River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1879-11-06
MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
Capt. CoWd0n Explains His Plans Of
Improvement,
kansas &c Journai, 90. 2.


After the adjournment of the call
board yesterday, Capt. John Cowdon.
of Memphis. Tenn, addressed the
board Of trade on 1.-THE Opening of the
Mississippi River by Natural Outlets. p
His plans provide for deep and per-
manent outlet to the Gulf from some
point on the Mississippi river that can
be reached by large vessels; the inn
provement of the Ohio, Missouri. and
other tributaries; and the reclamation
of an area of land, now subject to over
flow, equal to any state in the union.
He said this question has two phases.
One is: Will it pay to open and i'm
prove the Mississippi and its tributaries?
and the other is, How is this to be ac-
complshed? Capt. Cowdon presented
statistics to show that grain cannot be
carried from Chicago TO New York by
rail for less that % cents per bushel,
but that it could be carried proftatly
from st. Louis to Cairo for four cents
per bushel by water. He urged the
importance of this fact to the people,
especially the producers of the Mis-
souri, Valley. 1t would save SO ceuts
per bushel on the present rates of
transportation of grain to England, and
that 36 cents would be saved to the
farmer. Just this item alone would be
worth over $50, 10000 annually to Mis-
souri,, Kansas, and other portions of
this valley. Capt. Cowdon does not be-
lieve in the jetty system, but proposes
by shortening the river to increase the
fall, contine the water within the river
bed, and deepen the channel. He says
the Mississippi river was at one time an
arm of the sea as high up as Cairo.
On either side of the river, for moro
than hundred miles from where ii
pours into the Gulf. are bays or arms
of the Gulf where the water lies far be-
low the level of the river.
A cutoff made during high water, by
which the volume of water $50 miles
from the mouth of the Mississippi was
turned into one of these bays and
reached the level of the Gulf in dis.
lance of six miles, demonstrated the
soundness of this theory through the
effect it had upon the river by increas-
ing the fall, deepening the channel.
To shorten the river increases the fall
proportionately, and also the velocity
of the current. Greater velocity tends
to clean out the bed of the stream, and
lower the high and low water marks. If
this principle were applied to the i'm
provement of the Mississippi, It's effect
would be to make the river navigable
for ocean steamships to Memphis or
some point below the ice line. Then let
Kansas City build her railroad to meet
the ocean-vessels at that point, and SIX
tracks would not be able to do the i'm
mense business which would
pass over it to the sea. This is mat
ter Of the greatest importance to Kan
sas City and the whole Missouri Val
ley. 1t will advance the value of real
estate; it will make the transportation
of grain to Europe cheaper than to
New York, and will enable this great
interior agricultural region to undersell
the Baltic and the Danube in the mar
kets of Europe.
Capt. Cowdon is very earnest and en-
thusiastic on this theme. and presents
very folcibly the great advantages to &C.
crue through the shortening of the out
lets and the improvement of The river
by this system.
In addition to the above, the Journal
speaks editorially of Capt. Cowdon's
plan as follows
The plan of Capt. Cowdon is simply
to aid the river by affording its own
laws more room to work.
He showed by the results of the Bon
net Care crevasse that the way to pre-
vent overhows is not by leyees, which
raise the bed of the river, and make
overfiows when they break, as they do
and will, only the more disastrous, but
to help the river discharge its waters at
food by more outlets, thus lowering
the high-water mark so as to bring it
within the natural banks. This he pro-
poses to do by letting the water out
through Lake B0rgne into the Gulf, and
by cutting short channel by which
Red river will be turned into the Gulf
of Mexico at high flood, without dis
charging its surplus waters into the Mis-
sissippi.
This, in simple outline, is the plan
proposed by Capt. Cowdon; and it
seems so reasonable, and so in harmony
with the operations of nature, that the
only question that can be presented is,
Is it practicable? In regard to this, if
we take the estimate laid before con-
gress, few hundred dollars is all that
is necessary. That additional outlets
will have the tendency claimed, the
Bonnet Care crevasse demonstrates by
the actual reduction of the food-stage
of the river below it several feet.
But there is another fact which en-
gineers know, and hich can be readily
understood. If river falls, say foot
in a mile for IL 900 miles. and for 200
or 800 miles beyond that, falls only six
and three inches, the slow current
serves, to the difference in fall, as a
dam, which swells the water above to
the very head-waters and tributaries.
So that the slowing OF the Mississippi
current, as fact, below the mouth of
the Red river, induces a corresponding
overflow on the upper rivers. If the
Mississippi river is raised twenty feet at
Vicksburg by this slow current, it af-
fects the depth of the Missouri at Kan
sas City, and deepens the overflow on
Harlem flats, opposite the city.
The river is whole, and daming
up of the waters on the lower river in
creases the backwater in the Missouri
just as certainly as a flood in the Mis-
souri, raises the waters in the lower
river. If, then, by reasonable ex-
penditure Of money, this engagement
of the mouth and lower river can be
obviated, the effects will be felt salu-
tary degree throughout its entire sys-
tenn OF trih utaries. And we see no rea-
son why congress should not make the
appropriation, which commends itself
so strongly to the common sense of the
country.
H0mespun ElOquence.