Historical November 1984 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
It’s raining again for nearly the fifth straight day; some of the neighbors are going on a riverboat ride at the end of the week; and snow is falling in Colorado just down I-70 at Denver. Obviously, water is controlling the ambience of our lives. Through it all is that incredible body of water simply known as THE RIVER.
A few million years ago, 20 to be exact, the Gulf of Mexico included Missouri in its shoreline. Virtually all the land from Cairo, Illinois, south has been deposited by the Mississippi.
Even today the delta below New Orleans grows 100 yards into the Gulf every year! Over 12,700,000,000 cubic feet of earth are carried to the ocean by THE RIVER every year. Missouri farmers talk about erosion of the soil while Louisiana farmers talk about new soil for development—and its the same soil. What is now Cape Girardeau, Missouri, was once on the shore of the Gulf. Today, the distance from there to coast is about 600 miles as the jets fly.
The river covers that distance in 1700 miles of channel.
The Mississippi is the most crooked river on earth.
It is also one of the flatest.
It drops only 390 feet from St. Louis to the Gulf—about 4 inches a mile.
Yet the average speed of THE RIVER, measured as rate of flow, is a staggering 664,000 cubic feet per second.
This means on average one cubic mile of water goes by every sixty-two hours.
During flood, this rate of flow increases nearly three times, putting the volume over 1.5 million cubic feet per second. Ferdinand DeSoto came to the shores of THE RIVER in 1541.
He died the following year and was buried in the waters he “discovered.” Most of the fauna of THE RIVER is longer lived.
From the alligators of bayou country to the furry racoons of the northern winter zone, the Mississippi is central to the life of nearly half a continent.
In its waters are catfish, muskie, and paddlefish reminiscent of long dried up Pleistocene lakes. Gar, particularly alligator gar, and snapping turtles can wreck havoc among the more pedestrian varieties of rivergoers. Beaver populations have begun to increase over the past few years, and some individuals have gotten as large as an estimated 90 to 100 pounds.
The Mississippi is fascinating and inviting at the same time. Adjectives like “majestic,” “beautiful,” and “powerful” emerge in all the literature attempting to articulate the qualities and quantities describing its activities.
It is worth a lifetime of study just to get a handle on all the facets of THE RIVER.
Many of the visitors to the Arch come first just to see it.
It is like a brooding presence over all we do.
It has necessity about it which we must all take into account. Whether to cross it, float on it, or drink it, it is THE RIVER into which all others merge in imagination and even in fact.
It will outlast all of its shores and all of its inhabitants.
It remakes its world on a daily basis.
It is like no other physical fact.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, November 1984.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: Original river-flow, sediment, geologic and historical figures are retained as the author’s account; not independently verified. Flow volume is described as “speed” in source; no silent scientific correction.
Original source: SD_Times1984_11.pdf, printed page(s) 6; PDF page(s) 6.
