Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1915-09-17
THE MISSISSIPPI HfADWATERS
LINDBERGH GIVES INTERESTING
y STORY OF UPPER MISSISSIPPI
AND TRIBUTARIES

congressman LlndDergh returned on
Tuesday evening from Aitkin, to which
point he, accompanied by his son, made
a boat trip from Lake Itasca, to bet
ter know the needs of that territory
Of the trip and country traversed, he
says:
"I could give. short story of the
interesting scenic surroundings along
the Mississippi headwaters, but they
have become so we'll known, that, in
stead, I shall express my views on the
economic Importance Of the upper Mis-
sissippi and its tributaries. A trip
down there headwaters can be most
easily made in a small row boat. The
trip involves hard work, but the ex-
perience and pleasures one gets out of
it are sufficient to fully repay all the
work. We took twenty days from
Lake Itasca to Aitkin.
"At Cass Lake Mr.. Marshall. chief
forester, showed VS. over a considera-
BILE section Of the National forest re-
serve. This consists of about 100000
acres. There is some objection on the
part of towns in the surrounding ter
ritory because of this wild and unde-
veloped tract. Mr.. Marshall is push
ing some work that will 90 far to re-
move the objections. He has plans for
leasing tracts of the forest reserve for
grazing purposes, stock raising, ETC. He
is leasing lots for summer homes on the
lakes and this brings trade and busi-
ness to the surrounding towns. The
Forestry department. is expecting to
bear its proportion Of the expense in
making local Improvements so that the
surrounding country will be aided. The
department wishes to be liberal and to
establish a policy and pursue it's work
to aid in building up the surrounding
community as we'll as to preserve the
forests.
1'In our average daily thoughts we
Minnesotans do not credit with much
value the upper Mississippi and ITS
tributaries. In fact in several of our
northern counties an important rural
population looks upon these as calam-
ity bringers. Many farmers fix up
their meadows and plant their crops
annually and the food waters, with
| almost equal regularity, damage or de.
stroy them. Then there are the water
power companies along the streams.
They desire regularity in the water
flow, but are frequently damaged by
food waters. The only interest that
looks complacently upon the high stag
es Of water are the navigators. yet
they are Of least Importance so far as
| the headwaters affect things.
"For several years I have inquired
into the circumstances surrounding the
| farming, power and other interests, so
| this year, in order to become more fa-
miliar with the physical conditions
than I had been. able to do on my pre-
| cious trips, I determined to visit az
many additional places affected as !
could. Coming down the Mississippi
from its source constituted one of the
trips, and this one have just finished.
''The boat navigation on the upper
| Mississippi is of negligible Importance
compared with either the farming or
the water power interests. The farmers
and the power companies require a
regular flow. The same would be true
! of boat navigation on the upper Mis-.
sissippi, but the trouble is that the at.
tempt is being made to use the Up.
per Mississippi to regulate the waters
! farther down.
''In the days of Minnesota timber
kings, which are now becoming past
history, they required spring and
summer waters Of unusual quantity to
bring down their logs. Their separate
holdings were pretty well confined to
sections reached mostly by small trib.
utary streams. These they individu-
allv damned for their private use and
under law were licensed to charge a
toll to others wishing to sluice. When
it came to the Mississippi, the stream
was too large for even lumber kings
to deal with alone, 50 they got parties
down the river from st. Paul on into
the states south, bordering on the riv.
er, to make demand of the govern.
ment for the construction of dams to
form reservoirs on the headwaters to
| aid navigation. They secured appro-
priations Of many millions of dollars to
build dams. A policy was fixed by
congress, and the war department en-.
gineers were instructed to follow the
policy laid down to fit the logging in
terests. In other words it was naviga.
tion for logs. I have examined as
closely as could into the engineering
work as so far as I am able to get at
| it.: all the engineers are honest and
doing, as effectively as they can, the
WO1h Gudt WdS AdAu Out Luz GACHs Acy
have no other instructions than what
| were advanced from the loggers' in
terests, and being army officers, and
| getting their instructions from proper
government sources, they have abso-
lutely disregarded everything else. If
there is to be changed policy, it must
come from a public demand and be i'm
pressed upon the engineers from the
proper source, but now for a public
purpose and the general welfare.
"There are six well constructed gov
ernment dams. I have examined all
but the Sandy Lake dam, and will ex-
anime that later. They can be used to
serve the public with great value, but
in fact, as now used, are a damage.
The waters Of the state can be controll-
ed by dams and reservoirs to help agri-
culture, water power and navigation
and to some extent forestry, but to do
so requires that the results to these
interests be correlated, so that the
greatest benefit may be secured. Of
them the agricultural is the most i'm
portant, but thus far has been subor-
dinated and large sections of agricul-