Technologys Impact on the Upper Mississippi River Essay -- Enviroment

Technology's Impact on the Upper Mississippi River Since the days of Lewis and Clark men have dreamed of harnessing the "Father of Waters" in the interests of commerce and development. The long struggle which ensued required incredible ingenuity and determination on the part of engineers as well as enormous capital investment. The Mississippi River Commission, established in 1897, was the first federal program designed specifically to meet these requirements, and early systems, instituted by the Army Corps of Engineers, saw much success. Technological advancements in the fields of transportation, flood control, and natural resource management were needed and, eventually, emerged to provide the level of control possible today. This report will discuss the technological transformation of the upper Mississippi river and the motivation behind it from the middle 1800's. Economics, in the form of cheap transportation, have been the impetus behind most of the development along the Upper Mississippi. In the early 1800's, transportation was limited to keelboats (large rafts made of roughcut lumber) which floated downstream with the current where they changed their cargo and then were poled or warped (pulled from shore with a rope) back upstream. With the development of the steamboat the arduous journey up and down the river, taking up to nine months by keelboat, became a much more reliable route for transporting both products and people. In the late 1800's, the invention of the internal combustion engine led to the powerful towboats seen on the Mississippi today. Towboats move 70 to 85 million tons of cargo annually between Minneapolis and the Missouri River [http://www.emtc.nbs.gov]. Underscoring the economic importance of such ... ...ing fascinating about science, one gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such trifling investments of fact." References: Mairson, Alan, "The Great Flood of '93," National Geographic, vol. 185 (January 1994),pp. 42-81. National Biological Service, Department of the Interior, "Environmental Management Technical Center," http://www.emtc.nbs.gov (1996). Twain, Mark, Life on the Mississippi (New York, New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1917). Upper Mississippi River Basin Coordinating Committee, Upper Mississippi River Comprehensive Basin Study, vol. 1 and 5 (1972) U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, "Upper Mississippi River--Illinois Waterway System Navigation Study," http://www.usace.army.mil/ncd (1996). U.S. Geological Survey EROS Data Center, "Upper Mississippi River Basin Flooding," http://edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/doc/edchome/sast (1996). Technology's Impact on the Upper Mississippi River Essay -- Enviroment Technology's Impact on the Upper Mississippi River Since the days of Lewis and Clark men have dreamed of harnessing the "Father of Waters" in the interests of commerce and development. The long struggle which ensued required incredible ingenuity and determination on the part of engineers as well as enormous capital investment. The Mississippi River Commission, established in 1897, was the first federal program designed specifically to meet these requirements, and early systems, instituted by the Army Corps of Engineers, saw much success. Technological advancements in the fields of transportation, flood control, and natural resource management were needed and, eventually, emerged to provide the level of control possible today. This report will discuss the technological transformation of the upper Mississippi river and the motivation behind it from the middle 1800's. Economics, in the form of cheap transportation, have been the impetus behind most of the development along the Upper Mississippi. In the early 1800's, transportation was limited to keelboats (large rafts made of roughcut lumber) which floated downstream with the current where they changed their cargo and then were poled or warped (pulled from shore with a rope) back upstream. With the development of the steamboat the arduous journey up and down the river, taking up to nine months by keelboat, became a much more reliable route for transporting both products and people. In the late 1800's, the invention of the internal combustion engine led to the powerful towboats seen on the Mississippi today. Towboats move 70 to 85 million tons of cargo annually between Minneapolis and the Missouri River [http://www.emtc.nbs.gov]. Underscoring the economic importance of such ... ...ing fascinating about science, one gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such trifling investments of fact." References: Mairson, Alan, "The Great Flood of '93," National Geographic, vol. 185 (January 1994),pp. 42-81. National Biological Service, Department of the Interior, "Environmental Management Technical Center," http://www.emtc.nbs.gov (1996). Twain, Mark, Life on the Mississippi (New York, New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1917). Upper Mississippi River Basin Coordinating Committee, Upper Mississippi River Comprehensive Basin Study, vol. 1 and 5 (1972) U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, "Upper Mississippi River--Illinois Waterway System Navigation Study," http://www.usace.army.mil/ncd (1996). U.S. Geological Survey EROS Data Center, "Upper Mississippi River Basin Flooding," http://edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/doc/edchome/sast (1996).