Arizona republican., 1901-09-23
MISSOURI RIVER CHANGING.
Has Turned East and Is Attacking the
 Iowa Bank-Resulting Lawsuits.

Lincoln, Neb.-The Missouri river has started east again. With one of it's sudden periodical changes it has at tackled the Iowa bank and just north of Omaha fs making Nebraska soil with great rapidity Fifty years ago the river was headed north. TwSntytwo years later it took it into it's head that the south presented greater attractions but in recent years it has favored the east with it's distinguished considera- tion. So far there has been no up rising on the part of the people of Iowa to stay it's progress, but it's manoeuver- ings have added greatly to the income of Omaha lawyers. Ten cases. quar- rels over the right to the accretions, are now before the supreme court.
 The fact that here is no other river in the United States which exhibits such vagaries and indulges in such meanderings as the Missouri sets at raught the ordinary rules of law as 10 the apportionment of accretions and puzzles the court as to proper distribu- ton. In some instances the shore lines of property have received additions t. the extent of 400 to 500 feet, a fine bit of property to fight over. especially when some squatter comes along and builds his shanty. claiming the right to 1t as government land. It all depends. too, upon the basis of measurement from the meander line on the old sur vey line, whether the accretiols are up- on one plot of land or upon another The whole trouble lies in the fact that the Missouri courses through a valley the substratum of which, as a result of the deposit of distant centuries. is largely of quicksand. The current is far above the average in rapidity an by reason Of the snows on the moun- tains there are two rises, in April anI June of each year. The large volume Of water coming down at those times has great and rapid action upon the banks. Where there is . deposit of solid soil above the quicksand. tho washingout of the latter often cause 2 simultaneous falling of great stretches of the river bank. in some instances, below St. Joseph and Atchison, eating up railroad tracks as it did before the railroad mana gers became wiser.
 Where the law becomes confused l. that the land thus taken from one side is not deposited directly upon the op- posite bank and no engineer can in fact tell where the fallen earth goes to. All that is known is that there is !: gradual filling up on the other side. The river is about q quarter of a mile wide on the average along the Nebras-
 
 change in this width as the years pasa Once in a while. as in 1877, he river seeks an entirely new channel. leaving large areas of land available for oc- cupancy. and it is generally over these accretions that the larger lawsuits o. cur. In some years the river hal travelled to the east one to two hundred feet a year. but since ripraps have beer put in on the gumbo soil it's progress has been but ten or fifteen feet. \
 present the Nebraska bank of the rive
 is from half a mile to a mile east c , where it was in 1856.
 The law of accretions is something O | a curiosity. As laid down in the book the rule is first to measure the who'll
 extent of the ancient bank and com
 pute how much each riparian proprie . tor owned on the river line. and thel , divide the newly formed bank or rive line into equal parts and appropriat . a rroportionate- amount to each pro prietor. The trouble in applying thi , law to the Missouri lies in the fact tha . the new lines are generally convergen and that the sharp projections or dee Q indentations cannot be fairly include . in a general line.
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