The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1907-07-19
TALKS F0R ANTLDlIeHERS


q
/ by the persons seriously concerned will
the question, at the attempt now being
made by interested persons to depreci
ate the effect of great drainage works
along the Minnesota valley in keeping
Iup the floods on the low lands along
the river.
| An inspired article on the subject
with Mankato date line, which APP
peared in the daily papers yesterday, is
despite an effort to show the contrary
really a fine setting forth of the matter
on the side of those who believe that
the readiness with which the river now
rises to flood height on slight cause, and
the persistence with Which the waters
to the bitches.
The inspired article states, for in
stance, that County Surveyor w. f.
Brooks believes the idea to be absurd
but, incidentally, and to give his opinion
weight, probably, it is mentioned that
he has himself constructed dozen
county bitches in this county.
/ A county" ditch, it must be under
stood, is very different thing from an
ordinary little ditch dug for the pur-
lpose of draining small area, for it is
a large concern, undertaken and carried
out by the county, and generally OF
great len9th-Often many miles-and,
by reason of the great extent OF ter
ritory that it drains, it; amounts in time
of consideration rainfall to small creek,
and, inasmuch as it is almost always
constructed through a large section of
land, lying low and flat, it drains its lit
tie watershed quite slowly, but, on the
other hand, over a considerable space of
time, SO that its effect is to send forth
a considerable volume of water for quite
an extended period, thus bringing about,
so far as it is able, the very condition
now found to exist to so dangerous and
destructive a degree in this valley.
Now, it is not at all likely that Sur
veyor Brooks is the only man who has
dug county bitches in Blue Earth coun-
ty, and yet there are, twelve county
bitches there which he has constructed.
Let us suppose, for the sake of illus
tration, that there are twenty such
bitches in the one county of Blue Earth
twenty little, artificial rivers, slowly
sending the product of every heavy rain
fall into the valley.
The other counties lying wholly or
partly in the watershed of the Mime
sofa are Big Stone, Stevens, Douglas,
Pope, Swift, Chippewa, Kandiyohi, Rem
vile, Meeker, Mcleod, Sibley, Nicollet,
Lac qui Parle, Yellow Medicine, Lin
coin, Lyon, Pipestone, Murray, Red
wood, Cottonwood, Brown, Watonwan,
Martin, Faribault, lie Sueur and Scott,
twentyeight Us of them in all, while
three others, Carver, Hennepin and Da-
kota. although lying near the outlet in
to the Mississippi, would add somewhat
to the; trouble with back water.
Probably these other twenty eight
counties are not so thoroughly drained
with county bitches as Blue Earth coun
ty is, but, even so, if they were to av-
erage a great deal less, taking into con-
sideration the fact that some of mem
send a portion of their snow and rain
fall into the Red, Des MONIES, Grow,
Cannon and Mississippi rivers and other
streams, it is easy to. see that an aver
age of a few county bitches only in
every, county, adding their slow, per-
.sistent volume to the. water naturally
into, the valley after every ,thaw
or rainfall, would account for the dam
ageing floods that have occurred nearly
every year lately.
City Engineer Haynes. of Mankato, al
though called by the defense as a wit
ness in their behalf Shows himself to
be both an expert and practical wit
ness for the other side, for he sets forth
the very views and facts maintained by
the owners of land in the valley, al
though he adds that it is his opinion
there is too much excitement" about
it. If he had been so unfortunate as
to buy a tract of river bottom land four
years ago for 500 an acre he would be
much better able now to see where the
excitement" come in.
1t is very true that the river valley
has always been periodically flooded and
that in past years the floods has risen
much higher than at any time in the
last four or five years, but these floods
were almost invariably spring floods
and subsidized in time so that the fields
could be used for tillage the same year.
There can be no doubt whatever that
the extensive ditching, especially in the
line of county work, that has lately
been done with increasing energy every
year, is the sause of the trouble, and it
will take more than the insufficient tes'
.timony of professional ditch diggers to
convince suffering people to the con-
trary.
There is one means of partial re-
lief, however, that the state could give
if the legislature were so disposed, and
that is to blast out the stone. bridge
across the mouth of the Minnesota
where it discharges its waters into the
Mississippi at Fort Smelling. The bed OF
the Mississippi at this point is in the
nature of a rocky gorge, while the Min
nesota river from this point up stream
to the neighborhood of Shakopee is al
most like lake during high water,
with scarcely any current, this condi-
.tion being caused by the fact that a
rocky ledge across its mouth holds back
the waters which rush into the Missis-
sippi from the lakelike lower river in
"a sort of rapids. The writer has gone
from LIE Sueur to st. Paul in a launch
,at a time when the Minnesota from
Shakopee down was very much like a
lake with scarcely any current what
ever, and yet at the same time the swift
rush of the river into the Mississippi
made the passage dangerous for small