Up to the 1880s, the Indians of the northern plains utilized bullboats to traverse the region’s rivers and streams. Tribes, such as the Omaha, Ponca, Teton Lakota, and Arikara, built bullboats by first cutting down the thin willow saplings that grew in abundance along the banks of the Missouri and its tributaries. Employing axes and stout knives, craftsmen cut away all the branches and leaves from the trunk of each sapling. They then weaved the long, pliable willow poles together to form a bowl-shaped frame. Bison sinew, tied between the saplings, reinforced the crude frame. The top, open end of the boat, was then laid face down on the ground, with the curving bottom of the frame facing up. Wet bison robes, shorn of all hair, were placed over the bottom and sides of the frame and fastened to the saplings. The bullboat was then allowed to dry in the sun. In a day or two, the robes shrank and hardened around the frame of willows. In the final stage of construction, the Indians oiled the bison robes, making the small vessel waterproof. Continue Reading »
Tagged Arikara, Bison, Bullboat, Missouri River, Omaha, Phan Thiet, Ponca, Saigon, South China Sea, Teton Lakota, Thuyen Thung
In 1891, the Corps began building a six-foot deep navigation channel along the Missouri from the river’s mouth to Kansas City. In order to constrict the Missouri’s channel area and deepen the stream to six feet, Army engineers erected thousands of pile dikes and revetments along the river’s bank line. It took the Corps over four decades to complete that navigation channel. On June 27, 1932, in a ceremony at Kansas City’s waterfront, the bombastic Secretary of War, Patrick Hurley, declared the channel open to barge traffic. But barge operators stayed clear of the Missouri. The railroads and highways between St. Louis and Kansas City carried products cheaper and faster than the river route.
In the mid-1930s, the Roosevelt administration authorized and funded the extension of the six-foot navigation channel northward to Sioux City. Federal officials believed a longer navigation channel, which extended further inland and opened a larger market area to river traffic, would surely attract barge operators to the stream. In 1940, the Corps completed the navigation channel to Sioux City. But the hoped-for barge traffic still did not materialize because the railroads continued to provide a cost-effective alternative. Continue Reading »
Tagged Army Corps of Engineers, Boyer Chute, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gavin's Point Dam, John LaRandeau, Lisbon Bottom, Missouri River, Missouri River Flood of 1943, Missouri River Flood of 2011, Missouri River Navigation Channel, Missouri River Navigation Project, Patrick Hurley
Since the end of the last ice age, the Missouri River has experienced extreme fluctuations in volume. The Missouri has always bounced up and down because the weather across the Great Plains quickly shifts between hot and cold and between bone dry and monsoonal.
Since last year, Missouri Basin residents have witnessed firsthand the river’s capricious character. In June 2011, the Upper Missouri (the river northwest of Sioux City) hauled an astounding 13.8 million-acre-feet (MAF) of water. Never before, in 114 years of recording keeping, had the Upper Missouri carried so much water in one month. By the end of 2011, a total of 62.3 (MAF) entered the Upper Missouri. That equaled two and a half times the upper river’s normal annual runoff of 24.8 MAF. Last year’s runoff shattered the previous high flow record of 49 MAF, set back in 1997. Continue Reading »
Recently, the Omaha District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the organization charged with overseeing the management of the reach of the Missouri River through southeast South Dakota, western Iowa, and eastern Nebraska, announced that it has begun repairing the Missouri River navigation channel between Sioux City, Iowa, and Rulo, Nebraska, a distance of 116 river miles. During last year’s historic flood, the Missouri’s powerful currents destroyed the Army’s wingdams and revetments in dozens of locations south of Sioux City. For example, near Tekamah, Nebraska, the Missouri blew out its riprapped banks, outflanked a series of wingdams, and cut deep side channels through soft, sugary alluvium. At Decatur, Nebraska, the Mighty Missouri almost toppled over the Decatur Bridge after it burrowed a 50-foot deep hole into the bridge’s east abutment. Continue Reading »
Tagged Chuck Grassley, Corn Grower's Association, Corps of Engineers, Decatur Bridge, Farm Bureau, MidAmerican Energy, Missouri River Bank Stabilization and Navigation Project, Missouri River Navigation Channel, Missouri River Navigation Project, Omaha District, Terry Branstad
On May 9, 2012, the Army Corps of Engineers will cut the discharge rate from Gavin’s Point Dam to zero, yes zero. That means no water will exit through the structure’s power tunnels or spillway gates. The Army must stop the flow of water through the dam in order to inspect it for any damages. Last year, the Missouri’s powerful floodwaters pounded the structure, especially its spillway. The Army wants to know just what the Missouri did to the dam. Without water pouring through Gavin’s Point Dam, the Missouri downstream through southeastern South Dakota and western Iowa will drop to a record low level. It remains to be seen just how low the Missouri will go. Much depends on tributary inflows. If the James and Big Sioux rivers do not dump large volumes of rainwater into the Missouri, we can expect the river at Sioux City to diminish to a trickle. We do know that during the eight hours the Army pinches off the river’s flow, the Missouri will drop to one of its lowest levels ever, possibly lower than at any time since the glacial formation of the stream 30,000 years ago. Continue Reading »
It has been almost seven months since the end of the Great Flood of 2011. In the intervening months, it has become clear that the Army Corps must change how it manages the Missouri River. Missouri Valley residents cannot go back to “business as usual” along the Mighty Mo. To do so invites disaster. But what must change?
Lower valley farmers, represented by the Farm Bureau Federation, the Corn Grower’s Association, and the Missouri Levee and Drainage District Association want the rapid reconstruction of old, misaligned levees, as well as the flood-prone navigation channel. Those two antiquated hydraulic systems worsened flooding last year and will contribute to flooding in the years ahead. But the members of those three organizations want to be able to raise corn and soybeans (which are now fetching record prices) on every conceivable acre in the lower valley, so they are aggressively promoting a policy that substantially increases the probability of another major flood. Unfortunately, the farm lobby is gambling with the safety of the lower valley in order to maximize farm income. Continue Reading »
The Mekong Delta encompasses approximately 15,000 square miles. Its land area made up nearly a quarter of South Vietnam’s 67,108 square miles. The delta begins on the outskirts of Saigon and extends 193 miles as the crow flies to the southernmost tip of Vietnam, at the Ca Mau peninsula. In the 1950s and 1960s, the delta possessed the highest population density of any area within South Vietnam. And in 1970, U.S. intelligence estimated that the three delta provinces immediately surrounding Saigon, Long An, Hau Nghia, and Gia Dinh, each had districts that held populations in excess of 1,810 persons per square mile [“Indochina Precipitation and Monsoon Airflow Map,” 1970, Bergerud, Tropic Thunder, 136]. Even the rural areas of the central delta, which included the paddy country surrounding My Tho, Vinh Long, Can Tho and Long Xuyen, contained populations of between 520 and 1810 persons per square mile. The only other area within Vietnam that contained such a high population over such a large area was the Red River Delta of the North. The least populated, most remote, regions within the delta existed in the Ca Mau peninsula and U Minh Forest. Both of those areas held only 2.6 to 26 persons per square mile. Not coincidently, those two isolated patches of territory served as Viet Cong base areas during the First and Second Indochina wars. Continue Reading »
Tagged Bernard Fall, Ca Mau Peninsula, David Hackworth, David Halberstam, Dean Rusk, L.L. Lemnitzer, Mekong Delta, Mekong River, Pentagon Papers, President John F. Kennedy, Red River Delta, South Vietnam, U Minh Forest, Vietnam War
Bright Angel Creek runs clear and cold from the Grand Canyon’s North Rim to the Colorado River. It’s a fast, boulder-strewn stream. Along its lower reach, it makes a lot of noise as it passes over the smooth, round stones lining its banks and bed. Statuesque cottonwoods grow on the edges of the creek near its juncture with the Colorado. When spring and summer winds blow up the narrow, high-walled valley of Bright Angel Creek, the dangling cottonwood leaves make a gentle rustling sound. The flapping leaves, with their silvery undersides, resemble so many butterflies trying to alight from the branches. The lower canyon of Bright Angel Creek, which is known as ‘The Box,’ is an oasis in an otherwise inhospitable land. Vegetation grows in abundance here. That vegetation in-turn attracts wildlife. Nearly tame mule deer graze the grasses growing next to the trails, while more cautious ravens perch in the high trees, waiting patiently for a fatigued hiker to inadvertently drop a scrap of food.
Continue Reading »
Tagged Bright Angel Creek, Bright Angel Trail, Colorado River, Garden Creek, Grand Canyon, John Wesley Powell, North Kaibab Trail, Phantom Ranch, Puebloan Indians, South Kaibab Trail, Tongue River, Yellowstone River
On December 23, 2011, President Obama signed into a law an emergency appropriation for the Missouri Basin. On the face it, the multi-million-dollar appropriation appeared to be a godsend for residents of the Missouri Valley, because it allows the Corps to rebuild its damaged Missouri River hydraulic system of dams, levees, and navigational structures. For example, in the coming year, the Army plans on spending $51.9 million to repair Garrison Dam and another $10.5 million on the rehabilitation of Gavin’s Point Dam. Fixing the big dams is a proper expenditure of federal funds. If the dams remained in a state of disrepair, they would be far more likely to fail during the next flood. But the expenditure of untold millions on the lower valley’s defunct navigation channel and improperly aligned levee system represents an abject waste of federal dollars. Continue Reading »
Tagged Brigadier General John McMahon, Corn Grower's Association, Farm Bureau Federation, Garrison Dam, Gavin's Point Dam, Missouri Basin, Missouri River, Missouri River Barge Industry, Missouri River Levee, Missouri River Navigation Project, President Barack Obama, Steve King
It’s been almost six months since the end of the Missouri River flood. Since then, the upstream reservoirs have been drained of their floodwaters, the lower Missouri Valley has dried out, and the Corps has commenced the reconstruction of damaged dams, levees, and channelization structures. To add to the apparent good news, officials recently stated that the lack of snow in the mountains and dry conditions across the prairie-plains region have dramatically reduced the probability of flooding along the Missouri main-stem in 2012. All appears well along the Missouri. The worst is behind us – or so it seems. But before we engage in a collective sigh of relief, we should recognize that big, big problems still confront the residents of the Missouri basin. Continue Reading »
Tagged Blake Hurst, Brigadier General John McMahon, Claire McCaskill, Corn Grower's Association, Farm Bureau Federation, Gavin's Point Dam, Jay Nixon, Missouri Levee and Drainage District Association, Missouri River, Missouri River Degradation, Missouri River Flood 2011, Missouri River Navigation Project, Roy Blunt, Tom Waters
