said Brad Perkl, St. Paul District 

historian. That district had been in existence just two years when 

a milling company dug a tunnel below the falls in order to capture 

water before it went down the falls. When tunneling through the 

sandstone, the ground collapsed, forming huge sinkholes. People 

rushed to the scene to plug the hole with rocks as a massive whirlpool was sucking in buildings from along the shoreline. The Corps 

was brought in for a more permanent fix that included an apron 

over the falls, originally made of wood and now of concrete. —K.S.

To comment: 

https://www.

mvp.usace.army.

mil/MplsLocks

Disposition/

To its region’s earliest residents, 

St. Anthony Falls were by all 

reports both holy and practical. 

2
Turtle project shows promise 

At first encounter with one, you quickly realize 

that the fable about the tortoise and the hare did not star 

a turtle of the smooth (or spiny) softshell varieties. 

These species which inhabit large rivers with sandy 

bottoms and sandbars—the Mississippi among them—

have speed on their side. That’s needed since, as the 

name implies, they have no hard shell to protect themselves from predators and must rely on the ability to 

sprint their way to safety. 

But if they don’t have a turtle’s trademark pokiness, 

the story of these softshell turtles at least in the middle 

Mississippi resembles the fate of the tortoises in the 

fable by the way they’re starting to win the survival race. 

That’s with a little help from the U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers biologists who’ve been improving their nesting sites and monitoring the response.

This year, despite lingering floodwaters that inundated nesting sites, biologists have monitored 197 newly 

hatched turtles—and counting. That includes 80 hatchlings of the midland smooth softshell turtle, listened as 

an endangered species in Illinois and a special concern 

species in Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin. That’s 

well up from the single hatchling caught in 2018. 

This year’s unusual weather also offers clues to the 

methods of adaptation to rising waters.

“This year with flooding, we didn’t think we’d even 

catch one,” said Robert Cosgriff, the project’s supervisory biologist. “Nesting sites were flooded for several 

months during what would be normal nesting seasons. 

Our thoughts were the turtles weren’t going to nest, but 

when we started catching them it was pretty exciting.”

Biologists think the flooding may have influenced 

softshell turtles to nest in higher elevation areas not 

inundated with water during the nesting season, or otherwise to wait until the waters receded.

Clearing the way for 

better nesting sites 

The numbers seem to indicate success of a project that 

has been steadily improving 

softshell turtle nesting habitat. The impoundment of the 

Mississippi River by locks and 

dams for predictable navigation depths has led to fewer 

naturally occurring sandbars, 

the favored nesting spot. Other 

threats have been water pollution, siltation from runoff and a 

commercial fishing harvest, all 

thought to have contributed to 

the population decline. 

But things started looking up when the Corps of Engineers 

decided to boost the odds by clearing stands of willows that 

were blocking sandbar areas favored for nesting. 

“We noticed the only sites where turtles were nesting 

is where sand when all the way down to the water’s edge, 

and they were concentrating nesting in that areas, which 

concentrated nest predators,” Cosgriff said. “Coyotes and 

raccoons were eating the hatchlings. We decided to open 

up areas and see if we could improve response in the 

amount of nesting taking place.”

The Corps team has been monitoring five nesting 

sites at various elevations along Ellis Bay. Two are on 

the Missouri side, three on a 100-acre island within 

Navigation Pool 26. That pool is unique in the way that 

sandbars form naturally in much the same way they once 

did on the mainstem of the Mississippi.

Numbers have varied significantly from year to year, 

with 68 smooth softshells caught in 2016, 67 in 2017 

and just one in 2018. Spiny softshell numbers, though, 

jumped from 21 in 2017 to 64 in 2018. This year’s final 

catch of 80 midland smooth softshell turtles and 117 

spiny softshell turtles—most roughly four to five weeks 

later than normal—indicates turtles have some flexibility and can work around flood events. They’re still 

waiting to see if hatchlings have enough time to put on 

fat reserves to survive winter hibernation.—K.S.

The midland smooth 

at a glance 

HOME TERRITORY: They inhabit large rivers 

and streams where sand or mud is abundant.

A LONG WINTER’S NAP: These turtles 

hibernate November through late March by 

burying themselves in mud or sand at the 

bottom of the river or lake.

THEY’RE WATER CREATURES: With skin 

up to four times more permeable to water 

than that of hardshell turtles, they can die 

of dehydration if kept out of water for two to 

three days. 

FUN FACT: Females are twice as large as 

males 

BEWARE: These turtles may look cute with 

their smooth leathery top and sweet pointy 

nose, but they can bite with the strength of a 

snapping turtle. 

IN ACTION: This short video 

displays this turtle’s surprising speed: 

vimeo.com/32061817

ABOVE: Habitat loss is 

just one factor putting 

creatures including the 

midland smooth turtle 

in peril. The U.S. Army 

Corps of Engineers’ 

modification of some 

of its project lands is 

showing promise for 

this and other wildlife 

species.

The numbers seem to indicate 

success of a project that has 

been steadily improving softshell 

turtle nesting habitat.

3

OPPOSITE: COURTESY MEET MINNEAPOLIS. TURTLES: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS.
Mississippi River Commission holds historic listening trip

The Mississippi River Commission kicked off its annual inspection trip 

Aug. 18, its 402nd session in a long and tradition-laden visit to hear from 

the people whose lives depend on the river. 

These trips started with the establishment of the commission in 1879, 

and for 140 years, the commission has made its way up and down the Mississippi 

River in the MV Mississippi, its traditional way of listening to the needs of local 

partners and inspecting flood control and navigation projects. The original mission placed upon the MRC has also continued: to lead to sustainable management 

and development of water related resources for the nation’s benefit and the 

people’s well-being. In its current capacity, the Mississippi River Commission is 

charged with overseeing the comprehensive river management program known 

as the Mississippi River and Tributaries project.

This year’s trip came on the heels of an historic flood event as the Mississippi 

River watershed experienced the wettest 12-month period in 124 years of record, 

which is as far back as the records go, and many who spoke before the commission 

had related tales to tell and suggestions to make. 

More than 400 people joined the commission aboard the Motor Vessel 

MISSISSIPPI during the course of the week-long trip, which covered nearly 1,000 

miles of the Mississippi River and included stops in Caruthersville, Missouri; 

Helena, Arkansas; Vicksburg, Mississippi; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In each of 

these cities, the commission held public hearings during which 75 total partners 

provided testimony. The commission provides formal responses to every person 

or group that testifies; the commission then takes what it heard and carries these 

messages to Congress. 

The inspection trip also included two historic engagements. The Mekong River 

Commission joined the Mississippi River Commission aboard the MV MISSISSIPPI. 

The Mekong River flows across four countries—Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and 

Vietnam—which presents unique water resource challenges for these for governments and for the Mekong Commission charged with managing the river for flood 

control and navigation. The two commissions shared their experiences as well as 

various ideas for improving water resource management. The Mississippi River 

Commission plans to join the Mekong River Commission on the Mekong River next 

year to continue to further this important international partnership. 

The second historic engagement was the coming together of five former MRC 

presidents aboard the MV MISSISSIPPI. Lieutenant General and former Chief of 

Engineers Robert Flowers, Major Generals (R) Don Riley, Thomas Sands and John 

Peabody and Brigadier General Robert Crear, joined current MRC President Major 

General Mark Toy and current MRC member Brigadier General Peter Helmlinger. 

Between these seven current and former generals, there was more than 200 years 

of experience as they discussed the daunting water resource challenges that the 

commission has faced over the last 140 years as well as solutions to the water 

resource challenges facing the watershed in the century to come.—B.R.

An original member of the MRC became the 

23rd President of the United States.

Benjamin Harrison served as a member of the MRC 

from 1879 through 1881. While a member, Harrison 

earned a reputation of one who was greatly 

concerned with the legality of federal 

involvement in flood control. 

Flood control advocates in 

Congress even attempted 

to have him removed from 

the commission. Harrison 

was elected U.S. President 

in 1888 and served one 

term from 1889–1893. 

Oddly enough, his legacy 

as President stands in 

stark contrast to his legacy 

on the MRC. Harrison signed 

substantial appropriations for 

internal improvements. During his 

presidency, Congress, for the first time 

except in war, appropriated more than $1 billion for its annual expenditure, including a healthy sum 

for improving the nation’s rivers and harbors. 

Two members of the MRC helped design the 

modern New Orleans drainage system.

In 1893 Benjamin Harrod (MRC from 1879–1904) 

and Henry Richardson (MRC from 1904–1909) 

were named to the New Orleans Drainage Advisory 

Board. The board drafted the original plans for 

the city’s drainage system. Harrod is also credited 

with designing the confederate monument in 

Greenwood Cemetery and for designing the plans 

and layout of Metairie Cemetery.

A member of the MRC was sentenced to death.

Henry Flad served as a member from 1890–1898. 

He was born and educated in Germany and served 

as a combat engineer for the Parliamentary Army 

during the German Republican Revolution in 1848. 

After the uprising was crushed, Flad received a 

death sentence for his role, but he fled to safety 

in the United States. As a member of the MRC he 

pioneered the design and construction of the MRC 

dredging fleet. 

Two original members of the MRC squared 

off against each other during the siege of 

Vicksburg.

Benjamin Harrod served as the division engineer 

under Confederate General M.L. Smith and oversaw the preparation of fortifications at Vicksburg. 

Cyrus Comstock was Ulysses S. Grant’s chief 

engineer and aide-de-camp. Harrod was later 

taken prison after Grant’s successful siege of the 

Confederate stronghold. 

 

Flood protection was always its mission.

The Mississippi River Commission (MRC) was 

established by an Act of Congress on June 28, 

1879. Congress charged the MRC with the mission to develop plans to improve the condition of 

the Mississippi River, foster navigation, promote 

commerce, and prevent destructive floods—perhaps the most difficult and complex engineering 

problem ever undertaken by the federal government up to that time. Today the MRC, which is 

headquartered in Vicksburg, Miss., provides water 

resources engineering direction and policy advice 

to the Administration, Congress and the Army in a 

drainage basin that covers 41 percent of the United 

States and parts of two Canadian provinces.

MRC FAST FACTS

BELOW, FROM LEFT: Members of the Mekong and Mississippi river commissions pose 

together along the Mississippi. MG Mark Toy responds to testimony before the commission as he chairs his first listening session.

4
Mussel monitoring 

gives endangered 

species a 

better shot 

FOR THREE DAYS THIS AUGUST, Corps biologist Bethany Hoster and 

four other experts worked an unusual mission. 

As the flow from the Coralville Dam on the Iowa River slowed for some scheduled maintenance, the team followed tiny lines in the sand, looking for spots 

where mussels perhaps traveled and burrowed into the river bottom. They looked 

for the shells as well—particularly that of the Higgins eye pearlymussel—to be 

sure that not one of these endangered mussels had gotten stranded as the water 

receded. If they did, the goal was to move the mussels to a spot with enough water 

to ensure their survival.

If the effort that included multiple agencies and searches by foot and boat 

seems extreme to move a few mussels into deeper water, consider this. Mussels 

are key to water quality for the way they filter impurities, and Higgins eye mussels were virtually extinct on the Iowa River until their reintroduction some 10 

years ago. A “pearl rush” by the button industry, threats to water quality and 

other factors left several musssels including the rare Higgins Eye on the endangered species list.

Biologists from the Mississippi River released mussels to the Iowa River 

because it was free of zebra mussels, making it a perfect sanctuary and incubator for more, said Joe Jordan, a biologist with the Rock Island District of the 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Zebra mussels attach to hard surfaces like shells, 

rocks or barges and can outcompete native mussels for food sources and also 

interfere with reproduction and basic behavior. The area below the dam was 

thought suitable, too, because it was home to the host fish species key to mussel 

reproduction. Each mussel type has a preferred fish that they attach to, with the 

Higgins Eye preferring largemouth bass and walleye among others.

Though the monitoring effort began Aug. 6, hydrology specialists started 

weeks earlier dropping the river level incrementally to give the slow-moving mussels a chance to move into deeper water and to not get stranded. When outflows 

dropped to 150 cubic feet per second, from the normal flow of 2,000 cubic feet 

per second, the teams traveled downstream of the dam to find any mussels left 

on the banks. While the focus was on federally endangered species, they moved 

any species left stranded into the water as well. 

“We didn’t find many mussels completely exposed,” Jordan said. “When the 

water dropped, we did see mussels in three to six inches of water, and we pitched 

those into deeper water. It usually gets a little warmer in those shallow areas, 

plus there’s raccoon predation that we were worried about in the nights. They 

scurry along the river banks looking for mussels in the 

shallows.”

The team examined the Higgins eye mussels they 

found before moving them to better locations, Hoster 

said. The good news, she and Jordan said, was that 

many found were in the range of three to four years old, 

an indicator that reintroduction below the dam those 

years is showing success.—K.S.

Fish rescue at the 

Bonnet Carré 

THERE’S A TRADEOFF when you’re operating one 

of the largest freshwater diversions in the world, the 

Bonnet Carré Spillway managed by the U.S. Army Corps 

of Engineers. Saving a city from flood control can lead to 

unintended consequences to everything from oysters 

to beaches from the infusion of freshwater from a river 

spillway into the saltier waters of the Gulf. Fish, too, can 

become trapped. 

But several rare, ancient Pallid Sturgeon potentially 

in harms way by the extended operation of the Bonnet 

Carré spillway were spared with the help of a group from 

the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and partner agencies. The spillway is used to keep river waters below 

levees downstream including in New Orleans, and it was 

opened twice during this historic high water year on the 

Mississippi River, and for a record 118 days; the previous 

record was 78. 

Upon closure, there’s the risk the federally endangered fish previously impacted by the caviar trade and river engineering, could 

get washed into Lake Pontchartrain, where the high salinity level is potentially life 

threatening, says Jack Killgore, who led the fish rescue operation for roughly three 

weeks as the Corps closed the spillway bays and gradually slowed the flows. 

The team from the Corps Engineer Research and Development Center in 

Vicksburg, the Bonnet Carré Field Office, and Louisiana Department of Wildlife 

and Fisheries captured, identified—and moved safely back to the main river 

channel—a total of 208 shovelnose sturgeon. That compares to 78 caught during 

the 2011 flood. They also caught 17 pallid sturgeon, compared to 20 in 2011. 

“We had a small army; we were catching sturgeon pretty regularly,” Killgore said. 

“Then the water shut down in the middle of the second week, the river dropped and 

stopped leaking through the spillway. That’s when we thought we were going to see 

major fish kills because of low dissolved oxygen. We were using all these different 

techniques to catch the sturgeon, and we finally rescued the majority.”

Killgore attributes the differing numbers to timing of the closure. Because of 

the duration of the flood and need to keep the spillway open longer, the closure 

happened in mid-summer, when waters are far warmer than during previous 

fish relocation operations. The pallids stay in the main channel, he said, but the 

shovelnose moved toward the edges of the river and channel borders where they 

faced a higher risk of entrainment.

Watching for fish that endanger 

The team also caught and tagged Asian carp, and at least some carp from all five 

known species were washed into the structure: bighead, silver, common carp, 

grass and black. Carp have become a serious threat to the river for their voracious 

eating habits that outcompete native species as well as the way they jump—and 

endanger fishermen and boaters—when startled. The catch of five black carp 

including a gravid female of 45 pounds, was particularly telling, he said, and an 

indicator they’ve likely now become established in the Mississippi. 

Among the key initiatives in the 2019 action plan, the Asian Carp Regional 

Coordinating Committee identified the need to address the growing threat of 

black carp. That species has a preferred diet of mussels, and many mussel species on the Mississippi are rare and endangered.—K.S.

DID YOU KNOW?

At one point, 60 factories were 

harvesting 21,000 tons of shells 

near Muscatine, Iowa (today, home 

to the Pearl Button Museum).

FROM TOP: As the Bonnet Carré 

spillway slows to a trickle, 

biologists from the U.S. Army 

Corps of Engineers and partner 

agencies ensure no rare Pallid 

Sturgeons get pulled in by the 

current and trapped.

BELOW: Biologists wade 

in the Iowa River during a dam maintenance 

project, moving any 

stranded endangered 

mussels to safety.

5

THIS PAGE AND OPPOSITE: U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS. HARRISON: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS. 
In 1806, while returning from his search for the Mississippi River’s 

headwaters, explorer Zebulon Pike came upon a flock of passenger pigeons so thick “the 

most fervid imagination cannot conceive their numbers.”

Those who witnessed a migration of passenger pigeons reacted with awe and sometimes 

terror, dropping to their knees in prayer. The rush of wings could sound like a tornado, and a vast 

flock could take hours or days to pass, leaving the ground covered in white from feathers and dung.

Until now, only Hollywood could recreate the scenes that awed those Mississippi River explorers and

settlers; the passenger pigeon passed into extinction barely a century after 

Pike’s account. But what was once the domain of science fiction—bringing back a species that doesn’t currently exist beyond preserved specimens 

in museum exhibits—is currently the real-world mission of a science and 

conservation team.

The California-based non-profit group Revive & Restore is seeking 

to bring back the country’s most iconic extinct species—and to save 

others from the same fate—by harnessing emerging genetic technology. 

The group’s stated goal is to see passenger pigeon flocks again on the 

Mississippi (and elsewhere), even the woolly mammoth (another target 

species) roaming its original territories. A century after the death of the 

last of its kind—a pigeon named “Martha”—the passenger pigeon is the 

flagship species for the ambitious project.

 “The project is currently in the laboratory phase,” said Ben J. Novak, 

the biologist coordinating the pigeon project. “We’re building foundational science right now. The technological breakthroughs that we have 

to innovate are certainly achievable in a seven to 10 year time frame.”

If the project progresses on the planned timeline, he says, the birds could 

be restored to the forests of eastern North America within 20 years. That, he 

believes, will benefit other native species which rely on forest disturbances. 

Large flocks of pigeons were like a storm and a wildfire for the forests, 

thinning the canopy by crashing branches and snuffing out understory vegetation with a cover of guano. The regenerating patches of forest provided 

opportunities for insects, flowering plants and a complex food chain of species. Trees such as the American chestnut, whose nuts were a primary food 

of the passenger pigeon and is getting its own restoration effort, require 

disturbances and young forests for portions of their life cycles.

How this might work 

The primary challenge is reproductive technology. Birds cannot be 

cloned because they lack a uterus for implanting a lab-developed embryo. 

Researchers are currently working on a complex process to develop culture methods for germ cells with the passenger pigeon genetic code that 

can be transferred to band-tailed pigeons to breed a new generation of 

passenger pigeons.

Once the passenger pigeons are hatched, the team plans to use bandtailed and rock pigeons, perhaps painted to look like passenger pigeons, 

as surrogate parents in simulated forest environments. When subsequent generations of passenger pigeons have begun hatching their own 

offspring, an enclosed soft release will condition the birds to the wild. 

Eventually, when the flock is about 10,000 birds, a full wild release will 

restore the species to their ancestral forests, with researchers supplementing the flock with more reared birds.

Ethical (and practical) issues abound 

One challenge for the birds’ survival, even if the reproductive technique 

works, is the fact the habitat along the Mississippi and the country’s other 

large rivers has changed dramatically since the early 1800s. The birds 

evolved in an environment of vast forests that allowed them to travel to 

spots where they could exploit large deposits of food, mostly tree nuts.

Return of the 

Ben J. Novak, Biologist 

6
“Today the forest is not a large unbroken expanse, 

and if you had a bird like the passenger pigeon that was 

looking for big deposits of food, now that would be agriculture,” said Stanley Temple, professor emeritus at the 

University of Wisconsin and a specialist in endangered 

species recovery. In the 1800s, as farmers settled the 

eastern and midwestern United States, a flock of pigeons 

could decimate a crop in a couple of hours, which led to 

the invention in 1860 of the underground seeder.

“I know how hard it is to bring back an endangered 

species without going through all the high-tech genetic 

manipulations. We’re not going to have passenger 

pigeons back in our lifetime.”

Though Temple says he doubts today’s habitat could 

ever support the bird in anything nearing its pre-extinction numbers, Revive & Restore’s experts disagree. They 

say they selected the passenger pigeon for its de-extinction 

model because of its critical role in the forest ecosystem. 

The rapid deforestation that accompanied the species’ 

demise has halted, with some areas of its ancestral habitat 

experiencing an increase in tree cover in the past century. 

As for the birds’ potential as an agricultural pest, Novak 

said modern farms won’t be threatened.

“They’re not the kind of pigeons that are going to 

pluck the corn,” he said. “They might be detrimental 

to various fruit crops, like berries, but there are a lot of 

mitigation strategies already in place for birds.”

From billions to none

As John James Audubon described a migration in his 

now famous writings from 1813, “the light of noon-day 

was obscured as by an eclipse, the dung fell in spots, not 

unlike melting flakes of snow; and the continued buzz of 

wings had a tendency to lull my senses to repose.”

Yet only a century after Audubon penned these words, 

the last individual was in a Cincinnati zoo, and when 

“Martha” died in 1914, humans had hunted to extinction 

the most abundant bird in North America. 

The birds’ demise has been credited with spurring the 

conservation movement. 

“The pigeon symbolizes the incredible abundance 

that was the eastern United States,” said Joel Greenberg, 

author of “A Feathered River Across the Sky,” the definitive book on the history and demise of the passenger 

pigeon. “Here the forests could sustain what was one 

of the most abundant land birds in the world. For that 

abundance to collapse in 40 years was pretty incredible.”

“Modern” inventions of the day ironically contributed to the demise, the telegraph and the railroad giving 

hunters an advantage that even billions of birds could 

not overcome. The telegraph “let hunters know where 

they were,” Greenberg said. “And if you could get it to a 

rail station, it could be sent to big urban markets. It gave 

rise to a big group of people who did nothing but hunt 

the birds all year long.”

Their abundance was a cheap source of protein for a 

rapidly growing nation. Pigeons also graced elite menus. 

On a visit to the United States in 1842, Charles Dickens 

was feted in New York with a banquet that included 

three pigeon dishes. Efforts to reduce the mass slaughter 

came too late. 

“There is a common human attribute that when confronted by an inconvenient truth, people deny the facts,” 

Greenberg said. “People were aware that they were 

declining. People came up with the goofiest notions to 

obliterate the truth that human action was causing this.” 

Is there a lesson for today? Worldwide, one million 

plant and animal species are on the verge of extinction, 

according to a May 2019 United Nations report linking 

the losses to human activity. This unprecedented reduction in biodiversity will have grave impacts on human 

health, food and water security, the report said.

Might the ability to bring back an extinct species 

make it less urgent to preserve the ones perhaps on 

the brink? That’s one ethical issue being raised about 

the Revive & Restore project. However, the same technology is being considered as a way to give struggling 

species a fighting chance. Revive & Restore is working 

with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to explore the 

use of the techniques to increase the genetic diversity 

of the endangered black-footed ferret in the western 

United States.

That’s where gene-editing technology holds the most 

promise, said Temple. If a species has come close to 

extinction, genetic diversity in the surviving population 

may be so low as to imperil recovery.

For example, if the surviving population has no resistance to a certain virus, an outbreak of that illness could 

destroy the species. A gene for resistance could be found 

in a carefully preserved museum specimen collected 

before the population numbers dwindled. Scientists could 

restore that gene to future generations, giving a recovering population the genetic diversity it needs to thrive.

Novak, who has been enthralled with the passenger 

pigeon since his teen years, said he is motivated by the 

ongoing sense of scientific discovery and the positive 

feedback he gets from people inspired by the project. 

Ultimately, he thinks of the future for his two young children. “I really want them to have a world that has more 

life in it, rather than less.” —S.F.

Victoria Bradford Styrbicki,

social choreographer and research 

artist for the “Relay of Voices” project

“My Mississippi is a pilgrimage: a 2,400-mile 

‘Relay of Voices’ along the Mississippi River, 

running and biking 20–40 miles a day with my 

husband Tom Styrbicki. The river is the spine 

of our country, and it is taking us through 104 

towns where we’re listening deeply, gathering 

voices from the landscape and individual residents of this region, and learning about how 

they live in the present day. 

“Every day, we trade off running or cycling 

while the other goes ahead in the van, and we 

spend most nights people’s homes. We record 

interactions, observations and commentary, 

and we blog and post on social media, but the 

effort is more about our present experience 

than future use. 

“I practice social choreography, so I’m 

constantly thinking about how to move a 

culture, a life, or the social fabric of a community. As a child growing up in Lake Charles, 

Louisiana, I thought of the Mississippi as just 

a waterway to cross to get to the other side. 

It’s much more. At its headwaters, it’s but a 

tiny stream one can step across on foot. Then, 

downriver, it opens up into a vastness where 

people waterski, boat, fish, and ice skate. 

There are even islands. Throughout much of 

the river, from Saint Paul on down, the Mississippi is also this huge navigational channel 

where another kind of exciting choreography 

takes place: a dance of barges, where there 

are all these systems and rules allowing for 

industrial-scale movement to transpire. In 

observing and listening to people’s actions, 

behaviors, and rituals across farmland, small 

towns, and cities along the Mississippi, Tom 

and I have come see the rhythm of their lives 

as a story, and telling that story helps to build 

connection, make meaning and potentially 

make change. This pilgrimage, like any journey, brings all kinds of coming to knowing, 

and the Mississippi has all manner of stories 

to tell. I’m listening.”

 Passenger Pigeon My MISSISSIPPI

Scientists seek to bring an iconic 

species back from extinction and boost 

the chances of others on the brink.

7

ILLUSTRATION: JOHN JAMES AUDUBON, PUBLIC DOMAIN. NOVAK: REVIVE & RESTORE.
The American Queen tests new water 

quality tracking platform

When high water on the Mississippi River 

diverted the American Queen onto the Ohio River in 

August, Thomas Ruby, supervisory hydrologist with the 

U.S. Geological Survey, was delighted. Normally, this oneof-a-kind, steam-powered beauty plies the Mississippi 

River, taking 400 passengers per trip on overnight cruises 

along the full length of the river. But this year’s rerouting 

brought the vessel to his doorstep at the U.S. Geological 

Survey’s Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Water Science Center in 

Louisville, Kentucky, earlier than usual. There, he and the 

American Queen engineers installed an innovative device 

that will one day improve water quality monitoring on the 

Mississippi and across the nation.

This project has been made possible by a unique partnership between the U.S. Geological Survey, the American 

Queen Steamboat Company, and the Mississippi River 

Cities and Towns Initiative, a coalition of local mayors 

that promotes economic and environmental security 

and stability along the Mississippi River Corridor. In 

just eight months, these partners formulated an idea and 

developed, installed, and tested a prototype. The mayors 

of the MRCTI hosted the formal launch of the mobile 

“super gage” at their September 16 annual meeting in 

Memphis. 

“It’s really an interesting project and a great partnership,” said Shelly Hartfield, project marketing manager 

for the American Queen Steamboat Company. 

Ruby and his team created the prototype of the mobile 

“super gage,” which was designed as an expansion of the 

U.S. Geological Survey’s national network of 10,000 fixed 

water monitoring gages. It is the first device to measure 

water conditions from a moving commercial vessel.

“What would happen if you took the advanced scientific data-collection capabilities that are the foundation 

of a USGS “Super Gage” and made it portable and easily 

mounted on almost any boat?” Ruby said. “You’d get an 

innovative way to better define the water-quality processes at work on the Nation’s inland waterways.”

 “Our first task was to determine if it was feasible,” he 

said. To make it happen, they had to design nonstandard 

equipment that would work while a boat was in motion. 

Instead of pipes extending off the boat into the water, the 

team came up with a flow-through system that pumps 

water into the boat, over sensors, and back into the river. 

The sensor unit is located back near the boat’s paddlewheel.

Since Louisville, the American Queen has been measuring water quality every five minutes wherever it travels 

on river or in port. The results are reported back to the 

U.S. Geological Survey via satellite and made available 

to the public on-line. Guests on the American Queen can 

even view the measurements in real time from a special 

kiosk in the Chart Room.

“We have seen no issues to date with maintenance,” 

said Gary Frommelt, vice president of marine operations, 

American Queen Steamboat Company. “We just keep an 

eye out for debris around the intake. The U.S. Geological 

Survey takes care of equipment if there is a problem.”

The mobile “super gage” collects water temperature, 

conductivity, pH, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity, just 

like other U.S. Geological Survey gages. In addition, it 

measures nitrate plus nitrite, an indicator of the river’s 

nutrient load and a key indicator of water quality. Excess 

nitrogen and phosphorus create a hypoxic or “dead” 

zone in the Gulf of Mexico, where each summer dissolved oxygen levels become too low to support fish, 

shrimp, crabs and other sea life. 

While the fixed gages measure all the water that passes 

by from upstream, the mobile “super gage” tags water quality data to a specific location which may pinpoint problem 

areas. Continuous real-time water-quality data are used 

for decisions regarding drinking water, water treatment, 

regulatory programs, recreation, and public safety.

The future for the mobile “super gage” looks promising. The initial results from the first 600 miles of 

prototype data matched the data from the standard 

gages. “We see ourselves putting sensors on all of our 

boats.” said Hartfield. “We believe other companies and 

those who love the river will help preserve it too.”—D.D.

MyMISSISSIPPI

JimBob Allgood

TV personality and tour operator with 

Redneck Adventures TV Group and 

Miss-Lou Tours, Natchez, Mississippi

“My Mississippi is my life. It’s my own personal Disney World. It’s my playground. I love it. I was born on 

the River in Natchez and learned its ways from my 

parents, who were best friends with Cajuns from 

Ville Platte, Louisiana, who had this motto: “If it had 

fins, fur, fangs, or feathers, if it swam, crawled, ran, 

or flew, we chased it, caught it, and cooked it in a big 

black pot.” That was my childhood, and that’s still 

my life. For 20 years I have been blessed to run MissLou Tours and Redneck Adventures, a nationally 

syndicated cable show with YouTube channels, two 

Roku channels, and two Amazon Fire TV channels. 

It all started when we won the “Pitch to America” 

contest on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show almost 15 years 

ago. Since then, we’ve taken folks on tours and “Redneck Renewal Retreats,” where we go kayaking, skeet 

shooting and even catfish catching. We use small 

fishing bows and arrows to shoot jumping Asian 

carp, too; that’s a blast by the way. Sometimes in 

the backwaters we see 60–100 eight- to 12-foot-long 

alligators in one day. The river might look mild, but it 

is mighty and wild and deserves respect.”

The mobile “super gage” 

collects water temperature, 

conductivity, pH, dissolved 

oxygen, and turbidity.

FUN FACT

How did Waterproof, 

Louisiana, get its name?

During one of the Mississippi River’s great 

floods, the people of one rural community 

read a newspaper report indicating that 

everything in the region was inundated 

“except one waterproof knoll.” When the 

flood subsided, the community relocated 

to that knoll and took the town took the 

name Waterproof. Years later, the name of 

the town led to the embarrassment of a 

reporter covering yet another flood when he 

reported a local tragedy under the headline 

“Four Waterproof People Drown.”

8
MyMISSISSIPPI Kathe Hambrick, founder, curator, and former executive director of the River Road African 

Museum in Donaldsonville, Louisiana and director of interpretation of the West Baton 

Rouge Museum in Port Allen

“My Mississippi is a place of memories. It’s a river of danger, of beauty, of tears. My first serious encounter 

with the Mississippi River was in 1991 when I moved back to Ascension Parish from Southern California and 

stood atop the levee in front of the Tezcuco Plantation. As I gazed at the river’s dark waters, I just had a very 

sad recollection of what it must have been like for enslaved people brought up the river from New Orleans to 

the plantations in this area. 

“I began to think about how frightened and lonely they must have felt, missing their families, missing their 

homeland in Africa, being put on slave ships, crossing the Atlantic, coming up through the Gulf of Mexico, and 

becoming part of the slave trade. Knowing that these people had contributed so much to the economy and 

culture of Louisiana, the nation, and the world, it made me feel so deeply saddened that their stories, and the 

horrific truth of what had happened here, were still being swept under the rug. But by meditating and looking 

at the river, I realized that we must regard the pain and suffering of the past and then look beyond it in order to 

heal ourselves as Americans. So I set out to create a healing restorative space for the visitors and descendants. 

“Our museums voice a comprehensive narrative that also honors the contributions of the Italian, French, 

Spanish, Cajun, Native American, and Jewish people of this region of River Parishes. There’s nowhere in 

America like the communities of South Louisiana up-river of New Orleans where the cultures are so blended. 

I often remember that day, looking out at my Mississippi, that beautiful dangerous river of memory. More 

than two decades later, I’m still telling its stories.”

I

n the 1850s the Mississippi River was very much in the ‘Wild West.’ It was 

a faraway place. Songs were written about the ‘Mighty Mississippi.’ It was 

a major thoroughfare for discovery with all the military, scientific and furtrading expeditions. There was adventure and the unknown. People were 

bringing back images that nobody had ever seen,” said Melissa Wolfe, 

curator of American art at the St. Louis Art Museum.

Wolfe was standing before Panorama of the Monumental Grandeur of the 

Mississippi Valley, a 350-foot-long, 90-inch tall painting commissioned in 1850 

and representing 25 sometimes larger-than-life scenes depicting ancient and 

then-current activities. But this popular museum exhibit was no mere painting.

Before the Civil War it toured the eastern United States as a traveling show. 

As scenes were unrolled under dramatic lighting, a narrator recounted dramatic 

tales of history, danger and intrigue for a full three hours, with intermission. Adults 

were charged a quarter, children, 12 cents.

“Believing in ‘Manifest Destiny” was what you were supposed to do if you were 

an American citizen then. The Mississippi was a symbol of that,” Wolfe said.

The rolled canvas, painted long before American art was considered worthy of display in fine museums, has spent much of 

its life in storage. Last summer conservators at the St. Louis Art 

Museum completed their eight-year restoration of the roll.

“Panoramas were incredibly popular and entertaining. They 

would be like the Imax movies of the 1850s,” Wolfe said. “There 

were lots of them. One of the most popular topics in popular culture in the United States was the Mississippi River. 

“Then, a few years before the Civil War, the panoramas just 

fell out of being popular. They were big and heavy. People weren’t 

making money with them. Most of them were cut down—a single 

scene would become a painting—or they were thrown away. We 

are very lucky because this is the last extant panorama we know 

of that is of the Mississippi.”

This panorama was painted by Irish-born John J. Egan in 

Philadelphia. He died in 1882 and the panorama was donated 

to the Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania, where it 

long sat in basement storage and was later shipped to St. Louis. 

After the painting’s centennial celebration, it stayed, when neither side wanted to pay return shipping. The fact the work for a 

long time wasn’t seen as “art,” was a boon to the museum, says 

Claire Winfield, one of the conservators who repaired sections and splotches of 

paint that were damaged during the panorama’s years of travel and century of storage. “After they fell out of favor, the ones that weren’t thrown out and destroyed 

would be in museum basements, a community center or somebody’ home.”

The Panorama has a permanent home in the St. Louis Art Museum’s grand 

entrance and Sculpture Hall. To minimize damage, new scenes will be rolled into 

view only a few times a year. As Winfield, who grew up along the Lower Mississippi 

in Baton Rouge, would painstakingly match colors and strokes, she said she 

also often contemplated the river’s enormous role in 

American history.

 “This is such a very interesting part of pop culture 

that we haven’t learned about in normal art history 

classes. To have a piece like this still with us is great. 

It is a big draw still because it is so large and is in a 

prominent place It is probably one of the most viewed 

paintings in our collection.” —R.S.

RIVER PANORAMA RESTORED

SEE IT: The Panorama is 

displayed in the Sculpture Hall 

of the St. Louis Art Museum in 

Forest Park. It also can be seen 

on the museum web site: SLAM.

ORG/COLLECTION/OBJECTS/841/

ABOVE: Staff of the St. Louis Art Museum painstakingly restore a 350-foot long mural commissioned in 

1850 and representing scenes like the early native settlement of Cohokia (TOP PHOTO). The mid- to late1800s were a heyday for Mississippi River art. Among other notable artists of the day was Henry Bosse, a 

cartographer and photographer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

9

BOAT: COURTESY AMERICAN QUEEN STEAMBOAT COMPANY. PANORAMA: COURTESY ST. LOUIS ART MUSEUM. 2019 GULF OF MEXICO HYPOXIC ZONE MAP COURTESY HYPOXIA RESEARCH TEAM, LOUISIANA UNIVERSITIES MARINE CONSORTIUM
OUR MISSISSIPPI KIDS

THE CHANGE OF SEASON

from summer to fall brings 

with it cooler weather, shorter 

days, and the changing color 

of leaves. Fall foliage, composed of radiant reds, brilliant 

oranges, stunning yellows, and 

everything in between, seems 

like magic in its transformation. But this is a magic that 

can be explained with some 

simple understanding of what 

leaves actually are.

Plants, like every other 

living thing, need to eat, but 

they are special in that they 

have the ability to make their 

own food. Leaves are in charge 

of this important task, utilizing 

the sun’s energy to produce 

carbohydrates (plant food) 

using a special chemical 

called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll 

is a green pigment – which 

explains the color of leaves 

during spring and summer. As 

winter approaches, the days 

become shorter and plants 

prepare to stop food production. This means that the 

chlorophyll breaks down and 

other pigments in the leaves 

that are yellow and orange 

are no longer masked by the 

green and become easier to 

see. During this change, other 

chemicals can be produced 

that have a red or purple 

pigmentation. Additionally, 

the breakdown of chlorophyll 

and other waste products can 

produce a brownish color. The 

mixtures of these pigments 

produce the brilliant colors we 

see in fall. 

Different trees have different amounts of red, orange, 

yellow, and other pigments 

which explains why certain 

trees, such as maples, turn 

yellow and red, while other 

trees, such as oaks, turn a 

reddish brown. Plants will 

eventually drop their leaves in 

order to prevent frost damage 

and save energy for winter. 

So while fall foliage may 

have more to do with food 

than with magic, it is still 

a wonder to behold every 

year! —INSIYAA AHMED IS A 

PARK RANGER WITH THE RIVERS 

PROJECT OFFICE OF THE U.S. ARMY 

CORPS OF ENGINEERS. 

Falling for fall color

What colors do you imagine these leaves will turn in fall? 

Color them with crayons or markers.

Find more science learning fun at the Corps’ National Great Rivers Museum in Alton Ill.

10
OUR MISSISSIPPI TRAVEL

In the sweet Southern hamlet of Natchez, 

Mississippi, October 18, 2019 marks the 34th 

anniversary of the Natchez Balloon Festival, 

filling an already lively town with three full days 

of brilliant colorful fun on a bluff overlooking 

the Mississippi River. Visit musts:

WATCH THE WEATHER

When conditions are right, 50-70 hot air 

balloons will soar over the Mississippi 

River creating an awe-inspiring sight 

and balloon pilots make two flights each 

day over the three-day weekend.

SEE THE GLOW

At the Balloon Glow Event, pilots shoot 

flames into the balloons after dark. 

BET ON A BEAN BAG

During the Hot Air Balloon Bean Bag Toss, 

balloon crews compete by dropping bean 

bags from their balloon baskets to try to hit a 

target on a Mississippi River barge, as part of 

the Great Mississippi River Balloon Race. —J.T.

The Great River Road to Freedom

“This is a high-risk activity,”

says Dr. Noelle Trent, Curator of the National Civil 

Rights Museum in Memphis. “The ground, the environment, or even the very sky can be both an ally and 

an enemy at the same time. A full moon is a liability.” 

She’s speaking of the Underground Railroad, a network of “stations” and “conductors”—safe houses and 

helpers—which helped and hid escaped slaves as they 

fled north to freedom. An assortment of related sites 

and museums lie up and down the Great River Road 

and are available for a poignant, and important, visit.

“With the convenience of travel today we lose the 

understanding of how difficult and dangerous this is,” 

she said. “People have to really use their imaginations.”

In a cellar across town, two blocks from the Mississippi 

River, visitors to Slave Haven Underground Railroad 

Museum get that opportunity. 

“It’s quite an experience to stand in the actual space 

where they huddled and waited until they were given 

the signal it was safe for them to leave and dash out to 

the river,” says Elaine Turner who operates the museum 

as well as Heritage Tours, a company that highlights 

African-American history. The museum’s home is the 

Burkle Estate, the 1856 home of a family of German 

immigrants who helped hide runaway slaves. 

The Fugitive Slave Act in 1793 made it punishable 

to assist or even turn a blind eye to a runaway, and 

another such act in 1850 made it even stricter. Still 

there were untold many—freemen, abolitionists, and 

Native Americans—who took the chance to help those 

who had the courage to risk it all. 

As they fled under cover of darkness, only the stars 

and the river could guide them. “Rivers were the main 

arteries that took people to freedom,” says Turner. 

Gateway to Freedom

Dred Scott, the slave who sued for his freedom and 

reached the Supreme Court to lose in the infamous 

Dred Scott Decision, first addressed the courts in the 

Old Courthouse in St. Louis, not far from the presentday Gateway Arch. With the Free State of Illinois right 

across the river, many fled Missouri through here. 

Help was to be had in St. Louis. Mary Meachum 

and her husband, Reverend John Berry Meachum—

both former slaves who had purchased their 

freedom—founded the First African Baptist Church 

in St. Louis and provided a safe house in their home. 

(They also operated a “floating school” on a river 

boat to circumnavigate a state law prohibiting 

education for black people.) 

On the night of May 21, 1855, Mary helped a group 

of freedom runners cross the river. Unfortunately, five 

were caught and Mary was found guilty of assisting 

them. The Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing Site lies 

riverside along the Mississippi Greenway, three miles 

north of the Arch. A visitor’s center features a colorful 

mural and is staffed by graduates of the Urban League’s 

Save Our Sons program.

Alton, Illinois

Though the covert network would eventually be called 

“railroad,” the practice pre-dated trains. As early as the 

late 18th century, slaves were fleeing to Canada. When 

some states abolished slavery, fugitives had a closer 

border to cross. One of the first “Free State” stops was 

Alton. Some found their way into nearby free black communities, while others continued north. 

Situated in a former safe house, Alton Museum of 

History & Art contains abundant artifacts and documentation of the town’s role in the Underground Railroad. In 

1837, the Illinois Anti-Slavery Society met for the first 

time in Upper Alton Presbyterian Church, and later in 

The Old Rock House, both a block from the museum. 

In the local cemetery is a monument to Elijah Lovejoy, 

a minister and publisher of an abolitionist newspaper. 

When a pro-slavery mob came to town to destroy his printing press and materials, he died in a shootout and became 

a martyr for the abolitionist societies to rally around. 

Alton Hauntings Ghost Tours may sound like 

something suited for Halloween, but the three-hour 

tours mix an abundance of local history in with 

supernatural legends. A farm implement dealer, 

Nathanial Hansen, built a sub-basement in his home 

and a brick-lined tunnel that allowed people to move 

in and out unseen. Today that tunnel only extends 

20 yards to the street, but the ghost tours bring you 

inside and let you experience the darkness the fleeing 

slaves endured. 

The Underground Railroad is an important thread in 

the story of this river, and 

we will never know how 

many found freedom or 

died trying. But the larger 

story that they all shared 

must never be forgotten, and 

these places along the river 

will preserve the story for 

future generations. —K.R.

This powerful mural, three miles north 

of the St. Louis Arch, shares a story 

of one Mississippi River Underground 

Railroad crossing site to freedom.

River Road African American Museum

In 1868, in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, Pierre Caliste Landry became the first 

black mayor elected in the USA so it is fitting that the River Road African 

American Museum is located in his city. Housed in the former home of 

educator Sylvia Watkins, the museum examines the experiences and contributions of African-Americans throughout the rural parishes along the 

Mississippi. The journey to freedom is a component of the exhibits as well. 

11

LEAF ILLUSTRATIONS: DIANE KOLAK.

3 

REASONS 

TO LOVE

The Natchez 

Balloon Festival
Send story ideas to editor@ourmississippi.net

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visit https://www.mvd.usace.army.mil/Media/Publications/Our-Mississippi/

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Contributors this issue:

EDITOR/

LEAD WRITER

Kim Schneider

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Diane Kolak

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Insiyaa Ahmed

Debra Dietzman

Sharon Flesher

Brian Rentfro

Kevin Revolinski

Rick Stoff 

Janis Turk

This newsletter is a quarterly update of ongoing efforts in the Mississippi 

River Watershed and does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Army.

Mailing list changes:

Andrea Sterling, 651-290-5664

To read online:

https://www.mvd.usace.army.mil/Media/

Publications/Our-Mississippi/

Click “Subscribe here” to subscribe via email.

Insiyaa Ahmed, St. Louis, Mo. 

636-899-0076

Vanessa Alberto, St. Paul, Minn. 

651-290-5388

Kevin Bluhm, New Orleans, La. 

651-290-5247

Elizabeth Burks, Memphis, Tenn. 

901-544-0761

Katelynn Dearth, St. Louis, Mo. 

636-899-0086

Angie Freyermuth, Rock Island, Ill. 

309-794-5341

Questions or Comments:

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

US Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul

PM-E Sterling

180 East Fifth Street, Suite 700

St. Paul, MN 55101

Sleep like a 

Mississippi River 

pirate

Until about the 1820s when 

steamboat travel increased, 

the Mississippi River had 

its share of notorious 

pirates, some of whom 

would locate themselves 

along isolated frontier 

settlements, lure passing 

boats by posing as farmers 

with goods to sell, and 

steal livestock, cargo and slaves. 

Now, travelers can try their hand at playing 

pirates themselves in a way by staying on a pirate 

ship turned AirBnb, docked at a Mississippi River in 

St. Paul, Minnesota. The ship was originally commissioned by a Disney resort then purchased by a 

Minnesotan with a flair for fun.

The ship is decked out with cannon balls, swords, 

coins, pirate themed DVDs, bottles of rum and 

more, mostly collected from the owner’s trips to 

the Bahamas. There’s a limit for four people for an 

overnight, up to 20 for a pirate party. The owner told 

the Star-Tribune about his mission: “We all know 

people who are struggling. The ship helps us laugh 

at it briefly ... Pirates were in pretty bad shape, but 

they seized the day and just went for it.”

Rock Island 

Arsenal offers 

new way to tour 

Those curious about 

the Rock Island 

Arsenal can now take 

two self-guided virtual 

tours with the help 

of new brochures 

produced by the U.S. 

Army Sustainment 

Command History 

Office. The brochures 

with QR codes that connect to smart phones offer 

instant information on 31 sites on the arsenal and 

31 weapons and vehicles on display.

The links take visitors to summaries of the site 

being viewed as well as photos and infographics, 

and all was designed to help tell the story of this 

historic installation on a Mississippi River island 

between Iowa and Illinois.

The brochures are available at locations open 

to the public around the installation, including the 

Visitor Control Center at the arsenal’s Moline Gate, 

the RIA Museum, the Colonel Davenport House, 

and the Mississippi River Visitor Center operated by 

the Rock Island District of the U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers. A box containing the brochures has also 

been set up at Memorial Field. 

Gulf Hypoxic Zone smaller 

than predicted

The churning winds of Tropical Storm Barry were 

good news for the size of the 2019 low-oxygen area 

(hypoxic zone) of coastal Louisiana waters this 

summer. Predicted to reach 8,717 square miles 

in size, this ocean bottom area was 6,952 square 

miles, approaching the land area of New Jersey.

“Without Tropical Storm Barry, this year probably would have been the largest hypoxic area 

ever measured,” said Dr. Nancy Rabalais, senior 

research professor at Louisiana State University 

who has been mapping the hypoxic zone since 

1985. Storm winds in the week before the annual 

survey temporarily mixed oxygen back into lower 

water levels.

The hypoxic zone forms when nitrogen and 

phosphorus carried downstream from agricultural 

lands fuel rapid growth of microscopic plants and 

animals. When these creatures die and drop to the 

ocean floor, bacteria consume them, using all available oxygen.

Rabalais and her team also measure the physical, chemical and biological parameters of the water 

column and link the size of the hypoxic zone with 

conditions in the Mississippi River watershed. The 

collected data also help scientists refine the predictive models that forecast the extent of the hypoxic 

zone in a given year. 

COURTESY AIRBNBPAUL LEVESQUE