Ken Kneipp: Headwaters

HEADWATERS

by Ken Kneipp

Many of us who are New Orleans natives have probably lived close to the Mississippi River for most of our lives. However, it is unlikely that any of us has ever lived closer to the river than we do today as residents of Lambeth House! The river view from my balcony provides continually-changing vistas that attest to the river’s power, vitality, and commercial significance. It also serves as a constant and comforting reminder for me that despite many years away from New Orleans, I am “home” once again.

As a native of this city, my early years in its uptown neighborhoods came with a subconscious awareness of the river’s presence. In those sweltering days before air-conditioning, I could hear the muffled sounds of wharf, rail, and river traffic at night. And, from early childhood through my college years, I could have easily walked from our family’s uptown home to the edge of the river’s east bank. Five additional years on LSU’s Baton Rouge campus, nestled on the river just a bit upstream, imposed no real separation from the “Mighty Mississippi.”

My father worked along the riverfront in New Orleans virtually his entire adult life. Overseeing the handling of cargo that arrived on ships from all over the world gave him an intimate familiarity with the river and a thorough knowledge of port operations. Occasional short weekend stops at the riverfront wharves with him as a child taught me a few things, too. I learned what sisal is, what raw ebony wood looks like, and what natural rubber feels and smells like. And, I discovered that while plantains and bananas are similar in appearance, they are certainly not the same. Such childhood riverfront adventures were exciting and informative.

Following my first 27 years living along the southern stretches of the Mississippi River, my wife and I moved north to Saint Paul, Minnesota. This move enabled me to maintain that familiar close proximity to the river that was to continue uninterrupted for another 37 years. The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul are situated on either side of the upper Mississippi, with the river serving in some locations as the boundary between the two cities.

While it is technically the same Mississippi River that we have here, the northern region of the river that we encountered in Minnesota would not be recognizable to most residents of south Louisiana. It is much smaller and much more approachable than the southern river we know. The size difference alone has

allowed for the construction of many vehicle bridges that span the river throughout this northern region. There are about thirty such bridges in the greater Minneapolis–Saint Paul urban area alone, along with numerous additional railroad bridges. Compare that to the major engineering challenges and enormous expense inherent in constructing bridges across our much larger southern river. The first bridge to be built over the Mississippi River in the New Orleans area, and the first in all of Louisiana, was the Huey P. Long Bridge, which opened in 1935. What we know today as the first span of the downtown “Crescent City Connection” did not materialize until 1958. And, it took another 30 years for the second parallel span to be completed.

There are other major differences between the Mississippi River we knew in Louisiana and the one we encountered in Minnesota. While there is some modest barge and tugboat traffic along with occasional summertime visits from paddlewheel excursion boats as far north as Saint Paul, no ocean-going ships can navigate the 29 lock and dam structures on the river that exist north of Saint Louis. And, the northern region of the Mississippi is much cleaner, too – by the time the river reaches New Orleans, it has passed through ten states and has collected drainage sediment and debris from a total of 31 states and two Canadian provinces, providing an ample opportunity for it to rightly claim the name “Muddy Mississippi.”

Just to the south of Saint Paul, in a shallow, widened section of the river known as Lake Pepin, this “clean” Mississippi River takes on the unfamiliar characteristics of a safe and pleasant recreational area, an attractive location today for swimming, hiking, fishing, birding, kayaking, wind-surfing, power-boating, and sailing. It was in this area of the river where, a century ago in 1922, nineteenyear-old Ralph Samuelson made the connection between snow skiing and water skiing. He invented the concept of water skiing at Lake Pepin, initially using ordinary boards strapped to his feet as skis and his mother’s clothesline as a towrope!

Even if you are not a Mississippi River enthusiast, you can’t live in Minnesota very long without learning that the river actually has its origin there. It flows north, and then east, out of a small glacial lake in north central Minnesota – a location known as “The Headwaters” – before beginning its long meandering southern journey to the Gulf of Mexico. The name for this lake, given initially by the native Ojibwe people, was “Omashkoozozaaga’igan,” but thankfully this name was later changed by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, an American geographer, to “Lake Itasca,” the name it bears today. Schoolcraft recognized that this small lake was the

river’s headwaters, and the name “Itasca” resulted from his combining parts of the two Latin words, “veritas” (true) and “caput” (head) – verITAS CAput.

Lake Itasca – and the spot where the river flows from it – is anything but impressive. The lake itself covers an area less than two square miles, and the river’s initial flow is little more than a trickle. It is easy for a small child to hop from rock to rock or wade through the shallow stream in order to cross from the “east” to the “west” bank! Nevertheless, the significance of this location was not overlooked by the state of Minnesota – in 1891, Lake Itasca and the surrounding old growth timber was designated as the state’s first state park in order to commemorate and preserve the location.

For approximately the first 650 miles on its journey south to the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi River flows through rolling pine forests, iron ore ranges, deep valleys, and small towns within Minnesota. One of the more noteworthy of these towns is Little Falls, population about 9,000, located in the center of the state about midway between Lake Itasca and the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolis to the south. Another Minnesota state park of historical significance is located in Little Falls – the Lindbergh State Park, preserving the home and commemorating the life of Charles August Lindbergh, father of the famed aviator, and a U. S. Congressman from 1907 to 1917. The family home still located here was the summer boyhood home of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, the national hero who flew the first solo nonstop trans-Atlantic flight in 1927.

Each end of the Mississippi River has its own unique and distinctive character. And, of course, the same thing could be said for all the places in between. There are major cities along the river – in addition to Minneapolis–Saint Paul and New Orleans, there is Saint Louis, Memphis, and Baton Rouge, all major population and industrial centers in their own right. And there are other interesting and historic locations, too – places like Dubuque (Iowa), Galena (Illinois), Hannibal (Missouri), Vicksburg and Natchez (Mississippi), and Saint Francisville (Louisiana), each with its own special story to tell.

It really doesn’t matter how the “Mighty Mississippi” is ranked by those keeping track of such things. Some geographers say the Mississippi is the fourth longest river system in the world, after the Nile, Amazon, and Yangtze. Others claim it is the second longest river in North America, just a bit shorter in length than the Missouri. However, the Missouri River, like the Ohio, is a tributary of the Mississippi, and these rankings might change if that is considered. No matter the precise statistics, we in south Louisiana stand in awe of the Mississippi River’s

magnificence – its width, depth, power, fearsome current, and the key role that it has always played in the life of our city.

It has been estimated that the river’s flow at its Lake Itasca headwaters source is about 6 cubic feet of water per second. At New Orleans, the flow is thought to be about 600,000 cubic feet per second, and much higher than that following the spring snow melt up north!

Ol' man river, that ol' man river He don't say nothin', but he must know somethin' He just keeps rollin', he keeps on rollin' along

. . . right past our Lambeth House residence!

Lake Itasca, Minnesota – Headwaters of the Mississippi River (K. Kneipp, 2006) Huey P. Long Bridge and the Mighty Mississippi River (at Lambeth House) (K. Kneipp, 2022)