The
Corps of Engineers will soon begin a series of public hearings
concerning the future management of the Missouri River. As we
near those hearings, the public will undoubtedly be exposed to a
barrage of advertising and emotional pleas insisting that the
Corps restore the river to what it was when Lewis and Clark made
their historic journey.
Last Spring, noted historian Stephen Ambrose, author of Undaunted
Courage, a best-selling account of the Lewis and Clark
expedition, reportedly pledged $1 million to the environmental
group American Rivers to aid in restoring the Missouri River to
what it was in the days of Lewis and Clark. So, the question
arises, what was the Missouri River really like in 1804?
The Missouri River of 1804 is often portrayed as river having
three, four, even five main channels and a multitude of islands
and side channels. Clark's maps and surveys of the period,
including the Lewis and Clark Trail Maps by Martin Plamondon II,
suggests something quite different-a river not so very different
than the one we know today.
To help understand the differences and similarities between the
modern day Missouri River and the river of 1804, I went to John
LaRandeau, Operations Program Manager for the Corps of Engineers
Northwest Division. LaRandeau is a highly respected engineer who
has for many years studied and analyzed historic changes in the
Missouri River from Sioux City, Iowa to its confluence with the
Mississippi. I asked LaRandeau three questions. His answers are
quite enlightening.
Q: When you compare the modern day Missouri River with the
river depicted on the Lewis and Clark Trail Maps or the more
detailed river survey maps of 1816, what similarities and
differences do you find?
LaRandeau: First and most significantly, the river
traveled by Lewis and Clark and the modern-day river, are each
single channel rivers. There is no indication of a semi-braided
or multiple-channel river at the beginning of the 19th century.
There were times in the mid to late 1800's that, probably due to
frequent high flood flows, some reaches of the river did change
from a meandering single channel to a semi-braided stream, but
that was not the river traveled by Lewis and Clark. The river
traveled by Lewis and Clark was straighter and most likely faster
than today's river in some reaches, and it was meandering and
sinuous (or winding) in others. Today's river has a more even
sinuosity throughout, but it does not meander. The most
significant difference between the two rivers is width. Our river
today is much narrower, perhaps two or three times narrower than
the river traveled by Lewis and Clark.
Q: Critics have accused the Corps of channeling today's
Missouri River into a ditch. Are those claims accurate?
LaRandeau: I guess it depends on how you define a ditch.
There are great similarities between the single channel river
that was traveled by Lewis and Clark and the river as it exists
today. The Corps has stabilized the channel, but it certainly has
not carved out a whole new river. In fact, today's river channel
tracks very closely with the channel that existed at the time of
construction. In many ways, calling today's river a ditch may in
fact be calling the Lewis and Clark river a ditch as well.
Q: Do the similarities between the modern day Missouri and
the river traveled by Lewis and Clark yield any clues as to how
the Corps should manage the river?
LaRandeau: Looking at the river as it was recorded by
Lewis and Clark helps us better understand what the river really
did look like. There are some people who want a river, envision a
river, that never did exist. If you consider the Lewis and Clark
river a vision of what the Missouri River should look like in the
future, we appear to be on the right track today. Many of the
things that have been done in terms of side channel enhancements
are very similar to what you would have found in Lewis and
Clark's day. The Lewis and Clark river was not inundated with
islands and side channels, but there were islands and side
channels every few miles. That is what is being recreated today
at our mitigation sites. Of course we can not fully recreate the
wetland river of 1804. We have to protect the river from
meandering away from communities and keep it viable for
navigation. But there are things we can do, and are doing, that
make the modern day Missouri River very similar to the river
traveled by Lewis and Clark.
No one knows with any certainty how or if the Missouri River
controversy will ever be resolved, but one thing is clear. The
public needs and deserves factual information. And we are
fortunate to have people like John LaRandeau who take time to
research and share information so vital to the basin's mutual
understanding of the issues. Thank you John for your candid and
informative answers.
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