The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-11-20
MISSISSIPPI RIVER
SEEKS NEW OUTLET
Would Leave City of New Orleans On
Dry Land-Plans of Control
Under Discussion.
NEW 0RLEANS-

NEW ORLEANS, NOY. Tine
Mississippi river is seeking Il new chan
mel to the sea, nearly 100 miles west Of
its present course. Apparently tired of
being confined between high walls of
earth. made to run deep, and work hard
through the Semi-trOpic miles from Cairo
to the gulf, the Father of Waters is
slowly but surely cutting his way
through the Red and the aAtehafalaya
rivers down to the Gulf of Mexico. and.
to help himself in finding this new chan
mel, he is just as slowly and surely hll-
ing his present channel with a river
made dam of silt, q bit below the mouth
Of the Red river.
From stream barely - feet wide in
1910, the Atchafalaya has gOrged on the
waters of the Mississippi until it is now
nearly 100 feet wide, 40 feet deep, and
possessed Of a current some 10 per cent
faster than that of the Mississippi river
at the same distance from the gulf.
But the most serious part Of the whole
matter is the fact that the Father of
Waters. moving his channel 100 miles
westward. calmly ignores q city of near
" 4000 900 inhabitants, the main port of
the Mississippi. valley, which sits on his
banks 100 miles from the Gulf of Mex
leo. There is, it is true, another city
on the Atchafalaya, just where the new
course the Mississippi is seeking runs
into Atchafalaya bay. The city of New
Orleans has no intention of yielding to
Morgan City, and allowing the com
merce of the Mississippi valley to flow
down a new channel, past new port.
making useless more than S15O,OOO 600
worth Of public utilities port improve
ments. harbor facilities and private in.
dustTies just because a little thing like
a river, half a mile wide and 100 feet
deep, has decided to change its channel
for a shorter one.
Captain /. 7. Cooley, a mississippi
river captain and boat owner, lis to
close the mouth of the Red river. com
pelling it to flow to the sea down the
course of the Atchafalaya and complete
" separate both the Red and the Atcha-
falay from the Mississippi river. To do
this, however, it must, be understood
that the Red and Atchafalaya rivers
and the Bayou TerrebOnne were once
mouths of the Mississippi, and that the
ciosing of these streams will force a ire
mendOusly greater volume of water than
now down through the levee of the main
channel of the Mississippi past New Or
leans to the Gulf of Mexico. If these
streams are divorced from the NIissis-
sippi, commerce into them still can be
served from the Mississippi to the Red,
Ouachita, and Atchafalaya rivers and
the Bayou TerrebOnne, through the
plaquemine locks at DOnaldsonville."
The opponents of the plan to divorce
the Red and Atchafalaya from the Mis-
sisSippi claim the danger to New Or
leans would be greater if the entire
stream of the Mississippi were confined
t. its levee-walled present channel than
ie part of those waters were allowed to
seek the Sea by way of the Red and At
chafalaya rivers. They. therefore, would
seem to advocate that control be placed
on the main river, so that only a certain
part of its waters could flow through
the new channel, maintaining enough
through the, present channel to provide
for the commerce of the port of New
Orleans. without putting undue strain
on the laYees, or endangering the city.
This plan, however, takes no cogniz
end 1900 square miles of arabic. cult
waited land, in eight parishes, with con
sequent5 Toss of millions in potential OF
actual production every year through
the havoc wrought by these flood waters
Of the mississippi being allowed to e
out through the Red and the Atchafa
lsya. -
Another plan provides for a cana
connecting the Mississippi and the At
chafalaya, through which the flow o
the food waters OF the Mississippi eOulC
be controlled This scheme would save
both the farming lands and the city o
New Orleans, would increase the com
inerce on the Atchafalaya, down pas
Morgan City, which probably would he
come a port comparable. with Mobile
end still would leave the main channe
flowing clear past New Orleans, ant
out through the jetties to the sea.
Several engineers, who are investigat
ing it's course are of the opinion tina
one solution would be to straighten tn
course of the Mississippi fronl-.New~ Or
leans tqethe sea- Lsyalfla still aAother ads
which has been preached, is to cut