The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-02-01

that 1876 900 tons of freight We're car
ried on the upper river, and $4,000
passengers were transported by the
regular packet lines, not including fer
ry and excursion boats.
The excursion business on the river
has, within the past few years, become
important and profitable, and indica-
tons are that it will develop. Yacht
ing on the river also has become ex-
tensive, and thousands Of little float
ing palaces annually ply its waters.
But this is aside from the commercial
value of the river.
Rafting Business Still Great.
The rafting is at present the princi-
pal business conducted on the river,
and many steamers are annually en-
gagged in hauling RATS of logs from
the boom above st. Paul to La Crosse
and other river points, where they are
manufactured into lumber and shingles.
The value of the lumber business on
the Mississippi above and below st.
Paul is given by the government en-
gineers at $30.000,000. In recent year
the lumber business on the river gave
employment to about eighty-six tow
boats, valued at $450,000. Along the
river from Minneapolis to st. Louis
sixty sawmills are operated by fifty,
wholesale lumber firms, and their an
nual manufacture of white pine is about
as follows: Lumber, 1,123,696,000 feet;
shingles, 2S2, 233, 900; lath, 241, liz, 900,
and of hemlock lumber, 24,358,000 feet.
In addition to the manufacture of lunn-
Der there are large number Of retail
and distributing firms. The lumber
business has in a measure sprang up
with the decline of general freight
traffic on the river. The improvement
of the river channel by the govern
ment engineers has added greatly to
the convenience of the steamboat men
who tow the RATS down the river, for
the RATS are now about four times as
large as they were before the river
was improved, as there is now less
danger of striking distractions.
The lumber interests on the river,
however, it cannot be disguished, are
slowly declining. Within the past de-
cade the lumber manufacture
has fallen off nearly 20 per
cent. In 1891 the total number of feet
manufactured was S14,22S,707, and dur
ing the following years 1t gradually
diminished. In 1899 the total was $780,
046,O00, and in 1900 the total was 622,-
$4,000. The last three years have
averaged the same.
Though indications point to the
abandonment Of the stream for COM
mercial purposes, there are many who
still have faith in its future, and who
predict that it will be again crowded
, with steamers and the busy days Of
the past will return.
Day Is Yet to Come.
'"The day will come" said another
river man, whose view of the situation
is brighter than that of the one before
quoted, when the river will become Of
great Importance commercially. When
the Isthmian canal is finished (Which
will be some time within the present
century, if they ever get started), the
volume of traffic on the river will in
crease to a great extent. When the
vast domain of the Northwest and
Canada are developed and brought I'M
der cultivation, the Twin Cities will be
the distributing point, and the wheat
and other grain grown in the north
and ground at Minneapolis will be
loaded on steamboats, here and sent
down the river to New Orleans, where
it will be loaded on Ocean liners which
will cross the Atlantic for Europe, AZ
RIGA, and pass through the canal to
the islands of the Pacific, China, and
other Asiatic countries. The transpor-
tation will by these routes be entirely
by water from the Twin Cities"
This view is quite generally accept
ed among those familiar with the river
and the resources of the northern coun-
try, and they realize that there will be
an enormous increase in traffic from
| this section, and that the railroads
VIII De unable TO handle 1t.
The river will offer considerable re-
lief, and will exert favorable infiu-
ence on rates. There are now, it is
true, railroads running along the banks
Of the river almost the entire distance
from st. Paul to the gulf, but If river
transportation could be improved so
that the boats could make better time
and haul larger loads severe competi-
ton would spring up between the river
and the railroads. has hnop said
thatAif the steamers could carry as
MUG as train load, and If they could
have long haul they could operate
with great profit and still charge low
er rates than those charged by the rail-
roads.
The improvements in the river are
being steadily carried on in anticipa-
ton OF this increase of traffic on the
river, and the government is spending
annually several thousands of dollars
to get the old stream in condition to
accommodate the rush when it comes
The channel is being carefully trained
by the engineers by the use of wing
dams, before referred to. which project
from the banks. The plan of the en-
| g1neers In placing these wing dams
on the sides Of the river is to keep the
current in a regular channel, and at
the same time get between the dams
deposits of floating sand which form
bars If not attracted from the channel.
Between many of the wing dams al
ready such a quantity of sand has
been deposited by the water that per-
manent accretions to the banks have
been formed. The channel of the river
is in this manner kept clear and deep.
River in Good Condition.
The section of the river between
st. Paul and Lake Pepin, 1t is said,
Is in better condition than any other
Inc engineers aim to keep the chan
mel between st. Paul and Lake Pepin
distance of sixty miles, 400 feet in
width, and other sections below are
kept at 500, 500 and 1000 feet. The
river is 1000 feet wide when 1t Is ioih-
ed by the Missouri, and below spreads
out into an expansive sheet of water.
Though there is a popular impression
that the volume of water in the river
is diminishing there is no reason for
IL. That the water falls so low in sum-
mer months as to make the channel
shrink to a narrow stream is true
but there Is nearly always enough
water to float boats of 500 to about
1000 tons. The average depth of the
water is about fourteen feet each sea-
son, and the channel is deep enough to
sustain this drop and offer no impede
ment to navigation. The greatest
crop on record was that of 1854 when
the fall was nineteen feet, but that
mas not been approached in recent
years.
Future ravigators on the river, how
ever, need not concern themselves
about the low water, for the gigantic
government dam above st. Paul will
serve as a reservoir and will provide
Tor the season of low water. 1t is
thought that when this dam is complet
ca a new era In river navigation, will