The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1883-03-31
THE ATCKAFALAYA RIVER.
IN. @. TimeS-Democrat.l

ana gone down the iattef stream, taxing
soundings and making measurements
of it, gives the most vivid picture yet
presented of this threatened danger, to
which The Times-Democrat has more
than once called attention.
The gradual growth and development
of Il river can best be studied in the At
chafaiaya. Forty years ago, so old re.
sidents along the banks say, the river
was only two feet deep, and easily
fordable. Since then it has been con-
stantly widening and deepening slowly
at first, but with unwonted and
threatening rapidity in the past few
years. In 1877 the Atchafalaya was
only seventy.tive yards wide and
eighteen feet deep. In those days the
lower AtchaEalaya country was regard
ed as safe from overflow, and being
very fertile, was occupied and settled.
These occupants, however, have long
since been driven away by the floods,
but traces Of them, in mills, fences,
burrows and abandoned sugarhouses,
are to be seen to this day lying along
the river.
The report Of the River Commission,
made in 1881, showed the uneXampled
rapidity with which this stream had
widened and deepened in the past few
years. At point which was 73O feet
wide and 80 feet deep in 1851, it has in
creased to 9l0 feet in width and $50 in
depth in 1879.
The report Of our correspondent
show, as Capt. Eads declares, that this
widening and deepening process is
going on much faster now than ever
A ~T r;x
correspondent found depth of 1O5
feet, GOO yards away it was 122 deep,
and the current was running four and
a-half miles, while at Churchville it
was 1G5 feet deep, the maximum depth
found. This is the point where the
New Orleans Pacific Railroad took
soundings some time ago for a bridge
and found a depth of 40 feet, afterwartl
Of so and again of 12O, when the bridge
was given up as impracticable. In a
few years the river has deepened here
over 100 per cent. But even this in
crease fails to give the full idea Of the
wonderful volume now pouring out
through the Atchafalaya. That river
is not only deepening, but il is widen
ing at the rate of 50 feet year, and its
current has grown to be something un-
preccuented in the history of rivers
four, five and even seven miles an
hour. 1t is now one of the most rapid
torrents in the country, and is fast be-
coming dangerous to navigation. 1t is
Il mighty funnel always in angry agi-
tation, q constant succession of turbu-
lent whir}pools, swirls and eddies; and
in the bends the current piles the water
so high up that the steamboats, can get
along with difficulty. In fine, it is an
angry sea; every year cutting out q
larger channel, every year growing
larger and wider, and bolder. Capt.
Eads declares that in two years the
Atchafalaya will be the main stream,
and New Orleans on a tributary, and
the facts brought out by our correspon-
dent clearly vindicate him in this pre-
diction. The reason of this change is
plain, and has been shown by the
River Commission. The distance from
the junction of the Atchafalaya and
Mississippi to the sea is so much
shorter by the former stream, being
only 160 miles, and the average fall
per mile 3-S inches, whereas by the
Mississippi it is 327, with fall of less
than l % inches per mile.
Nor will the result of this change be
simply to leave New Orleans high and
dry on side and unimportant stream,
out of the line of commerce. 1t means
complete overturning of the entire
ievee system Oft the State, and the over
flow of all Southwestern Louisiana.
That section is already suffering, as
the Atchafalaya is out of its banks at
nearly all points, and flooding the sur
rounding country. It has already
driven away, as we have shown, most
of those who settled along its former
banks fifty and sixty years ago; as its
volume grows larger it will depopulate
and destroy that fertile region lying
near it, unless the River Commission
at once begin to carry out the plan it
has conceived for warding off this
theatened danger.
Our correspondents letter, his sound
ings and Investigations strongly vindi-
cate Capt. Eads' warnings-that unless
something is done at once, within two
years the Mississippi will be running
down the Atchafalaya.
DIR. Monroe is cur ious old hermit
in Arizona. He is the only dweller in
Rucker Valley. At the back of his
cabin some sacks-were hung, as though
carelessly, but when drawn aside the
oDeninp of tunnel was disclosed