Bozeman avant courier. [volume] (Bozeman, Mont.) 1872-1882, 1878-04-25
A Gigantic Plan for the improvement
Of the Missouri River.
lSioux City Joujnnl |

|
past there has not been sufficient iniluenc
u on the Missouri river to get an appropri
:. ton to get snag boat, but the infiucnc
e in behalf of the improvement of t..e erea
S waterway, itself three thousand miles j,
length, is growing in something more thar
. local and may he depended upon to 500,
+ lead to results. One OF these days. we an
prehend, the Missouri river will be pleas
f, ure highway to the magnificent Yellow
stone National Park, where the nations @
the earth shall meet to admire the wonder.
OF nature and to commend tile foresight O
,, our Government in early taking steps te
save them to the world and to generations
Thomas L. Roberts, civil engineer O.
Pittsburs, has recently published pretty
illl opinion on Capt. Eads' plan for the
Improvement of the Mississippi river
Capt. Eads' plan, on the principle illus.
trated IN his jetties, is to make the river
deepen itself. by confning the c,,rrent-es.
tabilslllng, you may say, a system of jetties
all the way along, as the current may need
q'lckening TO counteract the action of the
SAND. Mi. Roberts accepts Eads' theory.
but ne urges that the proper plan to pur-
she will be to 60 to the root OF the matter
and stop the mud discharged by the Mis-
siss'ppl great afliuent, the Missouri. Mr..
hoDerts, few years ago, in the interest of
the Northern Pacific railroad company.
made reconnaissance of the Missouri river
10 Fort Benton, the report Of which was
published by the War Department. There.
tor the first time, he says, he witnessed the
great source OF mud and sand which
troubles the navigation of the Mississippi.
Some rough but interesting calculations
indulgcd in by Mr.. Roberts led to the con-
clusion that the Missouri discharges every
year 24s. 10000 tons of mud-enough to
make forty pyramids as large as that of
Cheops, or enough to occupy twenty rail-
road tracks with trains OF 800 tons Of mud
each. every ten minutes. Such quantity
| of mud would cover. in one wear, an area
OF ten square miles to the depth of sixteen
feet. The exact discharge of mud by the
Missouri into the Mississippi on the basis
OF the calculation then made was COG tons
per minute all the year round. 1t is his
opinion that nine-tenths OF more of the al
luvial matter precipitated inte the Missouri
cnines In from cavino hunks and from, thu
regard to the total volume of discharge
and mud, too, perhaps, he says, is the real
parent stream. Nearly all the tributaries
of the Missouri are clear, and most Of them
are dry at their mouths after the middle OF
May. when the snow is gone. The Mis-
souri,, he believes. occupies. through
cycle Of years, every acre of its immedi-
ate valley, the bends in manner chasing
each other down the valley. Often the
river will be found digging under its bluffs.
causing immense bulks of earth to slide
into the river en- nsassc. Every POI ion of
the bluffs Though now from five to ten
miles apartl thus comes in at times for this
securing process at their rbases-depending
for frequency upon the rapidity with which
the bends travel along below them. Thus
the valley is gradually widened. OF course
there can be no end of this influx of sand
and mud until it Is artificially prevented.
The principal element to be provided for
in any proposition for the improvement, of
the Missouri, in Mr.. Roberts view, is the
securing of the banks from cutting, and
when that is done along the entire river,
the sand-band and reefs will disappear. or
at least be reduced to a minimum, and in
cidentally it can be shown. he says, that
the river will become comparatively free
from snags. and much clearer aiid more
of ix-a 1nnl-ihtS Mr. rtc
does not hesitate to advance a proposition
looking to this end, and utopian as it may
appear to some, he says, lie holds to the
conviction that it can be accomplished with
no unreasonable degree of labor, loss OF
time or great cost. And who shall say
not, after the wonderful successes that have
attended the engineering skill of Captain
Eads? Mr.. Roberts plan is briefly stated
as follows;
"The shape OF every bend being more or
less affected by that of its neighbor above,
why is it not possible to go to the upper
most of all the cutting banks, and secure
it from cutting by driving piles backed
with brush or other means, and make it |
impossible for the river to cut any deeper?
If this should be done, as far as the |
changes below are concerned, they would
not be the result of any changed action at |
that particular bend. The river being usu-
ally straight from the point Of one bend to
the next below it, and invariably protected
on one side by light slope covered with
willow growth, the current would certain
ly continue in the course it maintained be-
fore the upper bend had been protected, con-
there would be little necessity
tor piling the banks in the intermediate dis
tailce.
''Should the entire river be protected in
this way, and the banks that were not piled
take the slopes which have assumed they
would under such circumstances, there
would be no sand or mud precipitated into
the river, AMI the water would become
clear. The sand-bars remaining in the
liver would gradually be washed down.
ward, or connect themselves with islands
md become permanently oyergrown with
inderbrt,sh and mber, as every surface ,
loes along the .aissouri which remains ,
ong enough above water in summer for ,
to start, and snags which now ,
'ome in with caving banks would cease to :
and the current would take ,
egular shape" f.isaas /,
Mr.. Roberts believes the linear extent of ,
required on the hanks of the :
dissouri would not exceed tour hundred i,
niles for 2,0G0 mics of river, or LOCO miles /,
+ shore line; that Is to say, that about 10 +
'er cent. of the shore line would require i
protection Of some sort. varied according e
0 circumstances, and that it might cost 2
rom $4,000 600, according to the methods !
dopted. n
Silk handkerchiefs are no longer in style =
kept Tor little folks;