Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1896 — Drying up of the Missouri. [ARTICLE]

Drying up of the Missouri.

By official measurements at Sioux City, lowa, It is found that the Missouri River is steadily diminishing In volume. The gauging of 1895 shows that the amount of water passing that point is twenty per cent, less than in 1878. The volume of the Ohio has likewise diminished, but that is accounted for by the cutting off of the timber. There seems to be no such cause operating on the upper waters of the Missouri. It never had much growing timber along its bank or on land tributary to it. The Upper Missouri is not the highway for steamboats that it was twenty or thirty years ago. and, in the mutiplieation of railways, may not be greatly needed for that purpose, but those who live on its banks would not like to see it an arroyo or dry ditch. There is no sentiment associated with the incessant flow of the majestic river. Even the name “Big Muddy.” when translated Into the Indian tongue is euphonious, and surely the uses of the great river for drinking purposes for live stock could not easily be supplied from any other source. The Canadians and others on the shores of lakes Michigan and Huron are making quite a stir because they fear the witter in these lakes will lie lowered by the new drainage caual connecting the Chicago River with the Illinois River. Their protests may answer some purpose by preventing the appropriations from Congress necessary to make the drainage ditch into a grand ship canal, connecting the great lakes with the Mississippi and the gulf, but the great waterway is pretty sure to be built at some future time not far distant. But if the Missouri concludes to dry up, it is difficult to see what we can de. about it. No artificial rainmaker and no use of pumps can ever prevent it, if the climatic conditions are such as to produce the result. It has been suggested that the people all move down the Big Muddy to a point past its junction with the Mississippi. Then if the Missouri should dry up, the new stream from the great lakes through the Hennepin Canal will supply the deficiency and the products of the.farms, and other commerce, will go on “unvexed to the sea.”