The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-08


 would have to be reinforced by other canals around Elk River Shoals, Lit tie Muscle Shoals and Nances Reef The Muscle Shoals canal, the first project in which people put their hope, could be used only by tsose very small boats able to pass the un- improved shoals above it. It was a dismal failure, and was abandoned in 1S37-one short year after it's com pletion. This bit of history is a melancholy commentary on the vision of engineers early in the service of the government. Regarding the canal one writer says: No appropriation having been made for its mainte nance, it fell into ruin. The wooden gates with which the locks were equipped soon decayed. Rains and floods played havoc with the em- bankments, and the channel filled with mud supporting a flourishing growth of willows and cottonwood"
 Nothing could more completely prove that this nation is pufblind nation than the history of Muscle Shoals. It was In 1871 that the fed eral government again gave atten- ton to the Tennessee river, 34 years after the abandonment of the first canal. And even then the govern ment proceeded just as if that first experiment had not demonstrated
 
 treated without simultaneously treat ing all other shoals and reefs above 1t.
 The 1871 survey of the federal gov ernment provided a canal 1414 miles long with locks, having a com bined lift of S6 feet. At the same time canal one and one-half miles long with two locks was planned for Elk River Shoals, eight miles up stream. but no provision was made for Nance's Reef of Little Muscle Shoals. Nevertheless, government en- gineers, very certain that they had solved the problem meant for the fin est intelligence, went heartily to work. The Muscle Shoals canal was begun in 1875 amid the rejoicing of the people. They beheId the dark clouds which had loomed for genera disappointment and delay, delay and disappointment, but not despair. In 1890, 15 years after the beginning when young boys who saw the first blow; struck in a kind of awe had reached manhood with It's tinge of cynicism-the Muscle Shoals canal was partially, not wholly, completed. Notable Celebration.
 There was a great celebration. People had become skeptical as >o the success of the canal But their
 
 that little undertaking would lead to other things. So they rejoiced Their orators painted word pictures. The choruses sang paeons of joy. The fragrance of barbecue promised q rich and calm content.
 It is a remarkable thing that men with brain enough to be engineers and build canals could not be made to believe that within few short subsequent years the river craft of that day would be obsolete. The Muscle Shoals canal was planned be- fore the era of powerful tugs and their consorts of barges. It was de- V1sed for the accommodation of river steamers of very light draft which could manipulate the Il locks and pass the canal, during high water periods, in 11k hours.
 A fleet of tugs and 60 coal barges, In daily use on the Ohio river, would require 67l separate locks and would not be able to cover the 24-mile stretch at Muscle Shoals in less than 2S days and IS hours-and much greater time would be required in low water periods. Of course, the Muscle Shoals canal was an impro- visement. It was a joke played, al- though not intentionally. it is doubt less true, on very serious and un- suspecting people.
 The average tonnage on the Ten nessee river for 22 years Is divided as follows; Above Chattanooga, Florence, 06.000; from Florence to Paducah, 6l7,00o tons; through Mus Gle Shoals canal, 1f,S00.
 It was apparent that the canal, like It's predecessor, was failure. The Muscle Shoals problem had not been solved. Should the people despair or the engineers admit themselves unable to function7 Half that ques- ton may be answered now. The peo- pie did not despair.
 CHAPTER II
 The Tennessee river penetrates into the very heart of the richest un- developed territory In the United States. This fact the people of the Tennessee valley have always known. They had heard Commodore Maury predict that in that valley would be some day the greatest American city. They had heard, in a much later day. Senator John T. Morgan, wno TOT 80 years represented Alabama In the upper house of congress, declare that In that region wore vast areas of tho most productive soil yielding enormous crops of food, cereals and textiles. fuits and grapes; and for ests that are almost primeval and include all tho varieties of trees that grow in the temperate zone; vast beds of coal and iron. zinc, lead and copper ores. and rich veins of gold; great quarries of marble that excel 1 those of Italy In texture and in the varieties of beautiful coloring; and all of the slates and rocks that are useful In architecture: while the hills are crowned with the plumes of | stately pines that never fade or fall" They knew also that 1s,oo0 miles | of navigable streams spread as a net l work over the great central valleys | of the United States, and that on | their banks were thriving cities and towns by thousands which the Ohio, sister and by the government more favored stream of the Tennessee daily served. They realized that were the government to make the Ten nessee navigable its entire length, cities and towns by the thousands would spring up on its banks, and all the natural resources in that great virgin section would be developed for the enrichment and happiness of the people.
 But it was only when the United