The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1877-03-01
Thursday. March !. 1877.
From the ST. Louis Republican.
WESTERN RIVER IMPROVE
MENTS.
Views of al Experienced Steamboat
Captain on the Subject.


ments is Just now attracting great deal
of attention from all parties interested
either in river navigation or river com
merce. IL was always important, but be-
comes more Immediately pressing in view
of the success of Capt. Eads's operations
at the mouth of the Mississippi Much is
required to be done on the upper rivers, to
realize the full benefit of what is being ac-
complished below. The following commu-
nication from an experienced steamboat
captain will be read with interest;
Rock ISLAND, Feb. IL. 1871
Editor Republican.
Having read the essay delivered by
Chas NJ. Scott before the st. Louis board
of trade, February 3, on River Improve
ments, and Why They are not successful
on the Western Rivers" and as this is
subject of such vital Importance, not only
TO steamboat men, but to all citizens of the
Mississippi valley, and more especially to
those of st. Louis, | beg leave to give my
views and experience in regard to this i'm
pOrtant subject.
was engaged during the seasons of
1878, 1874 and 1875 as captain Of the u. s.
steamer Montana and as assistant in charge
of her operations under Col. j. n. Macomb,
corps OF engineers u. s. A., who has had
charge Of the improvement of the Upper
Mississippi river between ST. Paul and the
mouth of the illinois river for the last six
years The Montana was provided with
one of Longs scrapers which, while it was
effective in making temporary channel
through the most difficult sandbars,y yet the
process was necessarily slow, and the
channel thus made would only last until
the next rise in the river, when the sand
would fill it up, and make it as bad as it
was previous to the dredging. We thought
that the Upper Mississippi could be inn
proved permanently by means of wing
dams to be built where there was an
island in the river and 4 channel on either
side of the island las is often the easel by
closing up one side of the island and thus
concentrating the whole volume of water
into one channel, and where there was a
difficult or shoal sand-bar and no island by
narrowing the channel so as to contract the
water aud assist nature in securing out a
channel II is a we'll known fact among
steamboatmen that during the spring
foods the sand bars become fattened out
and when the water begins to fall steam
boats experience considerable difficulty
until the sand cuts out or scouTs out. They
also know that this often occurs while the
water is comparatively high in the banks,
and they are compelled to stand the losses
and vexations caused by their boats
getting around on these bars until nature
scours out channel for them. Now it
looked reasonable that the only true way
TO remove this difficulty was by some plan
that would assist nature in her work, and
at the same time would by permanent
Acting on this presumption, Col. Macomb
authorized me to try the wing dam
system. and we commenced the work on
Pigs Eye bar, five miles below st. Paul.
At this point there is an island in the
river, and the channel in former seasons
would sometimes be on one side of the
island and then again on the other side,
thereby dividing the water and making 1t
one of the worst bars on the river. 1t
frequently occurred that steamboats, in low
water would get up to this bar in sight OF
st. Paul and could not get over and
therefore would have to turn back. We
commenced operations to build wing dam
from the head of the island to the eastern
shore. The dam was built by driving two
rows Of piles ten feet apart, and the piles
in the rows eighteen inches apart. After the
piles we're driven, the space between the
rows was filled with willow brush nearly
to the surface OF the water. Bubble stone
was then thrown in on top of the brush,
and the dam built up in this way until the
top or crest would be even with the sur
face of the water at a 5-fOOt stage. The
rubble stone thus thrown in would fall off
the upper aud lower side of the dam,
making a slope Of about one to one. The
eastern shore at the head of the dam was
rip-raped to prevent the water cutting
around it. The head of the island was
sloped Mt an angle Of As degrees
and carefully ripraped. After the dam
was completed tit being GOA feet in length
il turned the whole volume of water at a
5-fOot stage or less to the western side OF
the island as was desired, but it threw
such a strong current against the western
bank opposite and little below the head
of the island that in order to protect the
bank from cutting away it became
necessary to rlp-rap it. The bank was
slOped similar to the head of the island
aud rip-raped, which made it perfectly
secure. This work has stood the foods
and ice since its completion, and Col
MacOmb ordered an official survey 10
October, 1876, and has maps which show
that a stage of 3 feet five inches by the
government gauge at St Paul (which
before the improvement was an accurate
indication of the water on Pigs Eye bar
the soundings taken show only three casts
as low as five feet and then run up to
six feet or more. This shows, therefore,
an Improvement Of from 10 to 81 inches
or more on this bar at an ordinary low
stage of water, and it is permanent. We
also built another dam at BOulaDgers
- 4 g.,
length at the head of an island to prevent
the water going down q narrow chute
The effect was the same as at Pigs Eye,
but we built the dam on different plan,
our object being to ascertain which was
the cheapest and best. We built this
dam without any piles or brush, but by
simply throwing in rubble stones on the
sandy bottom. Sixteen barge loads of
rubble-stone we're used in constructing
this dam, at n cost of sixteen hundred
dollars, while the dam at Pigs Eye cost
about ten thousand dollars. The rubble
stone settled a little in the sand, say about
6 or inches in year, We tried an ex-
pertinent in 1874 of sinking a large barge
across the chute behind the island at
Boulangers and filling the barge partly
with stone, as many steamboat men
argued that the barge would cause bar
to form below 1t, and close up the chute.
1t did not work as predicted, and was a
failure.
am convinced that dams built of
rubble stone are equally as good as those
built of piles, brush and stone and much
cheaper Now have given you the re-
suits of actual experience not opinions.
Allow me to say, in regard to Chas. NJ,
SCOTS plan, that, according to my Judge