Life On The Mississippi

Along Prairie Island

2010-03-11T19:38:00.000-08:00

Rainy, foggy, muddy -- the Slough of Despond...

March 2, 2010, 1 mile, between miles 804 and 803.

March 8, 2010, 1 mile, between miles 803 and 802.

March 11, 2010, 1.5 miles, mile 801.
http://www2.mvr.usace.army.mil/NIC2/Documents/MissRiver/Map015-793-801.pdf

Prairie Island

2010-03-01T18:49:00.000-08:00

March 1, 2010, 1.5 miles, Mile 806: Prairie Island, home of the Prairie Island Indian Community of Mdewakaton Sioux and their Treasure Island Casino
http://prairieisland.org/

2010-02-28T11:36:00.000-08:00

With mixed feelings, I got back in the pool after a long layoff. At about lap 5, I felt like a fat slug who couldn't go on. Then, after a few more laps, I was pleased that I could finish a mile. Still, I'm chagrined that it had been so long.

I've moved onto the U.S. Corps of Engineers' map page 14:
http://www2.mvr.usace.army.mil/NIC2/Documents/MissRiver/Map014-802-808.pdf

February 18, 2010, 1 mile, mile 808: Truedale Slough
The Vermillion River joins the Mississippi by way of series of lakes and sloughs, extending from Hastings down to the confluence with the Cannon River just upstream of Red Wing.

February 22, 2010, 1.25 miles, mile 807, Pierce County, Wisconsin
http://www.wrf.edu/library/arc/piercehistory.php

February 23, 2010, 1 mile, mile 806, Goodhue County, Minnesota
http://www.co.goodhue.mn.us/visitors/ghc_history.aspx

Catching Up

2010-02-28T10:31:00.000-08:00

July 21, 2009: 1.5 miles, mile 813: Lake Isabel, Hastings, MN
http://www.ci.hastings.mn.us/ParksAndRecreation/PKBoatFishing.htm

July 27, 2009: 1.25 miles, mile 812: Prescott, Wisconsin, and the confluence of the St. Croix River with the Mississippi:
http://www.prescottwi.org/history.html

July 29, 2009: 1.5 miles, mile 811, Prescott Island
http://www.ipicture.mobi/?d=649725&s=MN&f=island

August 3, 2009: 1.5 miles, mile 809, Gores Pool No. 3 Wildlife Management Area

Langston Hughes' The Negro Speaks of Rivers

2010-02-27T18:02:00.000-08:00

I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of
human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans,
and I've seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Rivertown Days in Hastings!

2009-07-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

July 15, 1.5 miles, Mile 814.5: Hastings, MN, just in time for Rivertown Days:
http://www.hastingsmn.org/

Hastings and its surrounding townships have longstanding issues from agricultural fertilizer and herbicides in the groundwater. Dakota County and other agencies are working with area farmers to reduce the agricultural chemicals leaching into the groundwater:
http://www.co.dakota.mn.us/EnvironmentRoads/Reports/Water/HANS.htm

Catching Up

2009-07-14T18:46:00.000-07:00

May 5, 1 mile, below Mile 821, "Mississippi Makeover" at Spring Lake:
http://www.dakotaswcd.org/wshd_missmak.html

May 12, 1 mile, below Mile 820, Lee Grist Mill:
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=374

May 19, 1 mile, Mile 817, Nininger Townsite:
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=378

July 13, 1.14 miles, Mile 816: Streckfus Daymark:
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=379

2009-04-05T15:31:00.001-07:00

March 30, 1.25 miles, below Mile 822:

http://www.co.dakota.mn.us/LeisureRecreation/CountyParks/Locations/SpringLake/default.htm

Shipping Season Begins

2009-03-24T19:50:00.000-07:00

WINONA, Minn. (AP) -- The first commercial towboat of the spring is on its way through Lake Pepin on its way to St. Paul to officially open up the Mississippi River shipping season. The Deana Ann passed through Lock and Dam Number Four at Alma, Wisconsin, at 2:50 a.m. Monday. It was pushing 15 barges. The tow has encountered ice that was at least a foot thick in some areas of the lake. Once the Deana Ann makes it to St. Paul, it will mark a much earlier opening this year compared to a year ago. In 2008, the first tow did not reach St. Paul until April 11. The average opening in the last 10 years has been March 20.

March 23, 1.5 miles, Mile 824, SAC B-52 Crash Site:
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=362

March 24, 1.25 miles, below Mile 823, Spring Lake:
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=370

2009-03-07T19:07:00.000-08:00

February 23, 1.25 miles, mile 828, Pine Bend Bluffs
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=366

February 24, 1 mile, mile 827
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=359

February 25, 1.5 miles, between mile 826 and 825, Ordway Natural History Area
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=357

Between Washington & Dakota Counties

2009-02-22T17:02:00.000-08:00

February 16, 1.5 miles, below Mile 831:
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=347

Chunks have started to fall off this decommissioned toll bridge, so Washington County is proceding to have their side of the bridge demolished:
http://www.startribune.com/local/east/39381322.html?elr=KArksUUUU
Dakota County has debated restoring the bridge as a recreational resource, but the cost will probably prove prohibitive.

February 18, 1.25 miles, below Mile 830: Merrimac Island:
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=348

2009-02-11T19:33:00.000-08:00

February 10: 1.0 miles, below Mile 834, Post Office Robbery by Barker-Karpis Gang
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=313

February 11: 1.5 miles, Mile 832, Wakotah Bridge
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=329

Strawberries in February

2009-02-07T22:28:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Jennifer Figge, the first woman to swim across the Atlantic:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7877222.stm

"The season being far advanced when we were in New Orleans, the roses and magnolia blossoms were falling; but here in St. Paul it was the snow. In New Orleans we had caught an occasional withering breath from over a crater, apparently; here in St. Paul we caught a frequent benumbing one from over a glacier, apparently.
I am not trying to astonish by these statistics. No, it is only natural that there should be a sharp difference between climates which lie upon parallels of latitude which are one or two thousand miles apart. I take this position, and I will hold it and maintain it in spite of the newspapers. The newspaper thinks it is n't a natural thing; and once a year, in February, it remarks, with ill-concealed exclamation points, that while we, away up here are fighting snow and ice, folks are having new strawberries and peas down South; callas are blooming out of doors, and the people are complaining of the warm weather. The newspaper never gets done being surprised about it. It is caught regularly every February. There must be a reason for this; and this reason must be change of hands at the editorial desk. You cannot surprise an individual more than twice with the same marvel--not even with the February miracles of the Southern climate; but if you keep putting new hands at the editorial desk every year or two, and forget to vaccinate them against the annual climatic surprise, that same old thing is going to occur right along. " Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi

February 2: 1.5 miles, , below Mile 836, Swing Bridge
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=299

February 3: 1.0 miles, below Mile 835, Kaposia Village
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=300

January Progress

2009-02-07T21:09:00.000-08:00

Day 5: 1.5 miles, Mile 842, Lilydale Regional Park
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=208

Day 6: 0.75 miles, just above Mile 841. With this, I crossed to a new map page:
http://www2.mvr.usace.army.mil/NIC2/Documents/MissRiver/Map010-832-841.pdf
Pickerel Lake:
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=220

Day 7: 1.5 miles, below Mile 840, Harriet Island
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=246

Day 8: 1.14 miles, below Mile 839, Swede Hollow
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=275

Day 9: 1.5 miles, mile 837, Pig's Eye
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=282

"The basin of the Mississippi is the body of the Nation" -- Mark Twain

2009-02-07T16:18:00.000-08:00

On January 5, 2009, I began a virtual swim down the Mississippi. It was about 20 degrees that day, so staying indoors seemed prudent. I could have started from the scenic headwaters of Lake Itasca, but chose to start closer to home, at Mile 848 just above Lock & Dam # 1 in Minneapolis (http://www2.mvr.usace.army.mil/NIC2/Documents/MissRiver/Map009-842-851.pdf)

For my notes on the trip, I am using the Friends of the Mississippi River's Field Guide.
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=173

Day 1: 1.14 miles, below Mile 847, Hidden Falls Regional Park: http://www.stpaul.gov/facilities.asp?search=1&CID=1&pagenum=3&RID=42&Page=detail

Day 2: 1.14 miles, below Mile 846, Fort Snelling:
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=189

Day 3: 1.5 miles, above Mile 844, Pike Island:
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=194

Day 4: 0.75 miles, below Mile 844, confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers:
http://fieldguide.fmr.org/site_detail.php?site_id=205