Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1908-09-24

luttte, Wnlle descending the MISSISSIPPI d
With his fellow Adventures, Louis Joliet.
encountered u great river joining the
Mississippi from the west. The I'M
preston made upon him by its .sigan-
tic size and unbridled ferocity is clearly
voiced i'll his journal of the voyage.
Il have seen nothing more dreadful,
he wrote. An accumulation of large
and entire trees. branches and floating
islands Was issuing from the mouth
of the river Pekstanoui with such mn
petuositN that W. could not, without
great danger. risk passing through ~,
So great was the agitation that the
water was very muddy and could not
become clear Petistanoui is a river of
considerable size coming from the
northwest from "a great distance: and
1t discharges into the Mississippi"
The river which Marquette called
Pekistanoui MAS the Missouri, and as
it Appeared To him on That long ago
July day so III appears now. Wild,
turbid surcharged with debris: the
old Jesuit would have NO difficulty in
recognizing ii could he look upon 1T
again Today. after lapse of 23a years
The inpetupus power of the stream mas
not grown less through the centuries
nor is ii either prob.be nor desirable
that II will eroW hess in the future But
ii is most desirable that its Wild
strength should be weaned from the
cai'eef Of savage destrnctiveness to
which it is now solely devoted and
trained, To the upbtiidimg and enrich
meat of The splendid civilization which
has taken root and is growing With al
nloSl unparalleled vigor along its banks.
| The accomplishment of such an end
Will entail patient and systematic work
on Il vast scale but it is AN end OF sufti-
cielt moment to warrant almost anNN
amount of effort, since both the present
ana the future welfare of the north
| Nest are NitallN involved,
Explorers Make Mistakes.
1t would be IN Interesting subject of
| iiniuirl 10 determine why the Missouri
| was first assigned to the anomalous
position which ii NOM occupies in pop
1 ular estimation as Il part of the great
river system OF central North Ameri-
ca. - seems probable, however that
/ tho mistaken ideas of such early eX-
plorers as Marquette were chiefly re-
sponsible. They encountering the up
per Mississippi first and floating down
upon its flood. quite naturally regarded
| the Missouri when :heN came to III as Il
branch of the former stream. Mar
| qnette's expression in his journal be-
Trays this mistaken idea when he
writes "Pektstanoui discharges into the
Mississippi. Had lie or any of his
contemporaries encountered the Mis-
| souri, first and sailed down upon ii to
the confluence of tho two streams they
would have i,lbored under no such mis-
apprehension. bat would have taken the
| upper MISSISSIPPI for what il really is.
an afhuent dischal'ging into the Mis-
souri, since the latter contributes not
| only the greater yntlne of water but
also its own peculiar characteristics To
the entire lower course Of the united
4 streams
The error Of the carly explorers was
fmthered and firmly established in
|. ~ l.
tending the settlement of the north
wesi. The valley Of the upper Mis-
sissippi becanle the scene of indus
trial activity and the river an artery
/ of a growing conincrce. long before
tho Missouri had ceased TO be part
of The undiscovered wilderness. Above
the great elbow in the Missouri near
Kansas City. where Its general direc-
ton is changed from southeast TO east,
civilization had hardly found a foot
hold - yc:tl-s ago and large portions
of the ,lppcr Missouri valley have not
been iinaIly wrenehea from the hands
of tho Indians for even 80 years. Hence
ii is no; strange that the big Mud :
dS' has been r"leaated to a place of
secondary importance AS compared
with the upper Mississippi. not in name
only but also in the prosecution of
those works of channel Improvement
which have already been somewhat
extensively carried on in the interest
of navigation from ST. Paul to the
I5.,seac haio,v Now orleans ,nt neithe,
tbe exipelloics OF commerce nor Inc
observation-disclosures az mon r,n ,ltcr the
facts Of nAt,re and II 10 nothinp less
fn,,, ;. 5act of nntnie maj me rive,
witch to,rs FROM ,rhrco Forks Mont
to Inc C;ulf or Mayico is ono homo.
ponaoi,a strea,n having nanny affiuents
81 ,vbi,,l tl,e ,,,,n,5r Ni.:gis.sin,,i III,
l(,i4fo TN Arkansas ma the Rod ar,
,3sst im,n,t.,,,t ,rl,.t such is INC c.s.
needs NO ,n1,r. cnn,1,isi,a ,l,,nonsrr:
zion than the fac, lh4. below its
junction vim tho Missouri. The Mis-.
sissjssi,n utterly le!.as It's jdentity as /;
cl,ar ulncid stream lioyyin;, betlycei
stal,l. h,,,ts ANA Incomes y t,1rbid
,,sI,,ss sij, iea,er sncd With shif,in.
sand l,.,.. v,hos,. o,nu4fnnl cut.s . dos
i,.,,,,,ivn ,,.,tl,2y:. ~ yin thto,,ph
NH. ,llnvi.tl galley
Character OF Missouri.
Considerable Si9anr mas been dc
voted 10 showing the continuity o
character of tho missouri and the low
er MiSsisSipp IN oi3c! that from th"l
rel;lli"n IN important iact may b" de
dueed concerning the vast project
OF Mississipni channel improvement
which af' tpG2y the StlbjeGt OF s.
iiuea ptblic interest This fact is
th;it there .@n be- no permanent AN
, Satisfactory Improvement of the Low
ei MISSISSIPPI which IS not eithei nc
coinpanied OF preceded hy = like i'm
. IroNGment OF the Missouri Tho rca