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Commerce on the Mississippi River

It is speculated that the Mississippi water ways and basin were used for transportaion as early as 11000 years ago. Since that time the Mississippi has remained a vital artery of commerse for everything from the Appalachian moutains to the east and the Rocky moutains to the West.

It wasn't until the mid-1800's when the government began an effort to tame the Mississippi that trade and river transportation really began to take off.

The earliest efforts were in the 1860's when the Army Corps of Engineers recieved $4 million dollars to remove some troubling rapids at the mouth of the Des Moines and Rock Rivers.

Throughout the 19th century thousands of small structures, such as, wing dams and closing dams, were built in an effort to allow the river to do the work of cutting and maintaining the shipping channels by itself. The method worked well until the channel from Minneapolis south needed to be increased in depth from 4 feet to 6 feet.

With commercial interest growing in the midwest, increasing pressure was put on the government to create deeper and more stable channels in the river. In the 1930's, after much deliberation in Congress and objections from the President, plans to build a system of locks and dams to raise the water level north of St. Lousis to 9 feet was approved. Taking advantage of nearly $164 million of Franklin Delanor Roosevelt's New Deal money, the current lock and dam system of the upper Mississippi river was completed during the 1940's.

Traffic on the river didn't really boom until after World War II when trade with foreign nations increased the need for the faster transport of raw materials.

The Mississippi, as we know it today, is little more than modifications and improvements of the exitsing framework set by the Corps of Engineers during the early 20th century.

The History of Transportation on the Mississippi River
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