IF YOU WERE A FISH swimming into Mississippi River Lock No. 19 in 

Keokuk, Iowa, you might think you’d drifted into the middle of a Mötley Crüe 

concert. 

There is an Underwater Acoustic Deterrent System (aka a sound bar) with 

16 underwater speakers about 100 feet downstream of the lock gates that play 

the sound reminiscent of the revving of a boat engine and other attributes. It 

is a sound that researchers describe as something like the first 3 seconds of 

the Mötley Crüe’s “Kickstart My Heart.”

And if you were an invasive carp, you’d probably hate it, freeze or flee—or 

so hope the researchers testing a carp deterrent system with specially engineered sounds that they believe the carp will avoid and most native fish be at 

least neutral toward.

The three-year research project is funded by the Great Lakes Restoration 

Initiative and the U.S. Geological Survey’s Biological Threats Program. It is 

designed to help perfect a way to keep the carp 

now established in parts of the Mississippi 

and Illinois rivers into further extending their 

range and decimating more fisheries. This, 

and other innovative research originating at 

the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer Research 

and Development Center in Vicksburg, Miss., 

will culminate in a combination of deterrents such as sound and electric cables 

placed at the massive Brandon Road Lock 

and Dam near Joliet, Illinois. The lock is a key 

MISSISSIPPI VALLEY DIVISION · SUMMER 2021

Finding ways to limit the 

spread of invasive carp is 

taking a research village of 

a particularly creative sort.

Continued on page 2 >>

Innovations drive battle 

against invasive carp

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.

TOP: Invasive silver carp famously 

leap from the water when they 

hear engine sounds. Now, engine 

sounds—and related sounds 

developed in a U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers laboratory—are being 

broadcast in a major acoustic 

deterrent research study. LEFT:

Sound deterrent installed in the 

Lock No. 19 approach channel.

JASON LINDSEY
convergence point of Lake Michigan and the Illinois River, already overrun by 

the voracious carp.

Imported in the late ‘60s and ‘70s to control algal blooms and spread by 

flooding, carp like the silver, bighead and grass have outcompeted native fish 

for their favored treat, the plankton, and have taken over the fish mass in 

many parts of the big river. 

But they haven’t yet gotten established in more pristine stretches of the 

Mississippi, adjacent river systems or the Great Lakes with its still vital 

commercial, sports fishing and recreational boating industries. Innovative 

engineers and researchers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mississippi 

Valley Division, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s 

Environmental Laboratory (ERDC-EL), the U.S. Geological Survey Upper 

Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (USGS UMESC), state natural 

resource departments and other partner agencies are throwing everything 

they can at the fish – from sound to the latest in ( fish) facial recognition software—to find the most effective way to keep these dreaded fish at bay. 

“What we know is necessary is a range of tools in the management tool box,” 

says Randy Hines, outreach and partnership coordinator and wildlife biologist with the USGS Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center. “We need 

many options to be able to manage a widespread problem like these invasive 

carp in different waterways and watersheds.”

One of the most ambitious projects involved the engineering and now 

monitoring of the underwater acoustic deterrent. The Corps’ environmental 

laboratory is leading the effort for lab and field testing, and its Rock Island district engineered the system. That was after agencies met for a year to develop 

the best system and monitoring protocol for this Lock 19 project designed to 

test a system that could potentially be beneficial at deterring invasive carp 

where they could spread into the Great Lakes.

With the help of a 350-ton crane, crews installed the Soundbar at working 

Lock No. 19 in February 2021, and it became operational in May. But ERDC’s 

Dr. Christa Woodley was in the laboratory long before, developing engineered 

soundtracks based on sounds invasive carp have been known to react to and 

testing their effect on the fish. 

Teams tagged 250 silver carp, 100 grass carp, 50 bighead carp and 100 native 

fish, said Dr. Marybeth Brey, the USGS Research Fish Biologist heading the 

testing. They’re looking at how both the native and invasive species behave in 

and around the lock approach when the deterrent is and is not playing.

When the system is operational, the fish hear three signals, 30 second each, 

that start with a sound like a siren, then a recording of a 100 hp boat motor 

recorded underwater—the very sound that has caused them to famously 

jump. It finishes with a gritty guitar sweep with a frequency developed at 

the Corps laboratory that is intentionally similar to that of the Chinese River 

Dolphin. That rare dolphin is one of the invasive carps’ few predators in their 

native ranges. What does this research team hope they’ll see?

“You would have carp coming in, they’d hear it and turn around and go 

another direction,” Brey said, “and native species would pass upstream at the 

same rates they do when the deterrent is not in place.”

Carp round-ups take the pressure off 

Researchers from the USGS and Illinois Department of Natural Resources 

even traveled to China to see how Chinese fishermen there round up huge 

quantities of carp—in that country to feed a large appetite for a popular food 

source. Teams are now using the Chinese-developed Unified Method, here 

called the Modified Unified Method, to hold large-scale netting drives that 

group carp into a specific area where they can be rounded up and removed. 

Kentucky teams removed 240,000 pounds of invasive carp from one 300-acre 

lake with the method, and the Minnesota DNR 31 as as a way to test the system’s usefulness in places not yet overrun. 

A type of facial recognition program—for fish—is also being tested at the 

Emiquon water control structure on the Illinois River, as part of a particularly 

innovative program looking at whether a fish Steeppass can be modified to 

recognize and sort native versus invasive fish—letting natives pass to their 

desired end point and shuttling non-natives to a spot at which they can be 

rounded up and removed. 

Researchers operated the ladder three times so far this year—for 12 days 

total—moving 1,792 fish through a Steeppass fish ladder; however, not a 

single bighead carp moved through in the testing period. Researchers will 

continue to look for ways to encourage carp movement through for testing, including operating it when the water temperature is amenable to carp 

spawning, said Jim Lamer of the Illinois Natural History Survey.

And in another lab at the Corps Engineer Research and Development 

Center in Vicksburg, researchers are losing sleep over the issue—literally. 

Alan Katzenmeyer and his team are testing salinity tolerance to see how well 

invasive carp might do in the brackish waters of Gulf estuaries, particularly 

relevant when they’re swamped with freshwater plumes in flood events. 

In one study, they’re upping the salt levels each hour and monitoring the 

response to see if tolerance builds over time. 

The worry, he says, is not that invasive carp will become established in 

ocean fisheries, but instead that they’ll be carried on freshwater plumes over 

saltwater into other coastal river systems. Even a small amount of salt, one 

hypothesis goes, could potentially make the fish less susceptible to electric 

barriers being used to keep them from the Great Lakes.

“We’re really concerned as these invasive species go through structures, 

they’ll use freshwater plume to exploit new habitats. That’s a concern we’re 

trying to address by seeing what the salinity tolerance is. If we have another 

flood event, they could be pushed to the Apalachicola River or somewhere 

even further east. There’s brackish water of a sort even near Chicago where 

road salt runoff gets into the Illinois River. Salt in some instances has been 

used to calm fish; could salt make them even stronger in resisting the electric 

barrier designed to keep them from the Great Lakes? 

“It’s absolutely amazing that one invasive fish can create so many headaches 

and such an impact,” he said. “We need to make sure we don’t repeat the same 

mistake we once made as a country in letting invasive species in. Once they’re 

here, the amount we’re having to spend on control is astronomical, but the 

amount of damage they’re doing is far greater.” —K.S.

ABOVE, FROM LEFT: Crews from the USGS, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Minnesota 

and Wisconsin DNR use the USGS-developed Modified Unified Method on the Upper 

Mississippi River, combining netting and herding techniques to concentrate carp for 

removal. ERDC’s Dr. Christa Woodley conducting her laboratory sound system testing. 

2 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi Valley Division
Sharing the Mighty Mississippi Safely

Captain Gregory Smith knows what can go wrong between commercial tows and recreational 

boats. During a 47-year career as heavy tow captain for American Commercial Barge Line, he has seen close calls 

and heard stories, including the time one boat fishing in the navigation channel could not get its engine started.

“Ultimately, we were able to get slowed down to be able to dodge it. We were within feet,” said Smith, a 

respected trainer of river pilots and author of a textbook on river navigation. “Thankfully, nobody was hurt. It 

could have been very bad.”

Collisions between pleasure craft and commercial traffic are uncommon, but they highlight the worst-case 

scenario where these two classes of vessels coexist, something far more likely to occur on a beautiful summer 

boating day. The Mississippi’s powerful currents also pose one of the greatest dangers to recreational boaters, 

able to push them against a barge or bank when they become disabled, says Paul Barnard, recreational boating 

safety program manager with the U.S. Coast Guard’s Eighth District office in New Orleans. Commercial barges 

with angled front ends can exacerbate the situation.

“Lots of pleasure craft don’t recognize the danger zone out in front of a tow,” he said. “They really need to 

understand how dangerous it is to cut across in front of our tow. If their engine cuts out, we can’t stop quickly.” 

Large Mississippi River tows consist of as many as 56 barges, which can cover seven to nine acres of water and 

carry as much tonnage as an average ocean bulk carrier. Commercial vessels can require a full mile to complete 

a maneuver.

Communicate, communicate

Commercial vessels are constantly communicating on how they will pass one another on a bend. Recreational 

boaters should either avoid lingering in blind river bends or get a marine band VHF radio and learn proper radio 

protocol and etiquette. The two primary channels for use are channel 16 for distress calls and channel 13 for 

navigation calls and discussion.

“If you want to talk to a towing vessel, use channel 13,” Smith said. “It’s not for long conversations or chit chat. 

Keep it short, to the point, and business-like.” He trains pilots and steersman to expect pleasure craft and be helpful, offering guidance to those who may not know the “rules of the road.”

Still, recreational craft need to be aware of the navigational rules applicable on the Mississippi River. Vessels 

under 65 feet in length and sailboats are not allowed to 

impede the passage of commercial traffic where those 

larger vessels may require the entire navigable channel to 

operate safely, Barnard said. The Coast Guard’s “U.S. Aids to 

Navigation System” booklet can help recreational boaters with 

navigation rules.

That guide shares way to avoid the hazards particularly 

unique to the Mississippi. Wing dams are one. They are rock 

walls that channel current to the middle of the river, helping to 

maintain an adequate navigation channel. They are not lighted 

and can be hard to see, so Barnard recommends a good GPS 

as an aid in pinpointing them.

Fog can be another unexpected challenge. The Mississippi 

River can hold fog when water temperatures are low, which can extend well into the recreational boating season, 

and boaters should stay off the river when conditions are foggy unless their boat is radar equipped.

Another unique feature of navigating the Mississippi is the locks and dams on its upper stretches, said Amanda 

Kruse, natural resource specialist with the US Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District. The Corps’ “Safety in 

Locking Through” brochure lays out the procedures and tips for a safe passage.

Most importantly, boaters should comply with equipment requirements for their respective states, she said. 

All states require a personal flotation device to be on board when navigating the sometimes unforgiving Mighty 

Mississippi. Some 88% of people who drown are not wearing a life jacket.

“Wearing that life jacket is just like wearing a seat belt,” Kruse said. “It should be second nature to put it on. It’s 

there to protect us. No one intends to go out and have an accident.” —D.D.

ABOVE: Paddlers exploring near commercial barges 

are a common site in the multi-use Mississippi River.

Our Mississippi · Summer 2021 3

CARP: U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS. BOAT WITH BARGE: GORDON DIETZMAN. 

K.J. Millhone, Minnetonka, Minn., 

Guinness record holder for

fastest paddle-powered trip

down the Mississippi (and twice)

“As a young man I became enamored with 

the idea of having a world record. As somebody who canoed, I could see it was possible. 

In 1980 the record we had was 35 and a half 

days. I don’t think anybody acknowledged 

we were doing it. Steve Eckelkamp, who was 

one of my partners, was a lifelong friend. Four 

years ago he had a catastrophic heart attack, 

and his nephew had the idea of getting the 

record back for his uncle. I mused that I might 

be able to do it. My daughter Casey said, ‘If 

you’re going to do it, I want to do it, too.’ There 

aren’t too many times a teenage daughter 

wants to spend time with her dad.

“The only way to get the record now is to 

paddle around the clock. The rules require 

everybody to say in the boat if it is moving 

forward. We figured our schedule would be 

that you paddled nine hours and got three 

hours to sleep in the boat. Hallucinations and 

delusions become part of the conversation 

because you are not able to sleep. We registered with the Coast Guard and they sent out 

bulletins telling people on the river where we 

would be. Our support boat had apps that 

told them where boats were and how to contact them. Our crew called to ask where they 

wanted us to go when we passed.

“South of Baton Rouge, most of the time 

when we passed an ocean-going ship it would 

blast its fog horn. You felt like a flea with the 

dog celebrating what you are trying to do! We 

were sharing the river with folks who make 

their livelihood on it. The vast majority were 

thoughtful, accomodating and encouraging. 

Everybody who is part of the river community 

imbraces you. I am honored to be a part of its 

history ... We did it!”

Millhone completed the trip with a team that 

included his daughter Casey, Bobby Johnson of 

Clearwater, Florida and Rod Price of Orlando. 

They completed the 2,352 mile trip in 17 days, 

20 hours. A second team attempting to best 

their record failed due to boat damage. —R.S.

ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT: Team MMZero: Rod Price, KJ 

Millhone, Casey Millhone, Bobby Johnson.

My MISSISSIPPI
Quick action saves 

historic military 

cemetery on bluff

J

ared Minor had just taken over as project manager of an 

ongoing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project to shore 

up a bluff along the Natchez National Cemetery. He’d

already made a major design shift when he got an emergency call from the cemetery. Erosion had gotten worse.

“I went out there and I wasn’t expecting to see a huge 

chunk like I did break off,” he said. “The bluff loses about a foot 

a year of edge, and that’s what we were tracking. We went on 

site, and it had lost several feet.”

He went back to the project design team at his Vicksburg 

District to expedite the schedule, then got another call about 

more erosion a week and a half later. When two days later, he 

got another call, he sought permission for emergency contracting efforts to keep the high hill overlooking the Mississippi 

River from caving in, and the district’s colonel made it happen.

“We went on site on a Thursday. We had no plan. By 

Saturday mid-day it was completely done,” he said. “We put 

a drone in the air to take a photo, and it looked like we had 

shrink-wrapped the whole area. The only time I’ve seen us 

move that quickly is in a flood event, and that’s basically what 

emergency action is. We basically said, ‘Everybody drop what 

you’re doing now and go to Natchez and figure out how we 

can support them stabilizing the bluff.’”

We sent 20 people from our maintenance and project 

design teams, and I was there the whole time doing everything 

from calling everybody with updates to moving sandbags 

when needed. As a project manager, I can go all day thinking 

of ways to fix it, but if I don’t have people to support me, I’m 

just enjoying the view—and that view was getting scary.”

The Natchez National Cemetery was listed in the National 

Register of Historic Places in 1999, but it was constructed 

around 1863 north of Natchez near the river bluff. Some of 

the earliest internments were men who died in The Gardens, 

a Natchez military hospital for federal troops, and burial ceremonies still take place on the bluff for veterans as well as active 

duty personnel who die as well as eligible family members. 

For Minor, who has extensive experience managing river 

levees, this project held sentimental importance. “It’s one 

project my grandfather—a war vet from the Korean war—

always cared about. He always asked, ‘How’s that cemetery 

project going?!’” —K.S.

SHARING THE MUCK

WHEN IT COMES TO A CHOICE between restoration of some of the prime oyster habitat near the 

mouth of the Mississippi River and protection of one 

of the nation’s most unusual ancient species, you 

may end up at impasse.

Oysters are a big economic driver for those harvesting and serving them in restaurants. But federal 

laws protect the threatened Gulf sturgeon, a dinosaur 

lookalike that feeds onshrimp and other small, softbodied invertebrates in the muddy sands of the Gulf 

and its estuaries.

Now, scientists with the Army Corps of Engineers 

and University of Southern Mississippi are working 

on a plan to help both the oysters and those who 

rely on them and one of nine native sturgeon species 

listed as threatened or endangered.

“If we can come up with a successful recipe for creating productive oyster reefs, and Gulf sturgeon can 

have access to increased forage habitat, that’s the 

win-win,” said Todd Slack, a scientist and sturgeon 

expert with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and 

Development Center Environmental Laboratory.

“This is something that could be expanded 

throughout the entire Gulf of Mexico. Then there’s 

an additional component of the potential positive 

impact on recreationally and commercially important species within the Mississippi Sound. Three big 

facets could really benefit from this work.”

The issue and the recipe

Increased rainfall over the past several years has resulted in more serious flooding, inundating oyster beds with fresh water, particularly when the Corps has needed to more frequently 

operate its Bonnet Carré spillway and divert floodwaters from major cities by channeling it 

through Lake Pontchartrain. In the process, oysters within “the most productive habitat in the 

western portion of the Mississippi Sound” get an influx of fresh water that alters the salinity 

levels needed for them to thrive, Slack says.

“The idea was to come up with some experimental conditions to figure out if we could 

restore oyster beds. What recipe could we use to get the best production?”

The recipe involves developing a series of artificial reefs which will be placed on four experimental plots. Each will be located where there has been oyster production historically. Each 

will have “subplots” that allow for testing within the plot of reef material, the timing of disposing of the material and so on.

Slack serves on the sturgeon team of the multi-disciplinary project. While the creation of 

artificial reefs to boost oyster production is not new, looking at the impact on sturgeon is. The 

reefs create surfaces where free-floating oyster larvae can attach and grow. What is not well 

known is whether that will limit the sturgeons’ access to food or actually be a benefit. One possibility, he says, is that it could create a halo effect of productive habitat near the beds.

“It may provide a greater forage base, but the flip side of that is that we’ve got all this soft 

bottom habitat that is considered critical foraging habitat for sturgeon. With construction of 

reefs, you are converting habitat from one use to another. We don’t think that’s going to be a 

major impact, but you are converting critical habitat.

“If we do come up with the ideal recipe, this is something that could be expanded throughout the whole Gulf of Mexico, Florida to Louisiana. If successful and can address benefits to 

another endangered species, it’s a win-win.” —K.S.

Corps scientists are 

looking to restore oyster 

habitat without blocking 

favored dining spots of 

an endangered fish.

“We went on site on a Thursday. 

We had no plan. By Saturday 

mid-day it was completely done,”

ABOVE: Todd Slack displays some endangered Gulf sturgeon, a species of concern 

in a collaborative project to restore oyster 

beds like pictured above.

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

EVEN AFTER 150 MILLION YEARS, it was an epic moment for the lake 

sturgeon. In broad daylight, where the silty waters of the Mississippi River 

gently lap against the rocky edge of a parking lot, a cluster of now-endangered 

lake sturgeon were spawning just below Mel Price Dam 26 at Alton, Illinois.

Fishermen watched the frenzy as they cast lines in search of a dinner of 

river fish other than these ancient beauties from a popular fishing spot on the 

Missouri side of the river. One posted a video online, and that’s what alerted 

wildlife biologists to the event they now hope to replicate elsewhere.

“Could the river’s dams help the lake sturgeon to recover?” asked Ryan 

Swearingin, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wildlife biologist. He works from 

the Corps Rivers Project Office in West Alton, Mo., along the river just a rockskip upstream of Lock and Dam 26 where the rare spawning incident occurred.

Lake sturgeon had previously been found spawning below dams in other 

areas. He wondered: Could the dam itself have the right water flows and 

conditions and thus the perfect recipe for sturgeon to spawn? He received a 

recent grant from The Nature Conservancy’s Sustainable Rivers Program to 

study that possibility of using the dams to reproduce spawning conditions by 

modeling a way to re-create the flow and gate conditions.

Swearingin is cooperating with the water control and hydraulics divisions 

in the St. Louis Corps of Engineers District Office to create models of river 

conditions during the 2015 spawning. Teams take temperature and dissolved 

oxygen measurements daily at West Alton for historic comparisons.

And what a past

Lake sturgeon can live 80 to 100 years and grow to eight feet and 300 pounds. 

Their ancestors swam at the feet of wading dinosaurs and survived continental drift, asteroid strikes, ice ages and the fishing nets of Native Americans and 

European pioneers. Populations began to plunge in the 19th Century due to 

overharvest. Initially, commercial fisherman found little market for the oily fish 

and tossed them onto the river banks. As consumers acquired a taste for the 

flesh and caviar, overharvest nearly eliminated most lake sturgeon populations.

Lake sturgeon are listed as threatened in 19 of 20 states they inhabit. 

Missouri “residents” include shovelnose sturgeon, considered common, and 

pallid sturgeon, classified as federally endangered.

Sturgeon throughout the world are imperiled, said Sarah Peper, a Missouri 

Department of Conservation fisheries management biologist who tracks lake 

sturgeon populations. One reason they’re threatened is that they live long but 

also take time to reach reproductive age.

In Missouri, Lake sturgeon were listed as endangered in 1974. The Missouri 

Department of Conservation (MDC) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) 

launched a restocking program 10 years later. But since lake sturgeon do not 

reach sexual maturity for 25 to 30 years, fish stocked in the 1980s only recently 

started reaching reproductive age.

Recovery

The recovery was no accident; instead, it’s the result of long-time work by 

the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and USFWS which collect 

roe and milt for the restocking program, said Travis Moore, an MDC fisheries management biologist. Fertilized eggs raised to fry and fingerlings in the 

USFWS Genoa National Fish Hatchery in Wisconsin are stocked in the Upper 

Mississippi. Fish raised in the MDC Lost Valley Fish Hatchery in Warsaw, 

Missouri, are stocked into Missouri tributaries.

Fingerlings typically are released in September, when they are six to nine 

inches long. About 485,000 have been released since 1984. Each spring, conditions permitting, MDC biologists set lines below Lock and Dam 26 in the hope 

of catching, measuring and tagging lake sturgeon. Some are fitted with acoustic 

transmitters that ping receivers placed at numerous locations along the river.

Fish released on Missouri River tributaries have been detected below Rathbun 

Lake in Iowa and Gavins Point Dam in South Dakota, Moore said. A fish tagged 

on the Mississippi at Clarksville, Mo., went north to Keokuk, Iowa, then was 

caught six years later in the Arkansas River. A sturgeon tagged below Hannibal, 

Mo., also was tracked to Keokuk then two years later pinged on the Ohio River.

Lake sturgeon are bottom feeders that eat larval aquatic insects, crayfish, 

snails, small clams and small fish. They prefer clean sand, gravel and rocks. 

“When the females come close to shore to release eggs, males crowd around 

to release sperm. The eggs are sticky and need to attach to cobble. There needs 

to be a good flow over those rocks to keep the eggs oxygenated,” Swearingin 

said. “Lake sturgeon are a cold-water species, so they range north of here 

more than south,” he said.

If reproducing spawning conditions can be determined, he said, “That 

could have management implications at locks and dams up and down the 

river, and we could potentially encourage spawning elsewhere.”

An ancient survivor

Biologists measuring and tagging fish below the Mel Price Lock and Dam lift 

a sturgeon from the water at the end of a line they’d set for their research. The 

ancient creature has a flat, pointed snout and what seems to be foot after foot 

of armored body. The four barbels dangling from its head hold taste buds that 

help it find food to gather through the mouth hidden on the bottom of the 

body. Such features have enabled the sturgeon to survive for millenia.

Lake sturgeon appeared in the fossil record before North America became 

a continent and the Mississippi River formed. Ancestors survived the asteroid strike that ended the Cretaceous period and exterminated dinosaurs 65 

million years ago. After the last Ice Age, lake sturgeon spread throughout 

fresh-water oceans left by melting glaciers. As those waters receded they 

settled into the continent’s Great Lakes and great rivers.

“They are what we call a ‘charismatic megafauna,’ big and interesting,” 

Peper said. “These fish have survived meteor strikes, continents colliding and 

pulling apart, glaciations many times, and a lot of impact from humans. They 

are definitely survivors and still need our help..” But the evidence of spawning 

on the Mississippi gives hope, she said. “A project that started 40 years ago 

had come through, right here at Mel Price Dam!” —K.S.

ABOVE, FROM LEFT: Wildlife researchers hoist a lake sturgeon caught below Lock & Dam 

26. Sarah Peper describes one of the acoustic recorders left along rivers then retrieved 

to download information identifying tagged fish that have passed by. A transmitter that 

will be surgically implanted into the belly of a fish..

Cooperative efforts pull 

lake sturgeon from the 

brink of extinction

Our Mississippi · Summer 2021 5

OYSTER BED: STEVE HILLEBRAND FOR USFWS. STURGEON ILLUSTRATION: CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE. ALL OTHERS: U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS.
MEET THE GENERAL

Maj. Gen. Diana M. Holland assumed command of the U.S Army Corps 

of Engineers Mississippi Valley Division (MVD) June 2020, when she additionally became the 41st president of the Mississippi River Commission (MRC). She is the first woman to assume command of MVD 

and hold the presidentially appointed (MRC) position. While she’s new to the Mississippi River, she is 

no rookie to the leadership department. She served as the first woman commandant of cadets at West 

Point, led combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan and was the Corps’ senior leader in Puerto Rico following 

Hurricanes Irma and Maria. In addition to numerous military accolades and honors, Atlanta Magazine 

named her a “woman making a mark.” She accepts it all humbly, preferring to focus on others and their 

passions, but she does acknowledge this: “Military life is my passion. It’s clearly my calling.” Here, we learn 

a bit more.

Q: You are known for the way you encourage 

others to find their life passion. What led you 

to finding yours?

A: At a pretty young age, I told my dad I wanted to 

enlist in the Marine Corps. He was a marine, and 

my grandfather on my mother’s side was a marine 

in World War II in the Pacific campaign. I’d seen 

their photos and their uniforms hanging in a 

closet. I was always aware of their service and what 

it meant to both of them.

I also think my dad made it his mission in life to 

provide his total support, so that I could do anything I chose. Very early on, he put a pull-up bar 

in the doorway of my bedroom and said, “If you’re 

going to be in the military, you have to have upper 

body strength. I suggest that you start doing some 

pull-ups.” He encouraged me to do well in school, 

and that opened many doors...I was convinced I 

could do anything I set my heart on, and he gave 

me the tools and constant encouragement and 

motivation to keep getting better.” 

How do you pay that encouragement forward? 

I try not to miss an opportunity to help people find 

their passion or realize their potential or how to 

achieve the next level. But the higher up you get, 

the harder that gets. When I became commandant 

of cadets at West Point, I knew I wasn’t going to be 

able to touch ( figuratively speaking) all 4,400 of 

those future officers during their time. I then committed to an Instagram account, and I immediately 

realized the value of it from the feedback of my 

first few posts. That’s carried on. (On social media) 

I stick to advocating, boosting, promoting, and 

thanking the people who work in our organization. It serves as a way to share the story about an 

organization that doesn’t tell the human side very 

much, it’s a way to document our history and it’s 

a way to connect people to me and to each other. 

That helps them see they’re part of something 

bigger than themselves.

Diversity, equity and inclusion has been a 

major initiative at the Mississippi Valley 

Division under your leadership. Talk about the 

importance of this effort.

As I look at it, there are two arguments for diversity, 

equity and inclusion. One is the moral imperative. 

The Army, uniformed and civilian must represent 

the society it’s sworn to support and defend. That’s 

an obligation. It’s important that our society sees 

itself in our Army, that our Army fights for them. If 

they don’t see that, you can have a growing chasm 

between society and the military. There’s also a 

practical imperative. It’s an all-volunteer Army, so 

we must be an attractive, viable option for all segments of our society. And I go back to us being a 

democracy and the importance of inclusiveness. 

There are armies in the world manned by a certain 

class, while excluding others and that’s dangerous. Finally, there are also thousands of studies 

that show that the best, most creative, innovative, 

and effective teams are created by bringing diverse 

people together. 

How are you working to bring this about in a 

practical way?

I challenge people that it’s not enough to say “I’m 

not against diversity”; you must be for it and deliberate about how to achieve it. We need metrics to 

measure whether we’re diverse and inclusive, from 

how we hire people and to how we promote them. 

We have to look at the things in our organization 

we do well in terms of diversity and retention, and 

the ones we fail to do. Without metrics we may not 

realize that we hold people back. So, it’s a big campaign. It’s not something we can do overnight, but 

we’re on a good path forward.

You have a three year appointment to this 

post. What do you hope will be your legacy?

I consider myself more of a continuum of a very 

successful organization. Whatever I do personally will be in small ways. I hope every person I’ve 

touched will remember it as a positive experience, 

and that I’m a champion for them.

Are there any parallels between this civilian 

post and the active military? 

My experience in Puerto Rico following Hurricane 

Maria, and I’m sure the same is true with flooding, is very similar to the military. It’s fast moving, 

the safety of your people is paramount, you have 

to assume some risk, and you’ve got to execute 

quickly. You don’t have the time to be too deliberate. In Puerto Rico, the crisis of life and death was 

ongoing for weeks. Entire villages couldn’t get food 

or water. In fact, the entire power grid collapsed 

with very little progress for a long time, which 

meant the crisis persisted; refrigeration was unpredictable, so people couldn’t store insulin, hospitals 

were barely able to keep power running. . .I would 

say the experience was similar to my deployments 

in Afghanistan, and where every day brought 

crisis. As a leader, I have to provide the resources 

for those who get the work done and set the tone 

and establish the right climate. If I appear to be in 

a crisis, running around frantic, people will feed off 

that and it will make it harder for them to provide 

a good, thoughtful response. 

What has most surprised you about the 

Mississippi River and its watershed?

It was not until I arrived at MVD that I understood 

the economic benefits of the river as well as the 

threat it presents to those who depend upon it. 

It’s a terrain feature I wish every American knew 

better. For the Corps’ it is so important that we 

get it right, that our programs are the right ones 

for the river and that we continue to demonstrate 

that we are good stewards of the environment and 

faster navigation. I am impressed by the trust the 

people have in us to do our job. There are partnerships between communities and the Corps that 

have been in place for generations and that’s not 

something you see in other parts of the Corps of 

Engineers. It is truly an honor to represent and 

serve in the Mississippi Valley Division.

What are the major challenges the watershed 

faces?

The evolving climate conditions and their impact 

on our mission is going to be increasingly challenging for everybody. It’s not just an issue for 

the Corps, but it’s certainly becoming a greater 

concern as we try to reduce risk from this river, 

protect people and their livelihoods and keep (the 

Mississippi) a viable navigation channel in an everevolving climate. Flooding is clearly going to be 

more frequent, and the impact on communities is 

going to be more serious. We are going to have to 

adapt to that, figure out how to get ahead of it. This 

is going to be everybody’s challenge in the years 

and decades to come.

Another challenge we must address is that of 

aging infrastructure. Much of our infrastructure 

is more than 50 years old and will need continued 

investment in the years to come. Congress and the 

American people have been very generous to this 

point, but infrastructure requirements are outpacing funding. Hard decisions will have to be made 

as we seek to maintain our competitive edge in the 

global economy. —K.S.

6 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi Valley Division
Twenty-three-year-old U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employee Alexander 

Harper wouldn’t call himself a “Mad Hatter” (an 1800s term used to 

describe the sometime odd behavior by hatmakers exposed to mercurous nitrate) but did admit to being “...just a little mad” when describing 

himself as a self-taught milliner.

As a high school intern, Harper came to know the engineering world of the 

Corps where the world of design and construction surrounded him. As such, it’s 

no surprise that the young entrepreneur—who worked three days a week at the 

Saint Louis District with nine other interns as part of the Clyde C. Miller Career 

Academy—that “a focused” Harper was assigned as the intern’s group leader.

“I really wasn’t interested in joining the Army at the time, but my school counselor made me take (the internship) and now it’s a career,” remarked the life-long 

Saint Louis native who is one of four children but is expecting a baby sister within 

weeks. He says now that he doesn’t hold the demand against his high school business administration counselor Judith Sams—“no,” said Harper, “not at all.”

He says he enjoys the steady and diverse work he receives as the new frontoffice Human Resource lead and, according to Sams, “Alex came back after only 

one week with the Corps and gave me a great big hug. He said that ‘he loved it,’” 

explained Sams who admitted that Harper had trepidations about joining the 

Army.

Sams went on to detail that the Corps ... “Was the very best internship choice 

we had. They were very good at showing the students what the real world of work looks like,” she said.

Harper turned the internship into a full-time job after graduating from University of Missouri-St. Louis with a degree in 

business administration and a minor in communications in 2020. However, for this ‘stay-at-home-minded’ graduate, some 

of his first experiences with USACE placed him way outside of his comfort zone.

Indeed, it was the tough-talking combat-experienced Major John Miller who ordered the young Saint Louisan off on official orders to the USACE Albuquerque District to learn the ropes of his new position from Jeannette Alderete who provided 

the training he needed to step into his new HR-focused role.

He said it was an important trip to help him focus his career but admitted that he had some anxiety about being away from 

his family. “That’s the furthest away I’ve ever been from home,” exclaimed Harper, who also simply hates to fly. Ultimately 

his New Mexico training became one of the most important challenges Harper recalls when asked about hurdles he’s faced 

in the Corps.

One of Harper’s newest tasks upon his return from the “Land of Enchantment,” beyond preparing awards and organizing 

all-hands training, has been to launch, market and then promote the newest MVS endeavor: preparing want ads to compete 

on LinkedIn, a social media giant that has overtaken Facebook recently as the U.S. Army Corps’ most active online platform.

And, aside from his day-to-day ‘at work’ service tasks, it was Harper’s mother Aflton, or more specifically his desire to provide her a classic Cloche Hat, but not having the funds to do so, that inspired him to make a solo entry into not just making 

a single hat but to eventually launch a line of homemade beauties that have become quite popular with friends and family.

Harper explained that he had trepidations at first and many of his calls to hat makers went nowhere as he sensed that 

“ ... nobody in the business wanted to give away their trade secrets.” But undaunted, Harper continued to learn and was 

eventually able to reach and discuss the tricks of the hat trade with new contacts in Texas and in Pennsylvania. He also 

racked up many hours on YouTube and other online resources learning the differences between gingham, Glen Plaid and 

a Gaucho — as any designer should.

Harper looks back and admits that he “messed up” his mom’s first attempted hat ... “but she loved the second one,” he 

noted with pride. But those early days are but a memory in this young man’s life. He’s stepping up his game and has become 

quite adept in showcasing his felted-wool spring lineup and interest has been skyrocketing in his neighborhood.

With USACE as his anchor, Harper has achieved a work-life balance where engineering fashionable headwear on his offtime melds quite well with the employee services he renders to engineers during the day. It’s a lifestyle that many inventors 

and craftsmen twice his age would envy and a claim that Harper’s counselor, Judith Sams, can take some credit in.

“Harper was one of my best students. He was punctual, respectful and dressed well,” she said. “But, most importantly he 

had an entrepreneur’s mindset and I knew the Corps of Engineers was the best fit for him.” —STORY BY ANDRE’ BILLEAUDEAUX, 

CHIEF PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER, SAINT LOUIS DISTRICT

The ‘Not 

At All Mad’ 

USACE Hatter

ABOVE, FROM LEFT: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employee Alexander Harper 

juggles his creative career as a human resources professional with the Corps 

St. Louis District and avocation as a hatmaker. Here, he poses with a few of his 

happy, stylish customers.

Our Mississippi · Summer 2021 7
Wingspan: 6 – 7 feet. Weight: 6.6 – 13 pounds

The golden eagle is the most common official national 

animal in the world. It is the emblem of Albania, 

Germany, Austria, Mexico, and Kazakhstan.

Golden eagles occur throughout North 

America and northern Eurasia and are 

patchily distributed in North Africa.

Immature golden eagles can be confused 

with immature bald eagles as both have 

predominantly dark brown plumage 

with some white. Young golden eagles 

have white concentrated at the base 

of the tail and the outer part of the 

wing. Young bald eagles have irregular 

patches of white across the body, especially under the wings.

Because they most commonly prey 

on mammals that don’t tend to ingest 

pesticides, golden eagles have escaped 

the harm sustained by fish-eating or 

bird-eating raptors from DDT and related 

chemicals.

The rough-legged hawk, the ferruginous 

hawk, and the golden eagle are the only 

American raptors to have legs feathered all 

the way to the toes.

WILDLIFE FEATURE

The ‘Other’ Eagle of the Mississippi River Valley

Soaring eagles are a familiar sight along the Mississippi River. An adult bald eagle with Its white head and 

tail is easy to spot as it catches a thermal or perches above a likely fishing spot. But a rarer eagle haunts the 

steep bluffs of the Upper Mississippi during cooler weather.

Golden eagles are uniformly dark brown as adults and can be distinguished from bald eagles by the 

golden-brown feathers that cover the back of their head and neck. But despite their lesser-celebrated status, 

golden eagles are one of the largest, fastest, and most nimble birds in North America, and they’ve recently 

been writing a comeback story of their own.

Golden eagles arrive in the Mississippi River Valley from Ontario and Manitoba, Canada, moving south 

after rearing their young and migrating around the western end of Lake Superior in October and November. 

The Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory in Duluth reported a record migration of 223 golden eagles in 2009. Some 

of these migrating golden eagles head for the hills of the driftless area in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa 

where they spend the winter and early spring in forested valleys.

Golden eagles are rarely seen directly on the river, preferring to hunt the forests and bluff-top openings, 

called goat prairies. Their most common prey here are squirrels, rabbits, and wild turkeys. That hunting style 

requires a constant scanning the entire landscape, paying attention everywhere, according to Scott Mehus, 

education director for the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota.

That characteristic also made a golden eagle named Donald a visitor favorite among the resident eagle 

ambassadors at the center.

“Unlike his bald eagle companions, Donald would look at every single person that come in that room. 

He would look into you; he would look into your eyes. And so he would really make that connection with 

people,” Mehus said.

Spotting a golden eagle along the Upper Mississippi is still a special event. This year’s Golden Eagle Survey, 

a citizen science project of the National Eagle Center, found 126 golden eagles. In comparison, observers 

saw 1,433 bald eagles over the 47-county survey area. Mehus has coordinated this survey since 2004.

“We had a little over 20 Golden Eagles that first year with just 21 observers. The number of surveyors has 

grown ever since, which has been great. This year, we had almost 200 observers,” he said.

Mehus believes golden eagles have been present in the Upper Mississippi for quite a while and have just 

been overlooked. Many other eastern and southern states are now finding out they have resident golden 

eagles, thanks to the efforts of the Eastern Golden Eagle Working Group, a collaboration of scientists, educators, and resource professionals.

The working group recently estimated that 5,000 golden eagles overwinter in the eastern United States, 

based on fall migration data from many locations. Their current effort is creating a management plan that 

can help state wildlife managers protect the species during the winter.

“The golden eagles of the Mississippi River Valley rely on us for winter habitat, just as we rely on Central and 

South America to provide winter habitat for the songbirds we enjoy in Midwestern summers,” Mehus said.

Mehus hopes to expand the Golden Eagle Survey beyond the driftless area, a plan brought closer to reality 

after a year of Zoom presentations. This year, all National Eagle Center classroom presentations have been 

virtual, a good test for how to train golden eagle surveyors remotely. People interested in participating in the 

Golden Eagle Survey can send an email to golden@nationaleaglecenter.org to begin receiving updates when 

training sessions are available.—D.D.

Scott Mehus, Education Director, 

National Eagle Center,

Wabasha, Minnesota

“My aunt and uncle lived in Rushford, Minnesota, and I remember as a kid driving across 

southern Minnesota on I-90 to visit them. 

And it was flat farm country and boring. But 

as soon as we started dropping down into the 

bluff country, it was like dropping into a magical place. It was a whole hidden world right 

here in Minnesota. And then you get down to 

the river, and it was just amazing. We watched 

the Delta Queen go through the lock and dam 

at Guttenberg. We saw signs for this place 

called the Upper Mississippi National Fish and 

Wildlife Refuge.

“In the late 1980s, seeing a Bald Eagle 

soaring against a beautiful blue sky in the 

Boundary Waters during a church youth 

group canoe trip (not a common sight at 

that time) sparked my interest in them. Then 

attending Vermilion College in Ely my professor took our class to Duluth, to Hawk Ridge to 

watch the migrating raptors, and that really 

spurred my interest in both bald and golden 

eagles. Seeing them be so energy efficient 

and being able to migrate such long distances 

with so little effort really amazed. Even at that 

stage I was also really intrigued at where the 

Golden Eagles that were migrating by Hawk 

Ridge were coming from, and why might they 

be migrating out of the areas that they had 

summered in.

“I feel very connected with eagles, and just 

like our connections with other humans with 

how we can feel more connections with some 

more people more than others, well the same 

is true of the eagles. Each bird has their own 

unique personality (birdonality) and it readily 

connects (or doesn’t) to others. I see people 

coming into to the National Eagle Center and 

having sometimes instant bonding with some 

birds versus others. It goes the same for the 

birds as well. I have worked with Angel the 

Bald Eagle (22 years of age) since 2006, and 

we have never hit it off. It has always been a 

challenge for me working with her, while others can come in and she will start working 

with them from day one!” —D.D.

My MISSISSIPPI

Golden Eagle Fun Facts
THE MISSISSIPPI PANORAMA

As white settlers reached into the expanses of the Mississippi Valley 

early in the 19th Century, their footsteps were followed by artists 

attracted to the frontier from as far as Europe.

They were “as thrilled and excited by what they saw as any new traveler in 

a foreign land. They had neither the time nor the inclination to dream, but 

only to sketch and paint as accurately as they could every burgeoning town 

and village, every raft and keelboat, the endless banks and bluffs, the flora and 

fauna of the new inland waterway which had no equal in the world.”

So explained “Mississippi Panorama,” a book accompanying a 1950 St. Louis 

Art Museum exhibit. As staff began selecting exhibits, “it soon became apparent that the great waterways of the mid-continent had been a more fertile 

source of inspiration to the artist than is generally realized.”

Some of that content—and more—will be displayed in the main exhibition 

galleries of the St. Louis Art Museum from October 3, 2021, to January 9, 2022, 

in conjunction with the 200th anniversary of Missouri’s statehood.

“Art Along the Rivers: A Bicentennial Celebration” will explore artwork 

produced and collected over 1,000 years in the region surrounding St. Louis. 

“Although the region that has shaped the exhibition’s objects is small, it has 

played an outsize role in the history of North America due to the confluence 

of powerful rivers and major trails and routes within its borders,” states the 

exhibit’s overview.

The first known depiction of St. Louis appeared on an 1817 bank note. Many 

artists specialized in “some particular aspect of that life that flourished there,” 

such as steamboats, Native Americans, landscapes or towns.

Ornithologist John James Audubon specialized in birds, of course, and 

painted a landscape of Natchez, Mississippi, in 1822. “Like all of them he was 

motivated by a driving inspiration as big in its own dimension as the territory 

he roamed,” the 1950 book explained.

That 351-piece exhibit also paid homage to ancient artists. “Once the exposed 

surfaces of the (river) bluffs bore weird Indian paintings such as the Piasa bird, 

near Alton, Illinois, which was a crude representation of a creature half bird, 

half serpent.”

The original bird, possibly painted around the 12th Century, had been 

weathered away but was represented in a drawing published in 1853.

“Art Along the Rivers” displays more than 150 objects reflecting the region’s 

diverse cultural history and arranges them thematically “to establish dialogues around the region’s geography, raw materials, and pressing social 

issues.” —R.S.

Our Mississippi · Summer 2021 9
OUR MISSISSIPPI KIDS

Cheers 

to the 

world’s 

record holders 

You’ve likely heard of the Guinness 

Book of World Records, but what you 

may not know is this: the idea started 

when the managing director of the 

Guinness Brewery was in an argument 

during a shooting party. He and his 

British hosts couldn’t agree on which 

was the fastest game bird in Europe.

They never settled on the answer, 

but they did settle on creating a new 

book as a way to settle arguments 

at pubs! Today, there are more than 

40,000 official “records.” Among 

them are many set by kids—and 

young adults—some of them related 

to the Mississippi River, some 

related to such important matters as 

how many socks one can put on in 

30 seconds. 

KJ Millhone set his first record for 

“fastest time to row the length of 

the Mississippi River by a team” with 

a friend when he was 22. At 62, he 

this year broke his own record (and 

many others that followed his first 

attempt), and so did team member 

and 16-year-old daughter Casey 

Millhone. In doing so, the dad set 

the record for oldest person to have 

completed the 2,350-mile journey, 

while Casey set the record for the 

youngest!

Be inspired by other young people 

who have set records: 

• 7 year old Montannah Kenney set 

a new record in 2018 for youngest person to summit Mount 

Kilimanjaro. She wanted to climb 

with her mom, Hollie, and did so in 

61⁄2 days to be closer to her father 

who had passed away five years 

earlier. At the top, she aimed a 

kiss toward heaven.

• Nilanshi Patel of India holds the 

record for the longest hair on 

a child or teen—5 feet, seven 

inches. Why? She had a traumatic 

haircut at age 6 and didn’t want to 

go through that again! 

• And no extra luck was needed for 

Katie Borka, who at age 11 broke 

the record for most four-leaf 

clovers collected in an hour. She 

found 166 “because she was good 

at spotting them.” 

Have a record breaking idea of 

your own? Apply here: 

guinnessworldrecords.com/

contact/application-enquiry

BUILDING STRONG®

Boating Safety Word Search

Can you find these 18 words?

Boating Capsize Coast Guard Collision 

Drown Float Plan Hypothermia Lanyard 

Overload Swamp Wake 

Abbreviations: Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) 

Boating Under the Influence (BUI) Heat 

Escape Lessening Posture (HELP)

National Weather Service (NWS)

Personal Floatation Device (PFD)

Personal Watercraft (PWC) 

Water Safety Criss-Cross Puzzle

Across

2. Always swim with a ___________.

3. ‘Brake’ on a boat.

5. A major contributor to boating accidents and

fatalities.

6. To keep you safe in the water, learn to ________.

7. Lakes can provide flood control, water supply and

irrigation which causes the water levels to change.

One should never ____ into these lakes.

8. Band-aids can be found in a _____ ______ kit.

11. When operating a boat at night, you must turn on

your __________ lights so others can see you.

Down

1. Keep your eye on the sky and watch for bad __________ when boating.

2. On-the-water ‘traffic signs’.

4. When you're on the water you should always wear your __________.

9. Rules that cover operating a boat are called boating ________.

10. Helps to put out a fire.

12. If you fall out of a boat, that's called falling _______________.

Water Safety Fun!

Are you a water 

safety expert 

like me? Try 

to fill in all the 

answers!

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

n a stretch of the Natchez Trace 

National Scenic Trail, not far 

from Port Gibson, Mississippi, 

hikers’ boots join a millennialong caravan. Theirs are the 

latest in a line of thousands of 

tromping feet, boots that so deeply 

eroded the trail here that it lies a full 20 feet 

below the surrounding landscape. The high 

earthen walls shut out the noises of the 

outside world, and what daylight the earth doesn’t block is 

largely kept at bay by towering oak trees. Nowhere on the 

Natchez Trace does this trail’s history—and a hiker’s place in 

it—feel more palpable.

History of the Natchez Trace

For thousands of years, the Chickasaw, Choctaw and Natchez 

forged and followed the Natchez Trace, a nearly 500-mile trail 

that connected settlements across the region to the continent’s transportation highway: the Mississippi River.

In the late 1700s, European settlers followed the Trace 

to new homesteads throughout the Mississippi Valley. The 

region’s boatmen, known as “Kaintucks,” floated goods down 

the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, sold their products in Natchez 

and New Orleans, and walked back home by way of the Trace. 

Slave traders followed the well-worn footpath, transporting 

enslaved people to and from the Delta. Meriwether Lewis 

wrapped up his famed expedition with a journey along the 

Trace, where he died in 1809. And American troops used the 

Trace as a military route during the War of 1812.

Steamboats would eventually render the Trace little more 

than a historical relic. But its former significance and natural 

beauty attracted the attention of the National Park Service 

in 1938. Eventually, the Park Service would construct the 

Natchez Trace Parkway through portions of Mississippi, 

Alabama and Tennessee, with historical pullouts and scenic 

overlooks. The Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail was 

added in 1983.

Trekking through a Diverse Landscape

The opportunity to explore this region of the Mississippi River 

Valley on foot, and to recreate in some small way the experiences of those early travelers, draws hundreds of day trippers 

to this Southern trail with their backpacks and hiking boots. 

Each year a handful of National Scenic Trail purists and 

long-distance hikers opt to trek the Trace’s entire 444 miles, 

a challenging distance made all the more difficult thanks to 

the often hot, humid climate and the necessity of hiking the 

road’s nearly non-existent shoulder.

Officially, the Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail consists 

of five distinct sections in Mississippi and Tennessee totaling 62 miles. The first of the trail’s official segments is the 

Potkopinu, or “little valley,” an appropriate name for a stretch 

of the “sunken” Trace that’s been eroded into something 

resembling a narrow gorge.

But the remains of the old Natchez Trace are seldom as 

obvious as they are in these sunken sections, where fine loess 

soil erodes easily. In fact, the Trace promises a diverse range 

of landscapes. Pre-historic Native American mounds rise over 

the landscape near Natchez and Tupelo. Sparkling waterfalls 

like Jackson and Fall Hollow gush over rocky promontories in 

other areas, while swaths of crimson clover, bluets 

and meadow buttercups brighten the entire Trace.

Parkway and trailside pullouts alert hikers, 

bicyclists and automobile drivers to historic sites 

scattered along the Natchez Trace. 18th-century inns 

like Mount Locust and the Gordon House, now historic sites, once housed and fed weary travelers. The 

remains of historic ferry crossings can be seen near 

Florence, Alabama, and Columbia, Tennessee.

Old Hardships, Modern Conveniences

If hiking the Natchez Trace seems bucolic, it is 

... to a point. Hiking nearly 400 miles takes its toll 

physically, as it surely did for travelers in the 1800s. 

Swollen creek beds and flooded marshes occasionally swallow up the trail. At times the Trace grows 

thick with boot-sucking mud, and peaceful cypress 

swamps breed mosquitos and ticks. Warm, humid 

days morph quickly into damp, 35-degree nights in 

the spring, and surely twisted ankles, sprained knees 

and illness slow unfortunate travelers at times.

Modern hikers find respite with a hot meal, a 

warm bed and a proper shower at nearby hotels. But 

there were no Holiday Inns in 1810, nor ultralight 

tents, Gore-Tex boots or permethrin spray for repelling insects.

When contemporary travelers finally reach 

the northern terminus of the Natchez Trace on 

Nashville’s outskirts, they follow decades of tradition with a celebratory meal at The Loveless Cafe. 

Famous for their scratch-made Southern food—

fried chicken, homemade biscuits and jam, and 

house-smoked barbecue—the cafe promises a well-deserved 

treat and helps replace the thousands of calories burned over 

three weeks of hiking. It’s perhaps not unlike the celebratory 

dinner enjoyed at trail’s end, 200 years ago. —A.S.E.

THREE MORE MISSISSIPPI RIVER VALLEY HIKES

Itasca State Park, Minnesota

The Mississippi River begins its Gulf Coast journey in Itasca 

State Park, Minnesota’s oldest. Some 50 miles of footpaths 

crisscross the park, ranging from short wheelchair-accessible trails and boardwalks to a paved bike path and more 

challenging routes through virgin pine forest. dnr.state.

mn.us/state_parks

Mississippi Palisades State Park, Illinois

Follow the hiking trails of the Mississippi Palisades and 

you’ll be tracing the footsteps of the Native Americans who 

cleared these paths nearly 1,000 years ago. 15 miles of trails 

pass Mississippi River overlooks and rocky outcroppings 

that give the park its name. illinois.gov/dnr/parks

Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge, Louisiana

The trails are short and easy, but the landscape spectacular 

at Cat Island, 30 miles north of Baton Rouge. The star of 

this park is the old-growth cypress and tupelo trees, some 

a century old, and visitors like herons and egrets. fws.gov/

refuge/Cat_Island

A “sunken” piece of the original trail.

I.D. Caption here

Loveless Cafe

For trip-planning 

information and history 

about the Natchez Trace, 

visit NPS.gov/natr

Walking the Trace

Our Mississippi · Summer 2021 11
Send story ideas to editor@ourmississippi.net

To subscribe to our e-edition, read past editions and find river-related education materials, 

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

PRSRT STD

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GREENVILLE, MI

PERMIT NO. 338

Contributors this issue:

EDITOR/

LEAD WRITER

Kim Schneider

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Diane Kolak

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Michael Andre 

Billeaudeaux

Debra Dietzman

Amy Eckert

Richard Stoff

Mailing list changes:

Kevin Bluhm, 651-290-5247

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 Bluhm

180 East Fifth Street, Suite 700

St. Paul, MN 55101

Oakwood Bottoms

Oakwood Bottoms is one of the largest contiguous tracts of bottomland hardwood forest along 

the Middle Mississippi River Corridor. It holds important habitat for migratory birds and other 

species, including the endangered Indiana bat, but levees built a century ago disrupted the 

area’s natural hydrology cycles. Valuable wetland and hardwood ecosystems are shrinking. 

Even oaks are disappearing.

Under a habitat restoration and enhancement project of the Upper Mississippi River 

Restoration Program, a program this year marking its 35th year of restoration efforts, the U.S. 

Army Corps of Engineers soon will move dirt and install pumps to enable the U.S. Forest Service 

to better recreate natural conditions in the bottoms.

The project covers 4,700 acres of Oakwood Bottoms in the Shawnee National Forest near 

the Mississippi River in southern Illinois. When the land was farmed, the levees protected against 

flooding from Big Muddy River and channels were cut to drain wetlands. The Forest Service has 

managed the area since 1964.

Existing water control structures and pumps are aged and inadequate, said Brian Markert, the Corps’ Upper 

Mississippi River Restoration Program project manager. The resulting “unnatural water fluctuations reduce the 

ability of the area to function optimally for the multiple habitat types.”

Acorns and nuts are high in nutritional value for wildlife, but oaks and hickories in the bottoms are reaching 

the end of their life cycles. Replacing them are maple, ash and elm trees that tolerate wetter soils. Also being lost 

are the areas classified as “emerging wetlands” that provide important habitat and nutrition.

In projects expected to launch in 2022, the Corps will install multiple new well pumps to more efficiently 

place water on lands once subject to seasonal flooding, said Jasen Brown, the Corps’ Upper Mississippi River 

Restoration Program engineering lead. A new pump station will enable the Forest Service to remove water more 

efficiently to restore dry conditions.

Degraded berms and drainage channels will be repaired and optimized. Hardwoods will be reforested in 94 

acres and some maple, ash and elm stands will be cleared. —R.S.

Long-range Upper 

Mississippi resilience 

plan nears adoption

Changes in land use and climate-driven changes 

in precipitation were listed in a draft “Keys to the 

River” plan as key challenges impeding commercial navigation safety, degrading fish and 

wildlife habitat and affecting safety and economic stability of communities, agriculture and 

other industries. 

The long-term plan for managing floods, 

drought and sedimentation is nearing adoption by the Upper Mississippi River Basin 

Association (UMRBA) and has been released 

for public comment. UMRBA was established 

by the governors of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, 

Missouri and Wisconsin to work with stakeholders and federal partners to advance multi-use 

management of the river.

“The complex nature of the river system 

and array of human uses requires thoughtful 

and inclusive dialogue among the diverse suite 

of stakeholder representatives throughout the 

region,” the plan noted.

The greatest water volume in recorded history flowed in the Upper Mississippi in 2019, the 

plan explains. Sedimentation also is increasing, requiring additional dredging to maintain 

navigation channels and backwater ecosystems. The plan will to suggest the need for new 

regulations on placement of dredged sediment 

and efforts to seek new uses and users for 

sediments. 

56 Number of projects completed as of 2020

3 New projects expected to be completed in 2021

5,590 acres slated to be restored in 2021 

through three new projects

9,810 acres slated to be restored in 2022

111,000 acres restored by end of 2022, over life of project.

BY THE NUMBERS