The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1925-10-30
NAVIGATION
ON MISSOURI
NOT PRACTICAL
Captain |. p. Baker. Veteran
Riverman, Says II Would
Not Pay
CHANNEL TOO LON(
Great Lakes st. Lawrence
Waterway Best Transport
tatiOn Means, He Says

Persons who talk of improving the
Missouri river to make a navigable
waterway over which boats can ply
at profit between Bismarck and
Kansas City are dreamers who have
never stopped to analyze their own
dream, in the opinion of Captain |. r.
Baker, Bismarck banker and veteran
riverman.
Captain Baker first became active
i'll river transportation 55 years ago
when he accepted employment with
his father, who was then operating
boats between st. Louis and New Or
leans on the Mississippi river. The
early seventies found him on the Up
per Missouri and his sons now oper-
ate the only commercial vessels in
the vicinity of Bismarck.
ANYONE who will take pencil and
do little figuring will see for him.
self that the natural outlet for the
commerce of this great state is the
Great Lakes which represent 800
miles of the cheapest transportation
in the world. If the Great Lakes-St
Lawrence waterway becomes 4 fact
it will require only 400 miles of a
haul by railroad to lay North Dakota
products at the door of any market
in the world. The rest of the dis
tance will be by water. And water
is the cheapest transportation in the
world.
Not Practicable
eve could exhaust the United
States treasury trying to make the
Missouri river a deep channel stream
and when we got through we would
have little more than our trouble for
our pains.
THE fall Of the river from here to
Kansas City is eight-tenths Of foot
a mile. The distance by river is ap-
proXimately twice the distance as
the crow flies or as measured on the
map. For every boat load Of grain
or other products that we shipped
down the river we should have &c
buck the current with another load
coming up and it wouldn't pay. Ii
the boats came back empty the loss
would be still greater.
"a proposal at the recent confer.
ence of governors of northwestern
states ut Sioux Falls, S. d., to i'm.
prove the Missouri river as means
Of transportation may be advantage.
Gus for states to the south but not
for North Dakota. Our natural out
let is to the east, where the marke,
is, by way Of the Great Lakes and
we should do all we can to improve
it.
''If the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence
waterway becomes reality we would
be able to ship goods to Duluth by
rail, load them on boats there and
deliver them to Kansas City via the
St. Lawrence river, Atlantic Ocean
Gulf Of Mexico and Mississippi river
cheaper than we could send them
straight downstream by way of the
Missouri river when the cost of the
entire round trip is considered.
Some Things Should BE Done
"There are some things which the
government could do on the Missouri
river which would help navigation. II
could revet the banks at certain
places to help keep the river in it,
bed and it could pull the snags out
of the river. That it should do. But
to attempt to construct. a deep-watel
channel would cost far more thar
any resultant benefit which nigh,
accrue.
1.-THE reason is that the Missouri is
! Il meandering stream which cuts its
banks and WanderS at will. 1t has
washed away whole sections of land
replacing them somewhere else. Il
has sandy bottom which offers nc
foundation for structures to control
the channel and to build revetments
would not insure a deep channel but
would merely serve to keep the river
in it's course at certain places.
81 have studied the problem unit
l have been dizzy and the result has
always been the same. 1t doesn'1
pay. If it did boats would be oper
ating up and down the river this
minute"
The river boats operated by mem.
bers of Captain Bakers family oper.
ate up and down the river from Bis.
marck for short distances only, max.
ing connection with the Northern
Pacific railroad here. They serve
points up and down the river which
have no rail connections and fol
which the river offers natural out
let. By arrangement with the rail.
road company combined water and
rail freight rates are offered from
these points to Duluth.