Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-04-06
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

Inc Drovers Journal
The history of the Mississippi delta
Is history OF repeated overflows.
Francois Xavier Martin records an
extraordinary rise in I718.
Gagarre states that in 1735 the wa
tiers were so high that many levees
were broken and New Orleans was in
undated.
A great flood is recorded by Gov.
sargent as occurring in ITO, of which
few particulars ale given.
In 1882 the whole districts of At
takapas and Opelousas were inundat-
ed.
Another overflow occurred in l785
another in 1871. others in 1895 and
1882. and in 1909, according to Gov.
Sargent, the resulting devastation was
so great the people imagined the North
ern lakes had broken through chan
mel to the river.
In 1911 and in 1913 the river again
broke through the levees, inundating
the entire Teche country, and in 1915
"a very great food" occurred, in which
the Ohio river reached at its mouth
the highest point ever recorded.
Again in 1916. 1923 and 1924 por-
lions of the country were overlooked.
Between 1924 and 1860 seven
great" foods are recorded, respective
ly in 1928, 1914. 1849, 1850, 1851, 1853,
and 1859. All these were marked
with great destruction of property, but
that Of 1850 was by far the worst, the
damage occasioned being immense,
the st. Francis, Tessas, and Yazoo
bottoms being entirely submerged.
A full history of the great river goes
to show that all the efforts that have
ever yet been made to prevent an over
flow have up to the present time been
fruitless on general principles. The
present overflow has undoubtedly
caused more damage and loss of life
and property than any that have pre-
coded it, for the simple reason that a
great many more people were living
within the flooded districts than ever
before.
Probably the levee system along the
river before the present flood was
vast deal more extensive and formula
bic than at any former period in the
history of the country. But the levees
have not stood the test, and to-day the
whole Mississippi Valley from Cairo to
New Orleans is wide waste of raging
waters, and the question now looms
up as being of national Importance as
to how the rich lands lying along the
Mississippi river are to be kept free
from these disastrous flood visitations.
If the most perfect levee system that
could be devised should now be con-
| structed on both sides of the river
from Cairo to New Orleans, the ques-
ton would be an open one as to wheth.
er it would serve the purpose intended,
with a very strong probability on the
side of its failure. Such a levee sys-
tenn would undoubtedly cause the wa
ter to rise a great deal higher in the
channel of the river than it would do
if the water had room to spread on both
sides of the stream as at present. I'm
der these conditions the back water
running up all the lateral streams that
empty into the Mississippi would in
the course of a great and long contin-
ued flood cause about as great an over
flow as we now see from the present
flood. If the water could be held in
the river channel proper by such a
levee system, the bed of the river
would keep rising continually, and
could only be question of time when
| the water in the time of such flood
as the present one would break over
all barriers and carry wide spread de-
~ hn ~
just at the present time. 1t is estimat-
ed that the submerged district from
the present overflow is about equal in
area to the state of Illinois, and taking
it altogether it probably contains the
richest and most productive land that
can be found on the continent.
There is no doubt that what
loud and most earnest appeals
will promptly be made to congress for
large appropriations of money to repair
broken levees and build new ones, and
the sufferers by the present flood will
have the deepest sympathy of congress
and the people of the whole country,
but feeling of this kind would hardly
justify lavish expenditure of money
for the purpose named in the face of
strong probability, almost a certainty,
that such an expenditure would fail to
accomplish the end desired. If the
levee system should by common con-
sent be abandoned the question then
comes how could the rich lands under
the present overflow be made available
for agricultural purposes. We think
there is just one way that all the lands
referred 10 can be worked to fair ad-
vantage, that is for the parties who
own them to establish their homes and
headquarters as near as possible on
ground sufficiently high to keep them
out of haru's way. then adopt cheap
railway system to be worked either by
horses or locomotives, so that in those
years when flood threatens, everything
movable might be taken to headquar-
tiers in the shortest possible time. In
this way all this rich country could be
worked just as fully as has been done
heretofore, and in case of a flood there