TEAMS FROM ACROSS the U.S. Army Corps 

of Engineers, including its Mississippi Valley 

Division, have spent the past several weeks transforming buildings from a roadside hotel to a 

former newspaper production facility into alternative healthcare centers ready as needed to house 

patients infected wtith COVID-19.

In some cases, teams contracted by the Federal Emergency 

Management Agency (FEMA) completed the transformation in 

as little as 41⁄2 days, while other larger renovations took from 10 

days to a month. The key, officials said, was to meet timelines to 

the exact minute a bed is needed for a hospital overflow patient 

in selected major cities. 

“I can’t think of a more noble calling for an engineer than to be able to 

build something to take some of the 

stress out of the hospital shortages,” 

Corps Commanding General Todd 

Semonite said, noting that even if 

all the bed space ends up not being 

needed, “At the end of the day it’s a 

relatively small cost to be able to have 

the capability to keep people alive.” 

The Corps has engaged in health care solutions in all 50 states 

and eight territories. All projects started from standard designs 

created at the Corps’ Huntsville, Alabama, Medical Facilities 

Mandatory Center of Expertise. Blueprints for transformed hotels, 

stadiums, convention centers, dormitories and more are then 

being adapted to specific site and regional needs as the Corps 

works in cooperation with teams from FEMA, cities, states and 

the departments of defense and health and human services. 

In the Corps’ Mississippi Valley Division, engineers and planners have worked with the state of Wisconsin to develop three 

alternate care facilities: 1) a facility to house COVID-19 positive inmates in an unused building on the campus of an existing 

Milwaukee County correctional facility (currently under design); 

2) an alternate care facility in Madison which consists of the 

conversion of a multi-purpose arena into patient bays (awaiting 

construction approval); and 3) a 500-plus patient bay alternate 

SPRING 2020

How the Army Corps engineered a 

life-saving solution and quickly built 

thousands of hospital beds

Continued on page 2 >>

ABOVE: Work crews gather 

to begin construction of 

a 200,000 square foot 

alternative care facility 

in Milwaukee. Corps 

teams and partners had 

only 10 days to complete 

the transformation for 

COVID-19 patients.

Racing a Pandemic

Our Mississippi River Basin
care facility at the Milwaukee State Fair Park Expo Center (currently open to 

receive patients). 

In St. Louis, Corps teams led the transformation of a hotel to health care facility in just 79 hours; and in Memphis, they created a facility just minutes from an 

existing downtown healthcare complex with some 400 beds with supplied oxygen, 

water, bathrooms, nurses’ stations and more. That project is housed throughout 

four floors of a large concrete building where newspaper presses recently churned 

out copies of Memphis’s The Commercial Appeal.

“This will be another off-the-shelf kind of solution we can have ready to go if 

the Corps encounters another situation like this,” said Jim Pogue, the Memphis 

District’s chief of public affairs. 

As with other projects, the Corps teams remained agile enough to switch gears, as 

virus trends did, and, on the fly, change room size or isolation requirements. Some 

cities have leased the buildings as housing overflow sites for a relatively short term, 

but Memphis leased the building it’s using for 18 months in case of a virus recurrence, Pogue said. “As the chief said, ‘hope for the best and prepare for the worst.’”

State governors called upon Corps districts like St. Paul, Rock Island and New 

Orleans to scout spaces and prioritize schools, correctional facilities and convention centers as overflow health care center needs arise, and many of the states 

opted to do their own building. Bradley Drouant, a senior project manager for the 

Corps’ New Orleans District, was dispatched to the Louisiana governor’s office of 

homeland security and emergency preparedness. 

The state of Louisiana opted to use its own disaster relief expertise to construct 

the centers, but it turned to the Corps for its scouting expertise and standard designs, 

Drouant said.

“The state identified locations under consideration,” he said, “and the Corps 

teams analyzed how many people each site would hold, how the air handling 

system would be modified and issues like whether they had backup generators.”

Elsewhere, like in the state of Wisconsin, the Corps helped in more urgent situations like the Alternate Care Facility in Milwaukee. 

“I spent 10 years in healthcare and was a healthcare construction project manager, so I did exactly what we’re doing, except I never in my life did it this fast,” 

said Brian Schneider, a Memphis District project manager assigned to the state 

of Wisconsin. “We took a 200,000-square-foot arena and converted it into this 

treatment space in 10 days. Roughly 500 patient bays are installed now, with a 

nurse’s station, showers, restrooms, oxygen storage tanks with inline oxygen to the 

patient bays ... It’s the most remarkable thing I’ve ever seen.”

Being able to adapt on the fly, as if on a pandemic-inspired version of an extreme makeover 

show, was a key to success in Milwaukee and 

elsewhere. When there wasn’t time to install a 

complete nurse call system, nurses were given 

pagers as a nod to speed. “The virus is running 

toward society every single day,” Schneider 

said. “ We knew that the sooner we got this up 

and running, the less chance of someone dying 

as a result of hospitals not having capacity to 

treat COVID+ patients.”

Similar improvising was done on the scene of the St. Louis District’s hotel-tohealth care build at a Quality Inn in Florrisant, Missouri. Completing the April build 

in just 79 construction hours required that design and building happened concurrently. They got so close to the wire that contractors had to bring in five cleaning 

crews so that each could do the final cleaning on a given floor at the same time. 

“We were making changes on the fly: ‘Where can we go to find those? Can we 

get it from Amazon on time?’” said Tony Jones, chief of the construction branch, 

St. Louis District, and head contracting officer. “We had the end user on speed dial 

to understand needs.” 

And when the need arose for an isolation wall to separate patients with different 

severity levels, neither the Huntsville standard model nor medical professionals’ 

suggestion of a plastic zip wall were feasible or available during the time frame. 

The compromise became the framing and drywalling of actual walls with line of 

site offered by off-the-shelf doors with glass inside. As this and other projects were 

completed on time to treat patients as needed, they also offered lessons-learned 

models for the rest of the nation. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are not out of the woods; there’s a lot more to do,” 

Maj. Gen. Mark Toy, Mississippi Valley Division Commanding General, said at 

the dedication ceremony of the hotel-to-health care build in St. Louis. “This fight 

is being done all across the country. What you have done is created a blueprint for 

success for the rest of the nation. 

“Everybody’s trying to figure out when they’ll be at peak, how they can get facilities done quickly. You’ve shown you can do a facility, get it up in less than a week 

... Again, I am so proud of this team ...

“Our motto is ‘Building Strong and Taking Care of People.’ It’s a reminder that everything we construct has, at the core, the idea that we are taking care of people.” —K.S.

“The virus is running toward society every single day. We knew that the sooner 

we got this up and running, the less chance of someone dying as a result of 

hospitals not having capacity to treat COVID+ patients.” —Brian Schneider

CLOCKWISE FROM RIGHT: Cubicles 

are divided, awaiting additional 

supplies, as the Corps helps to 

prepare the Milwaukee State Fair 

Park Expo Center for COVID-19 

patients; Maj. Gen. Mark Toy gets 

an update from staff in one of the 

motel-turning-patient rooms near 

St. Louis. The Corps and contractor, 

Tarlton Corporation, worked with a 

team of electricians, carpenters and 

carpet cleaners to transform the 

space in just 79 hours.

2
Inspired to excellence—from loss

For one St. Louis contractor, constructing an alternate 

care facility for COVID-19 patients was decidedly personal

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers selected the Tarlton Corporation, a long-time 

St. Louis contractor and experienced builder for medical facilities and the Corps, 

to transform a Quality Inn into a health care facility in which COVID patients treated 

at St. Louis-area medical centers might recover. The Corps made the award call 

mid-afternoon on a Tuesday, just a few hours after Tarlton’s sibling owners Tracy 

Hart and Dirk Elsperman had lost their 83-year-old father Bob—the company 

leader before them—to complications from COVID-19.

The company would have just 79 hours (working 24-hour shifts) to construct 

a facility their patriarch would be proud of.

“For us it did feel like Bob had a hand in it,” said Laura Lusson, the company’s 

marketing and communications director. “Every project is important for us, but 

there’s never been one like this. There was a whole new level of drive and determination to get it done.”

Even the strongest determination would be tested as teams found unexpected mold, carpets damaged by cigarette smoke, disrepair on air conditioning units that couldn’t be ordered and only replaced by sending one crew 

member on a road trip to Indiana. But there were wins, too. Hotel beds could be reused, rooms already had sinks 

and running water, and the single suite on every floor made for an easy transformation to a nurse’s station next to 

existing supply closets.

Mostly, what stood out in this H2HC (hotel to health care center) national model was teamwork, something 

Bob’s son Dirk told the St. Louis Post Dispatch that his father would have loved. As many as 200 people touched 

the project,all working with the health care community as client: more than 70 from the Corps of Engineers alone; 

50 from Tarlton; another 50 from Tarlton design-build partners Ross & Baruzzini Inc., Rock Hill Mechanical Corp. 

and Guarantee, Electrical Co.; and workers in the trades from a dozen subcontractors. 

“The Big Guy loved how the toughest projects brought people together,” Elsperman said of his father. “This alternate care facility did just that.” —K.S. & S.C.

Dredging at a Social Distance

Keeping the river open while avoiding a 

contagious virus is a tricky proposition.

As businesses around 

the country sent employees home to telecommute this 

spring, the Mississippi River 

was in the middle of seasonal 

flooding, the river still needed 

to be dredged so that barges 

wouldn’t ground, and locks 

and dams needed their seasonal maintenance to operate safely.

At the same time, crews from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were being 

called upon to conduct what could be their own version of Extreme Makeover, 

hospital-style, as Corps crews under contract from the Federal Emergency 

Management Agency supervised the conversion of hotels, conference centers and 

old newspaper buildings into alternate care facilities for COVID-19 patients.

All has forced daily innovation, something that fortunately is a hallmark of the 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

As was the case with most businesses across the country, the Corps sent home 

workers with the ability to telecommute. Those in positions in which telework was 

not an option practiced social distancing, wore masks, had temperatures checked 

at doors and were teamed up in ways that least exposed them to potential risks.

In the Quad Cities, the Corps solved one potential safety problem by turning 

to a local distillery that had recently converted its operations to produce hand 

sanitizer.

“Our emergency management shop has been hand-filling honey bottles so folks 

can take it to the field,” said Allen Marshall, corporate communications chief for 

the Rock Island District. “It’s the kind of thing that can be overlooked, but it’s a 

true indication of what people are doing to not only be safe but also make sure that 

critical work is getting done.”

Paul Machajewski, dredged materials manager for the Corps’ St. Paul District, 

found himself scouting potential dredge sites on foot, alone. Because some 

surveys of dredging needs on the river required Corps employees to work in pairs, 

he assigned them buddies so that surveyors would always work with the same 

colleague rather than risking multiple exposures. While they’d normally carpool 

to a boat landing, all drove their own vehicles. And once on the boat, they kept as 

much distance as possible supplemented by “constant hand sanitizing and spraying of Lysol.”

And in Memphis, where the Ensley Engineer Yard encompasses specialty workers like machinists, welders, electricians, carpenters and toolmakers who are 

unable to do their work remotely, the six-foot rule was strictly applied. That meant 

that a siding job that required use of a two-man basket too small to allow virtually any distance between employees was put on hold. However, piping for the 

Vicksburg District’s Dredge Jadwin did continue, as did repairing a mooring barge 

and repair of a malfunctioning gate.

“COVID-19 does make our job a little harder to accomplish, but safety in the 

workplace is a top priority, so we make it work,” Memphis District machinist 

Brandon Almeida said.

Most Corps employees have been able to call in for things like project planning 

meetings; those who do show up sit many chairs away from the nearest colleague. 

In some cases, though, dedicated workers took, and continue to take, calculated 

risks to carry out essential missions that included the construction of alternate 

care facilities in multiple cities as well as regular seasonal challenges.

“We have been in the middle of an active flood fight,” said the Rock Island 

District’s Marshall. “We had flood engineers on sites, the city of Davenport 

erected HESCO (flood barriers). Corps employees are still doing their jobs 

despite COVID-19. They’re doing it in a safe manner, practicing social distancing, using personal protective equipment and limiting passengers in a car. Things 

we used to take for granted have to be considered for daily operations, especially 

when something’s as essential to everybody as a flood fight. The bottom line is, 

COVID-19 or no, public safety is always a priority for the Corps, and that’s not 

going to change.” —J.H. & K.S.

ABOVE: The Tarlton Corporation 

lost patriarch Bob Elsperman, 

who led the company from 1972 

to 1999, to COVID-19, just a few 

hours before receiving a Corps 

contract to transform a St. Louis 

area motel into health care 

facility. The construction was 

therapeutic, said Executive Vice 

President John Doerr, offering the 

chance to “be part of the solution 

to this terrible crisis.”

ABOVE: Memphis District Commander Col. Zachary Miller 

has his temperature taken as a required precaution at the 

former Commercial Appeal building.

3

PHOTOS: USACE.
THIS LEVEE-ENCIRCLED TOWN of 2,200 sits at the confluence of the 

Mississippi and Ohio rivers at the southern tip of Illinois. Floods run deep in its 

163-year history. Now, Cairo has harnessed partnerships to create a collaboration 

that increases resident safety in the face of relentless waters.

The need for greater public awareness of Cairo’s flood risk surfaced early in 

2019 in discussions between U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Memphis District 

hydraulic engineer Don Davenport and public affairs specialist Ken Williams. 

They began work with Cairo city officials to understand city needs and public attitudes. Together, they created FloodSmart Cairo, a communication campaign to 

help citizens better prepare for evacuation, should it be required.

“We decided do a flood risk awareness week. We set some time aside to give the 

subject some significant attention,” Williams said.

Cairo Mayor Thomas Simpson officially designated the week of November 17 

as “Cairo Flood Risk Awareness Week.” During the kickoff town hall meeting, 

Simpson emphasized how quickly flood water can spread and the damage it can 

cause. “We are hoping to prepare ourselves,” he told 

reporters attending the event.

 A brochure with evacuation routes and evacuation 

planning resources was delivered personally to every 

household by fire truck, thanks to Cairo Emergency 

Manager John Meyer, who is also the fire chief. The 

Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Illinois 

and Alexander County emergency management agencies, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration also supplied vital information.

“People learned things that they needed to know. 

We were very pleased,” said Cairo City Clerk Lorrie 

Hesselrode about FloodSmart Cairo.

Cairo’s success has provided a model that other communities can use to more effectively communicate flood 

risk to affected communities. “Communication has the 

power to get things done. It can galvanize cooperation,” 

said Williams.

Modeling the success of others is working for 

towns further up the Mississippi too. The Quad Cities 

Flood Resiliency Alliance began in 2018 as a network 

of regional people that need to respond, prepare for 

floods, or clean up afterwards, said Carol Downey, 

project manager for River Action, a Davenport, Iowabased nonprofit.

“It’s about connecting people and resources and 

knowing whom to call for information or help,” she said.

The QCFRA is modeled after the Illinois Valley Flood 

Resiliency Alliance, formed in 2013 under the leadership 

of Illinois State Senator Sue Rezin after severe flooding 

affected her district.

This new bi-state, eight-county alliance is already making a difference. Last year, 

Rapids City, a town north of Moline, Illinois, faced flooding on the Mississippi. 

As part of the alliance, city officials learned about equipment available from the 

Corps for flood fighting and how to get it. There, they learned about HESCO barriers, a temporary flood wall that can be put in place and filled with sand much 

faster than a sandbag barrier. Prior to the alliance, they did not know about such 

technology, Downey said.

QCFRA is working to expand the region’s ability to prepare for flooding. In 

February 2020, they sponsored a four-day flood plain manager training class 

taught by FEMA. The 33 participants included partners from within the alliance 

footprint but also from Champaign-Urbana, Chicago suburbs, and northwest and 

northeast Iowa.

Having a certified flood plain manager on staff or on call is one of the creditable 

activities that communities can use to decrease the cost of insurance through the 

National Flood Insurance Program. As participants 

in NFIP’s Community Rating System, towns can 

undertake activities to improve their base rating of 

10. Other score-improving activities include tightening up flood plain regulations, levee improvement, 

buyout programs, and public information/education 

efforts.

The benefits to a community are substantial for 

enrolling in the Community Rating System, said 

Anthony Heddlesten, Civil and Environmental 

Engineering Section Chief for the Corps’ Rock Island 

District. In 2019, Ottawa, Illinois achieved a Class 2 

rating, an arduous task but an effort that provides a 

40% discount on flood insurance costs. Heddlesten 

was the Corps’ point of contact for the Illinois Valley 

alliance and introduced the Quad Cities founders to 

the Illinois alliance as an example of what community collaboration could accomplish.

All of these flood risk management efforts are 

supported through the Silver Jackets, a network of 

state-led teams that bring together state, federal, and 

local agencies with flood and natural disaster responsibilities. Their goal is connecting resources and 

capabilities with the needs, and the U.S. Army Corps 

of Engineers supports Silver Jackets teams through its 

Flood Risk Management Program.

Across the Mississippi River Basin, partnerships are 

springing up that bolster collective knowledge, shared 

resources and advance planning that strengthen community resilience. —D.D.

5 P’S OF EVACUATION

DO TAKE:

PEOPLE

Evacuate people and, if safely possible, 

pets and other animals or livestock.

PAPERS

Put papers in waterproof containers. 

Remember important documents 

(hard copies and/or electronic 

copies saved on an external hard 

drive or portable thumb drives).

PRESCRIPTIONS

Remember medicines (and dosages), 

medical equipment, batteries or power 

cords, eyeglasses and hearing aids.

PRICELESS ITEMS

Don’t forget pictures, irreplaceable 

memories and other valuables.

PERSONAL NEEDS

Pack clothes, food, water, first aid kit, cash, 

phones and chargers and items depended 

upon by family members with disabilities.

SOURCE: CORPS FLOOD-SMART BROCHURE

Preparing for floods by 

partnering

Cairo knows the power of big rivers 

and the power of knowledge.

4
Recreate on the river, 

but best call ahead

When spring peepers call and songbirds serenade, there’s a 

powerful draw to the Mississippi River and the nature abundant along its shoreline campsite, overlooks and trails. The wilderness is also one spot where social 

distancing is not only possible, it’s almost required.

The Corps and other providers of public lands—state natural resources 

departments, the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service 

among them—have for weeks limited activities that draw crowds as a safety 

measure. Most campgrounds, visitor centers and Corps-run overlooks at locks 

and dams closed temporarily as a safety measure, while hiking trails, waterways and boat ramps remained open.

“Locked gates and empty campgrounds are not the result of decisions 

made lightly,” says Katelynn Dearth of the Corps’ Rivers Project Office. “Remaining informed 

while seeking recreation has never been more critical. Knowing your risk, knowing the laws 

and regulations of a specific area, and staying updated is essential. Every situation and park is 

different, so no one regulation applies to all parks.”

Dearth and other officials recommend that you call before visiting and consider following 

your favorite park on social media, the quickest way to get information when in 24 hours so 

much can change and different states are likely to reopen at differing paces. Never be afraid to 

call staff and ask about openings and plans. Don’t be afraid to try a new outdoor activity either.

Birdwatching naturally encourages social distancing, she notes, because the smaller the 

audience, the more you are likely to see. The Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary has for the 

most part kept all of its land and water trails open for exploring along the Mississippi Flyway. 

“Did you know,” she said, “that two-thirds of all bird species in North America use the flyway 

during migration?”

If leaving the house isn’t an option, you can always set up a bird feeder and watch from the 

comfort of your own home. Recreation is just like most things right now. It’s still possible; it just 

might look different than before.

“As rangers we love to see our parks filled with people and to provide opportunities for visitors to create memories, destress, and for them to take advantage of all the wonderful services 

public lands give us. However, public safety is the most critical service we provide.”—K.S.

Check these resource sites for the latest on openings:

Army Corps offices for overlooks, visitor centers, trail, boat 

launch, camping and scheduled programs:

St. Paul District: www.mvp.usace.army.mil

Rock Island District: www.mvr.usace.army.mil

St. Louis District: www.mvs.usace.army.mil

Memphis District: www.mvm.usace.army.mil

Vicksburg District: www.mvk.usace.army.mil

New Orleans District: www.mvn.usace.army.mil

Nationwide updates and distancing recommendations: 

www.mvn.usace.army.mil/Coronavirus

National Park Service’s National River and 

Recreation Area, St. Paul: www.nps.gov/miss

Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, 

Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin: 

www.fws.gov/refuge/upper_mississippi_river

Camping: recreation.gov or 877-444-6777

Life on the Mississippi, today

AT AGE 15, RINKER BUCK took off in a plane that he and his 17-year-old 

brother restored, the two teens navigating on their own through a coastto-coast flight. His adventures made their way into his memoir, “Flight of 

Passage,” but that was just the start of a life of adventure and storytelling most 

recently explored on a 2,000-mile journey down the Ohio and Mississippi 

Rivers on a flatboat he built to the specs of an 1846 model he saw in a painting. Buck, a longtime newspaper journalist, shared with Our Mississippi a bit of 

what we’ll read when his book “Life on the Mississippi” is published by a branch 

of Simon and Schuster next year.

Clearly, you’ve been an adventurer since you were a child. What 

instilled that?

I think had a lot to do my father and who I came to be as a reader, writer 

and intellectual. Dad grew up in the Depression in the worst place you could 

possibly be—Scranton, Pennsylvania, America’s coal town. My father turned 

17 at the height of the Depression and figured he was old enough to learn to fly. For 

the next three or four years he lived the romantic barnstorming pilot thing all over 

the country, very similar to Charles Lindbergh’s life. He was the guy with the great 

stories, and he ended up being publisher of Look magazine. This was a man who 

escaped the horrors of the Depression through flying and travel/adventure.

How does this tie into your current project?

I’m writing about the flatboat era, and that’s what they did, escape through 

adventure. My earlier book, The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey, grew 

out of my lifelong interest in horses and history. While finishing up that experience I learned there was an earlier pioneer experience. The flatboat era built 

America and inaugurated our first big expansionist urge.

What was it like to put yourself in the middle of it all?

The experience of seeing the country from the channels of the Ohio and Mississippi 

Rivers was akin to me to that amazing visual, emotional sensation you have the 

first time you see the country from a railroad car. You think you know what it’s 

like to travel America, then you get on a train and you really see what the country 

looks like from this perspective that is completely illuminating, educational and 

also romantic. That’s what this trip was like.

What stands out?

The average American doesn’t know what life is like in, say, the middle of Missouri. 

Agriculture is that life, which you see when you’re riding down the Mississippi day 

after day and 15 to 20 barges pass you loaded with corn and all going down to the 

third largest port in the world.

You traveled as a journalist. How did that make your trip different from the 

many paddling the river as pure adventurers?

My book will have sections on the coal industry, broken infrastructure, flooding 

on rivers. Another theme is that everybody told me not to do it, that I was going 

to die, that the Mississippi is dangerous. I came to learn there’s a reason for that. 

Everybody who’s lived on the river has a family history: a tugboat captain who was 

drowned, or family forced out of the house when a levee was breached. But that 

doesn’t necessarily mean—particularly in the year I crossed it—that it’s as dangerous as people think.

What, did you conclude, is life on the Mississippi?

It’s the pulse. I’ve traveled through the main artery of America.—K.S.

Storytelling adventurer chronicles the 

flatboat era by taking a trip of his own

Rinker Buck The flatboat Patience

5

BIRDING: U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE. BUCK: DAN CORJULO.
The towboat’s propellers churn the waters of the Mississippi River into a coffee-colored foam as it 

pushes its 15 barges out of Lock 27. It heads south toward St. Louis as a rising sun burns off the gray 

clouds behind the famed Gateway Arch. This load is headed for Southeast Asia where countries like 

Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand are huge and growing markets for these Midwestern soybeans.

Carol Cotter, the lock’s shift chief, picks up her marine band radio microphone and gives the captain 

of the next tow, this one pushing coal, permission to come “on the wall.” The tow drifts slowly with the current and 

nuzzles a corner of the lead barge against the towering concrete wall at the lock entrance then holds in place as the 

chamber refills to the million cubic feet needed to give the tow a smooth passage into the chamber.

The engineering marvel must empty and fill for each customer, and on the busiest lock on the Mississippi River, 

there are quite a few. More than 50.4 million tons of commodities, ranging from petroleum products, coal, sand, 

gravel and metal ores to salt and molasses, “locked through” in 2019. The total included more than 21 million tons of 

agricultural products, mostly soybeans (8.2 million tons) and corn (7.8 million tons) making this not a fast food stop 

exactly, but certainly a “far food” one.

“This is not a job for somebody who wants to hurry things,” said Cotter, who has been a shift chief here since 2003. 

This engineering marvel empties and fills for each customer; each lock passage requiring between 20 and 40 minutes 

as Cotter gazes from her glass-walled control center two stories above the river. An eagle circles for fish, then gives up 

and flies on.

“I still get excited every morning,” she said. “I’m seeing something new every day. That includes a lot of wildlife.”

World-bound drive-thru

Lock 27 is hidden from sight by tall levees that block the view from nearby Illinois 

Route 3. But its low profile belies its importance not just here but to the world. 

It’s just one of the locks (numbered, starting with Lock and Dam 1 at Minneapolis, 

Minnesota) that help keep the river flowing at a navigable nine feet or more. Here, 

barge traffic from the Illinois and Missouri Rivers join the commerce parade, and 

it’s the last stop before the open flow of the river to the Gulf—and the last lock this 

grain will transit before reaching the Panama Canal.

In 2019, the lock’s 20 employees served 6,075 commercial tows, 515 recreational 

boats and 23 commercial passenger boats. It’s part of the 70-mile river region designated Port of St. Louis, which ranked second in total tonnage for 2018 among 

the nation’s inland ports, registering just 1.1 million tons less than the Port of 

Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky on the Ohio River.

Flooding closed the St. Louis District portion of the Mississippi to shipping for 

69 days in 2019, lowering commodity totals. Still, the lock remained a critical link 

in an international food distribution chain and a barometer for trends in global 

trade and energy consumption.

Crude oil shipments on the river increased from 1,238.9 kilotons (one million 

This lock is the gateway to 

Take a look at 27, 

an Art Deco–styled 

engineering marvel that 

serves as the last stop 

on the Mississippi River 

for barges floating to 

ports like New Orleans 

and the Panama Canal 

with goods headed to 

points worldwide.

6
tons) in 2012 to 3,100 kilotons in 2019. Countering that was a decline in coal 

demand with 2019’s volume about one-third of what passed through in 2012.

What the St. Louis Port is best known for is its agricultural products. Says 

Lockmaster Jeremy Garzia: “If you look at a map of the watershed of the Mississippi, 

you also could think of that as our ‘grainshed.’ All of that grain comes through us.”

Bypassing the rocks

Lock 27 is also known as the Chain of Rocks Locks since it was built in 1953 so that 

barges could bypass the nearby rugged bedrock on the river bottom. Riverboat 

pilots long feared this rock chain, said Garzia, and would “have to shoot the gaps 

in the rapids.”

The Chain of Rocks formation was not amenable to taming by the typical lock and 

movable dam, he said. “So they went around it. The Chain of Rocks is a natural dam 

that does hold pool for us. It has been raised and maintained throughout the years.”

The rock dam is 2,500 feet wide and holds a 15.6-mile long pool. Lock 27 consists of two chambers, a 1,200-foot-long main chamber and a 600-foot auxiliary. 

Both are 110 feet wide. The pool typically stands six to 20 feet higher than the 

river below the lock. The larger chamber can hold a tow of 15 barges three wide 

by five long. With each barge hauling up to 1,750 tons, each tow complement can 

carry as much freight as 216 rail cars (requiring six locomotives) or 1,050 semitruck/tractor-trailer rigs.

Commerce never stops

Unlike most locks situated in more northern climes that freeze come winter, 

Lock 27 stays open year-round, locking through a handful of tows even in slower 

months. An electronic system keeps track of tows as they transit through multiple 

river locks, and long-range communications enable orderly travel, says Andrew 

Schimpf, navigation manager for the St. Louis District of the Corps of Engineers.

When captains know they have a few vessels ahead of them, they can nose into 

the river bank to wait or take care of other business, such as on-loading groceries 

or changing crews. During the busy harvest season, shipping companies hours 

away may dispatch tows so they will slip into traffic patterns at the locks, he said. 

While some unscheduled stoppages on the river are inevitable, Schimpf said, 

the biggest hurdle is low water that requires dredging. The Corps works as far in 

advance as possible to schedule and announce closures to industry due to dredging or physical maintenance to the lock.

Deco style, modern technology

This lock is notable for its mid-century architecture. Like many of the schools, 

hospitals and public works buildings constructed after World War II, its glazed, 

light brown bricks are shaped into curving walls, doorways and windows. This 

lock has been improved and enhanced by additional construction and the latest 

technology through the decades.

As with other locks, it lifts and lower boats and barges by allowing gravity to fill 

and empty the chamber of water as gates at each end separate the chamber from 

the pool and tail. When the passages, 14 feet by 15.5 feet, are fully opened the shift 

chief in the lock tower feels the rumble of the rushing water pulsing through the 

concrete structures. Towboat captains initiate radio contact with the lockmasters 

as they approach. The masters, this day shift chief Cotter, monitor river levels of 

the upper pool, lower tail and locking chambers by computer screen. Video cameras, controlled through a joystick, assure safety as the gates and water valves are 

moved by enormous electric motors and gears.

As the chamber fills, Cotter rolls her chair from her front window to the computer screen on the left and monitors the rising water level.

“This is the last escalator on the river,” Cotter notes. “It is quiet, silent, out of 

sight and out of mind, but very important.”—K.S. 

For a close-up river view, it’s hard to beat the 

Mississippi River’s locks and dams, many 

of which feature viewing platforms that let 

you observe both river wildlife and the way 

barge and pleasure crafts “lock through.”

Two of the most scenic public observation decks are 

located at Lock and Dam 2 in Hastings, Minnesota and 

Lock and Dam 4 on Lake Pepin in Alma, Wisconsin, but 

several others offer platforms with views, and the Melvin 

Price Locks and Dam (26) offers both wildlife viewing at 

the adjacent Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary and 

lock and dam tours through the on-site National Great 

Rivers Museum.

Others, including Locks and Dams 11, 13, 15 and 16, 

offer weekend guided walking tours that cover river 

history, lock and dam observation and more. TO SCHEDULE: WWW.MVR.USACE.ARMY.MIL/MISSIONS/RECREATION/

MISSISSIPPI-RIVER-PROJECT/EDUCATION/LOCK-DAM-TOURS

 the world

ABOVE: Views of Lock 27 and 

one of the massive, motorized 

gears that operates a lift gate. 

The gates control water levels to 

float tows between the upstream 

pool and the downstream tail, 

which ranges from six to 20 feet 

lower. FAR LEFT: A southbound 

tow waits as it is lowered to the 

river’s tail and clear navigation 

to New Orleans. LEFT: Andrew 

Schimpf waits beside the main 

lock as it refills to accept another 

tow headed south. RIGHT: Shift 

Chief Carol Cotter watches from 

her control center as a towboat 

guides its barges into the lock.

GET A 

CLOSER 

LOCKS 

LOOK

7

PHOTOS: USACE.
MyMISSISSIPPI Greg Miller, operating director, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Ecosystem 

Restoration Center of Expertise and winner, Mississippi Valley Division’s 

Blankenship Award, for being 2019’s top scientist/engineer

“The Corps has planning centers in all of its major mission areas. If anyone is trying to tackle something and 

they need expert assistance, we find the individuals who can help with their work. 

“I grew up in New Orleans, and I always had a fascination with the vastness of wetlands along the coast in 

Louisiana, the fish and birds and other animals that live around the coast. I worked for the National Marine 

Fisheries Service for 10 years before joining the Corps. I did a lot of coastal restoration work after Hurricane 

Katrina and a large ecosystem restoration plan for the whole coast, and then I joined the Mississippi Valley 

Division. 

“Helping teams succeed in completing feasibility studies is our prime focus here. We want to be available as 

a resource in the work they’re doing to make recommendations ultimately for Congress to authorize. We also 

connect our field staff at districts with researchers who can find innovative means of investigating ecosystem 

restoration problems. 

“The great thing is that the lessons we’ve learned along the river enable our staff to help teams elsewhere 

in the country. We’ve had folks help with the Pacific Ocean, Florida Keys and on the Great Lakes system and 

develop solutions for both river and coastal problems around the country. Everything we’re doing is related 

one way or another to water.” —K.S.

Corps biologists flex some 

conservation muscle 

for an endangered 

critter in a shell

THE FAT POCKETBOOK 

MUSSEL lives in a rather drab 

shell, ranging from yellow to brown, 

that averages four inches in length. 

The mussel, named for the inflated hump 

on its shell, could easily be overlooked on the 

silty, sandy, gravelly river bottoms it calls home.

But the fat pocketbook is an important part of the 

St. Francis River ecosystem in Missouri and Arkansas 

and is listed as a federally endangered species. The 

mussel relies upon flowing water and is believed to 

be extirpated from the upper Mississippi River due to 

dredging and impoundments undertaken for navigation and flood control.

The fat pocketbook population in the basin of the 

St. Francis River, one of the larger tributaries of the 

lower Mississippi River, has been deemed worthy 

of its own conservation plan. That plan was nominated for the team award in the Natural Resources 

Conservation category of the 2020 Secretary of the 

Army Conservation Awards.

“All freshwater mussels feed by filtering water 

and help keep our water supply clean. The U.S. 

Army Corps of Engineers is required by law to protect all species designated as federally threatened 

or endangered,” said Mark R. Smith, chief of the 

environmental compliance section of the Memphis 

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

“From a scientific perspective, conserving species 

helps ensure that the ecosystem continues to function 

as it evolved. We also discover beneficial medicines 

from a wide variety of organisms. If we don’t try to 

protect them we may never know what we’ve lost,” 

he said.

The Corps provides flood risk management for 8,400 

square miles of the St. Francis basin, stretching about 

215 miles from southeastern Missouri through northeastern Arkansas, ending at the St. Francis confluence 

with the Mississippi near Helena, Arkansas. The fat 

pocketbook plan was developed in coordination with 

the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“We’ve been assessing the population of this species 

for over 15 years,” Smith said. 

“The population has remained 

stable or actually increased, which is 

one of the factors the Fish and Wildlife 

Service uses in their determination on 

proposing down-listing or de-listing a species” from the endangered list.

The plan will enable the Corps to maintain its flood 

management mission while reducing its Endangered 

Species Act consultation time by 30 to 45 days and 

reducing costs for mussel surveys and consultations 

by 50 to 75 percent.

“The plan took a significant amount of research to 

develop the data that allowed us to streamline our 

processes,” Smith said. “This required a coordinated 

effort between several state and federal organizations. 

We have an excellent relationship with resource 

agencies that has developed over the past couple of 

decades based on respect for each other’s integrity 

and professionalism.

“The conservation plan is specific to the St. Francis 

River Basin and the fat pocketbook mussel. My 

understanding is that these types of plans are fairly 

uncommon due to the level of information required, 

but in the long run they benefit both the species and 

the agencies involved.”—R.S.

New general named to head Mississippi Valley Division

Major General Diana Holland made history—and the 

national press—when the U.S. Army named her as the first woman 

commandant of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, 

her alma mater. 

In 2018, Atlanta Magazine named her one of the country’s “Women 

Making a Mark,” and she continues to do so. At the June 30 change of 

command ceremony, Maj. Gen. Holland will become the first woman 

commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi Valley 

Division in a change-of-command ceremony to be held June 30, 

2020, where Maj. Gen. Mark Toy will transfer command. Gen. Toy took 

over leadership of the Mississippi Valley Division in July and is moving 

to a new U.S. Army leadership post in Korea.

Since July 2017, Gen. Holland has served as commander of the 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers South Atlantic Division, one of nine 

Corps regions providing engineering and construction services to 

the nation. In that post, she became intimately familiar with water 

resource and disaster relief missions not unlike those she’ll undertake in the Mississippi Valley Division. During her command, Maj. 

Gen. Holland led the South Atlantic Division’s response to Hurricanes 

Irma and Maria in 2017 and Hurricanes Florence and Michael in 2018. 

Prior to that appointment, she served in leadership positions in Iraq, 

Afghanistan and elsewhere and has been widely decorated. 

At the Mississippi Valley Division, the commanding general 

is responsible for water resources engineering solutions in a 

370,000-square-mile area. Serving in that post was an honor, says 

departing Gen. Toy. 

“Thank you to all the military service members and Department 

of the Army civilians for embracing our motto, ‘Building Strong and 

Taking Care of People!’” he said. “Given all the challenges in the 

last year, including floods and COVID-19 response, the MVD team 

showed the nation that the best way to deliver the program is by 

taking care of people.” —K.S.

Maj.Gen. Holland

Maj.Gen. Toy

THE FAT 

POCKETBOOK 

plan

8
Each year, one third of the birds in North America—that’s more than 300 species—

pass through every state along the Mississippi River as they make their journey 

from neo-tropical wintering grounds to the far north and then back again.

But within the river’s 1,366-mile stretch of waterways and lowland habitat are the 

summer destinations for hundreds of species of waterfowl, shore and land birds. 

Every state bordering on the mighty Mississippi, from Louisiana to Minnesota, offer 

up close views in regional recreation areas, National Wildlife Refuges and other state 

and local lands. For treasures ranging from colorful songbirds to massive white pelicans, here’s where to start the hunt.

The river’s mouth

Many species start their northward journeys here, but many also stay. Grand 

Isle State Park in Louisiana’s Delta 

region is a sure spot to hang with brown 

pelicans, while Barataria Preserve near 

New Orleans boasts 200 species like 

herons, egrets, ibis, Prothonotary 

Warblers and Painted Buntings. 

And a 660-foot walkway leads birders 

through the longleaf pine forests at Lake 

Pontchartrain’s Big Branch/ Bayou 

Savage NWR to see the resident Redcockaded Woodpecker.

In Mississippi, St. Catherine Creek 

NWR in pretty antebellum Natchez 

features shallow water impoundments 

that attract wood storks, White Ibis, 

Roseate Spoonbills as well as two 

heron and egret rookeries. Wading birds 

(egrets, herons, yellow-legs) and 

breeding populations of wood ducks

and other waterfowl are among the 

200 species at the Hillside Theodore 

Roosevelt NWR Complex in Yazoo 

County, pretty songbirds at Vicksburg’s 

Tara Wildlife.

Missouri, Iowa & Illinois

The confluence of the Missouri and 

Mississippi Rivers creates a diverse river 

habitat best experienced at the U.S. 

Army Corps of Engineer’s Riverlands 

Migratory Bird Sanctuary. Here many of 

the trails have remained open for spring 

and early summer birding and paddling. 

Besides being renowned as a major 

wintering area for Trumpeter Swans, 

summer activity includes breeding 

habitat for Pied-billed Grebes and 

King Rails.

The pool behind Lock/Dam 19 is 

part of a 40-mile river section between 

Iowa and Illinois that can hold more 

than 13% of the continent’s population 

of Canvasback ducks during migration. Look for white pelicans near all 

the lock and dams, including the Upper 

Mississippi Wildlife and Fish Refuge near 

Bellevue, Iowa. There are also several 

designated viewing areas near Lock/

Dam 14 in the Quad Cities, but call ahead 

to be sure they’ve remained open.

For even beginning birders, colorful 

warblers are the species to spot. Port 

Louisa National Wildlife Refuge boasts 

one of the most significant concentrations of nesting Prothonotary 

Warblers in the upper Midwest, and 

further north, Yellow River Forest/Effigy 

Mounds National Monument(a designated Important Bird Area) boasts every 

species of warbler native to Iowa.

But if it’s eagle wings you’re 

wanting to catch, you might spot a 

Golden Eagle feeding on waterfowl at 

Illinois’Horseshoe Lake Conservation 

Area or sight a Pileated Woodpecker 

at Mississippi Palisades State 

Park. Significant numbers of breeding 

Common Nighthawks can be observed 

at the Lost Mound Unit, Savanna District 

of the Upper Mississippi River National 

Wildlife Refuge.

Wisconsin & Minnesota

The confluence of Wisconsin’s Black 

River with the Mississippi is a core 

habitat for the stunningly blue Cerulean 

Warbler. Wisconsin-Minnesota’s 

Lake Pepin section of the Mississippi 

features several key birding locations, 

many best accessed by canoe or 

kayak. Other birding hot spots include 

Wisconsin’s Wyalusing, Perrot and 

Merrick state parks.

For big bird spotting, the Vermillion 

Bottoms-Lower Cannon River features 

one of four top sites in Minnesota for 

the highest number of Red-shouldered 

Hawks (and also Cerulean Warblers) 

in southeast Minnesota. And unexpectedly, several heron rookeries are located 

at North Mississippi Regional Park in the 

heart of Minneapolis.

Camp Ripley–Pillsbury–Lake 

Alexander Important Bird Area is home 

to the state’s biggest concentration 

of Red-shouldered Hawks.And the 

last leg of the river’s birdwatching 

journey ends at the headwaters of 

the Mississippi at Itasca State Park, 

supporting over 220 species of birds 

including crossbills, thrushes, jays, 

finches, Black-backed Woodpeckers

and over 20 species of warblers. —T.W.

Spot some 

colorful river life

Year-round, the 

Mississippi River 

flyway is the place 

to see your favorite 

winged species

9

MUSSEL: U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE. PROTHONOTARY WARBLER: BILL STRIPLING. KING RAIL: ALLEN GATHMAN. GOLDEN EAGLE: ILIUTA/ADOBE STOCK. OTHER BIRDS: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

More information on 

bird species and viewing 

opportunities along the 

entire Mississippi River:

Corps Lake Gateways Website

Lakes and Rivers Recreational 

opportunities with the U.S. Army Corps 

of Engineers: https://corpslakes.erdc.

dren.mil/visitors/brochures.cfm

Audubon Important Birding Areas 

audubon.org/important-bird-areas

The Great Birding Trail 

greatriverbirdingtrail.org
OUR MISSISSIPPI KIDS

ELLIE, an orphaned Border collie 

who spent her early life in a shelter, is 

now one of the most highly decorated 

members of the U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers. She’s saved a lot of work 

(and money) for maintenance crews 

who used to have to clean the mess 

left by the avian flocks roosting on 

spillways, hunting for fish. She’s saved 

the lives of those birds, too.

Ellie spends her winters at the 

Robert S. Kerr Lock and Dam 15 in 

Sallisaw, Oklahoma, and she summers at a popular Chicago area lock 

that separates the Great Lakes from the Chicago River. But 

the idea to bring her in to help at all came from the Engineer 

Research and Development Lab in Vicksburg, Mississippi. That’s 

where Oklahoma crews turned when they couldn’t figure out 

any other way to scare birds away. Not wanting to have to get 

rid of them by permanent methods, they thought they’d turn to 

experts in wildlife and innovation for a gentler approach.

Luckily, they connected with research biologist Dena Dickerson 

of the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s 

Environmental Laboratory, Vicksburg. She is a wildlife biologist 

and a certified dog trainer too.

“I said, ‘The only thing I can think of is to possibly use Border 

collies like the military does on their airfields and some airports 

to chase birds and geese from in front of planes when they take 

off.’ Border collies come into this world needing to herd something, needing to make something move. They come to you 

knowing how to do that, and you just harness it.

“Lo and behold, I sent a dog out on a long run after birds, and 

it was immediate. The birds went away, and the lock operator 

said, ‘I guess we have the answer to our problem.’”

Dickerson took her own pet to Oklahoma for that test run. But 

the district found Ellie and took her in as their own, housing her at 

the lock and dam, where she lives a bit like a firehouse Dalmatian 

as a friend, family member, bird chaser and morale booster.

In Chicago, where Ellie goes on a summer vacation of sorts 

once the birds have migrated north, she’s a bonafide celebrity. 

Tour boats have added a trip by the locks to greet her, and the 

city gives her a party on her last day of work each year. She’s 

also highly decorated as a winner of the Corps of Engineers 

Innovation Project of the Year.

Ellie has a full schedule, but her success prompted the 

Louisville District to get its own bird chaser, Breeze. Others periodically call guide Dena asking for advice on how to get one of 

their own.

“She’s been great for morale and the people who meet her on 

the public tour. Guides say, ‘This is Ellie, and this is what her job 

is.’ It’s been a very big win-win.”—K.S.

1.

Fold a square piece of paper in half and 

unfold to put a crease in the middle

2.

Fold the side to the middle 

of the paper. 

3.

Fold the other side to the 

middle of the paper. 

4. 5.

6. 7. 8.

9. 10.

Flip the paper over. 

Fold the side to the 

middle. Then fold the other 

side to the corner. 

Fold the paper in half, 

bringing the bottom tip to 

the top of the paper. 

Fold the tip down to the 

make the beak of the 

swan. 

Fold paper in half, making 

sure the beak is on the top. 

Pull the neck piece up to 

complete the swan. 

Your swan is complete!

Fold an origami swan!

Bobber wants you to stay safe in the 

outdoors! He teamed up with a friend 

to show you easy ways to gauge your 

distance from another person to prevent 

the spread of COVID-19.

Meet Ellie 

THE LOCK DOG

10
DINE AT DOE’S EAT PLACE with author 

Anne Martin, and you’ll first place your order for the 

famed porterhouse steak that covers a whole plate, 

the one Men’s Journal once named “best thing to eat 

in America.” But there’s much more. The author of 

the popular book “Delta Hot Tamales” has brought 

you here to try the reason for the spices that waft 

through the front door, the offering covering the side 

plate, wrapped in parchment paper and tied with 

twine in gift-like packages of threes.

“On checkered tablecloths and paper plates or on 

fine silver as hors d’oeuvres, tamales have found their 

place,” she says, “no matter the party.”

Follow her example, and you’ll be topping your 

Delta Hot Tamale with homemade chili, onions, 

mustard and ketchup, placing it on a saltine, and 

thinking it tastes a lot like a Chicago-style hot dog. 

Then, you’ll be eating what’s called here a tamale 

“mother in law,” and you’ll also be getting a history 

lesson in the way the culture of the Delta—indeed the 

entire Mississippi River—melded its food through 

travel, hard work, tradition and cultural blending.

You may not expect a traditional Mexican delicacy 

to have made Greenville, Mississippi, the hot tamale 

capitol of the world, but this isn’t your traditional 

Mexican variety. When Southern Foodways did an 

oral history project on the tamale and other river 

favorites, they surmised that Mexican workers in 

cotton fields brought this easy-to-tote lunch treat, or 

that it morphed from a traditional African treat. The 

Chicago hot dog toppings were apparently added to 

the party the same way jazz went to Chicago—from 

northbound migrants seeking a better opportunity 

and blending their food favorites.

Food melds elsewhere

In Wisconsin, cheese is blending with agricultural 

heritage in a new popular weekend hangout spot: 

the pizza farm. This is farm to “picnic” table cuisine 

at its best as farmers scatter wood-fired ovens within 

picking distance of the heirloom tomatoes and basils 

that join the ubiquitous cheese as toppings. You’ll 

find more than a dozen in Minnesota and Wisconsin 

open varying hours but on which kids can run, llamas 

and Icelandic sheep wander and your wicker picnic 

basket filled with Chianti fits right in.

One of Iowa’s most famous taste treats needs 

no combination—but butter—for pure perfection. 

Iowa’s West Point Sweet Corn Festival in early 

August is located a short hop from the river, and 

as many as 25,000 visitors visit to sample some of 

the 17 tons of sweet corn served; (there’s bbq too, 

garden tractor pulls, parade, more.) And the story 

behind St. Louis’s famed “Gooey Butter Cake” 

comes from a German baker said to have messed 

up the proportions while making coffee cake to discover perfection.

Louisiana is a blend of cultures in a pot as you 

see if you sign up for a hands-on cooking demo at 

Spuddy’s Cajun Foods and Andouille Experience 

(in Vacherie). This chef and Cajun will give you a 

hand in making his famed jambalaya and gumbo as 

you also learn how andouille is made and smoked. 

You’ll stir the roux with the traditional paddle until 

it evolves to a golden hue, and that—and tasting—is 

the best part.

“The unique part of us is we have all these different cultures, you know,” says Spuddy Fauchux. “The 

jambalaya and gumbo are both West African dishes. 

Okra is the African word for gumbo; it was used as a 

thickener back then. And you have German sausage 

and French roux. And if you want to add seafood, 

that comes from the Cajuns, who were fishermen 

and trappers. If you lived near the river, you put 

shrimp boxes in when the river was high. We grew 

up on river shrimp.” —K.S.

WHERE FOOD IS

culture Travel the Mississippi River for the 

tastiest history lessons you’ll ever eat

TRAVEL VIRTUALLY

by river cam

When you get a bit tired of the isolation of COVID19 quarantining, get out the computer or iPad and 

pop into the live scene captured by the webcam at 

Iowa-based Raptor Resource Project. Then have a 

little chat with the massive eagle that seems to be 

staring right at you when not tending to a chicks 

D34, 35 or 36 or tucking a leaf into the nest while 

winds gust.

explore.org/livecams/raptor-resourceproject/mississippi-river-flyway.com

This bald eagle nest is located near a trout 

hatchery in Decorah, Iowa, and in addition to the 

chance to watch the eagles raising their fledglings 

(and maybe ask how they’re doing), you can read 

about the development and how you may be able 

to watch them grow.

Webcams are great for getting you to places 

(like eagles’ nests) you wouldn’t ordinarily see. 

They can also take you on an instant virtual vacation or help you plan a future one. Go birding from 

the comfort of your living room through the Flyway 

Cam located at Brice Prairie, Wisconsin. The cam 

pans for a macro view of the river flyway and also 

follows individual birds for a close-up. Be sure your 

sound is on to capture the cacophony of river life. 

explore.org/livecams/raptor-resourceproject/mississippi-river-flyway-cam

MORE TO EXPLORE

Start at the beginning: Water trickles over rocks at 

the Mississippi’s origin point in Lake Itasca State 

Park where this cam faces and lets you enjoy warblers, kingfishers and more: dnr.state.mn.us/

state_parks/Itasca/headwaters.html

Go into the wild: The Upper Mississippi River 

National Wildlife and Fish Rescue hosts several 

webcams from which you can watch waterfowl 

migration, eagles and pelicans. fws.gov/refuge/

Upper_Mississippi_River/seasons_of_wildlife/webcams.html

Get all shook up: The Graceland Cam, graceland.

com/graceland-cam, takes you to the doorway 

of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.—K.S.

11

ELLIE AND BOBBER: USACE. FOOD: KIM SCHNEIDER.
Dredge Hurley has record-breaking season

The Memphis District’s Dredge Hurley marked the end of 

the two most productive dredging seasons in the vessel’s 

history. Memphis District leaders were on hand the morning of Dec. 9, to welcome the crew back after a deployment 

on the Lower Mississippi River of more than six months. 

The Hurley dredged more than 12.5 million cubic yards of 

material from the river this year, in extremely challenging 

high water conditions, to ensure safe navigation for commercial traffic. To put that in context, 12.5 

million cubic yards is equivalent to the capacity of about 3,788 Olympic-size swimming pools.

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

U.S. POSTAGE

PAID

GREENVILLE, MI

PERMIT NO. 338

Contributors this issue:

EDITOR/

LEAD WRITER

Kim Schneider

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Diane Kolak

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Sue Casseau

Debra Dietzman

Jessica Haas

Richard Stoff

Tom Watson

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.

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 Sterling

180 East Fifth Street, Suite 700

St. Paul, MN 55101

Inspection trip canceled, 

but public still has voice 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Mississippi River 

Commission (MRC) canceled its annual High-Water 

Inspection Trip due to the Center for Disease Control’s 

restrictions on public gatherings because of the COVID-19 

pandemic. The high water inspection trip and public hearings were slated for March 29 through April 3 with stops 

in New Madrid, Missouri; Memphis, Tennessee; Greenville, 

Mississippi; and New Orleans, Louisiana.

To keep the lines of communication open and allow partners to still have a voice, the commission accepted written 

testimony by mail and email.

“Taking care of people is and will remain at the forefront of 

all that we do,” said Maj. Gen. Mark Toy, President of the MRC 

and Commanding General of the of the U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers (USACE), Mississippi Valley Division. “My fellow 

commissioners and I remain engaged with our federal, state 

and local partners, and communities to continue to prosecute the comprehensive river management system known 

as the Mississippi River and Tributaries project.”

In all, 43 testimonies were received, and the commission has since provided formal written responses to 

each submission. Prior to the scheduled inspection trip, 

President Donald Trump appointed Hon. Riley James to 

replace long-time commissioner Hon. Sam Angel who had 

served on the commission since 1979.

The purpose of the MRC’s inspection trip is to maintain 

a consistent connection - an exchange of viewpoints and 

ideas among the public, partners, stakeholders, elected 

officials, the MRC, USACE and private, state and federal 

agencies. This process provides a greater voice for those 

who live and work in the region in shaping federal management and policy of the river.

Habitat protection plan moves forward 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, has started the first phase of the McGregor 

Lake Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Project to restore habitat within Pool 10 of the Upper 

Mississippi River. The McGregor Lake project, located near Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, will restore 

and protect island habitat protect shoreline from erosion and create overwintering fish habitat. 

The goal of the project is to provide habitat and food and resting places for river wildlife, such as 

migratory waterfowl, shorebirds, turtles, frogs and fish. The total project is anticipated to cost 

approximately $20 million and was planned and designed as part of a cooperative effort between 

the Corps of Engineers; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; the Iowa and Wisconsin Departments 

of Natural Resources; and local interests under the authority of the Upper Mississippi River 

Restoration Program.

WISCONSIN DNR USACE