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Peter Webb at Sergeant Bluff Middle
School asks:
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What materials
were used to build a steamboat?
From Steamboats on the Western Rivers by Louis C. Hunter.
The boats were mostly constructed of wood
(pine, ash and oak, and cedar). The thin wood top deck was
made both waterproof and fireproof by covering it with canvas,
painting it, and adding sand to it. The high pressure steam
engines were made of iron. The upper-decks had shingles
on top of the entire structure.
Adam Schmidt and Misty Leber at Sergeant Bluff
Middle School asks:
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What can you tell
me about the Sultanas Steamboat explosion?
From Steamboats on the Western Rivers by Louis C. Hunter.
The Sultana was a large steamboat. Right
at the end of the Civil War, the Sultana was embarking on
a trip with near capacity of 376 passengers when the captain
packed on “... 2,000 released Union Army prisoners.” The
Sultana tubular boiler could not handle the added weight
stress and under the strain it blew up killing approximately
1,500 people (according to the books reference to the Cincinnati
Gazette of April 29, 1865).
To learn about another steamboat catasrophe
go to The Arabia Steamboat Museum site: http://www.1856.com/
Adam Schmitt, Jodi Haglund, Amanda
Sternberg at Sgt. Bluffs, Time Derg at Starmont, Mediapolis Middle
School, Norwalk Middle School, and Scott Kristy at Exira Junior
High School ask:
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What
is the first steamboat built and what was its name?
The first recorded steamboat on the Mississippi River was
the New Orleans, built in 1811 by Robert Fulton's company.
The New Orleans was listed as 148.5 feet long. Most
of the early steamboats were around 150 feet long. The New
Orleans also measured 32.5 feet in width and had a draft
of 12 feet. Its weight or tonnage was 371 tons. It departed
from Pittsburgh in October and arrived in New Orleans in mid-January
of 1812. The New Orleans steamed the river from New
Orleans to Natchez until she sank in 1814 after hitting a
stump.
Ben Nash asks:
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What
did they feed the people on the steamboats in the 1800s?
Large quantities of meats were on the menu for the passengers
who paid more to have a cabin room. The menu might include
'...breakfast of beefsteaks, fowls, pigeon, plates of cold
sliced ham and other meats, coffee and tea; dinner, great
platters of beefsteak, baked pork or turkey, small platters
of ducks, chicken, cold sliced meats, potatoes, rice, corn,
and meal or rice pudding; supper very much like breakfast.'
Deck passengers traveled very poorly. Most times they had
to supply their own food and cook it on stoves that were provided
for anyone on the deck level.
Ships to America do not provide any description of provisions
on the voyage to second cabin or steerage passengers, except
one pound weight each adult of bread or bread stuffs.
Exira Junior High School asks:
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How
much would it cost today to go on a five day trip up the Mississippi
River?
The experts called up the Delta Queen Steamboat Co. to find
out what the cost of such a journey would be today. The cruises
begin in New Orleans and include stops in four different ports
during a five day cruise. Depending on the type of accommodations,
the price per person on the Delta Queen will run anywhere
from $900-3,400.
Locks & Dams
Justine Mishler at Sergeant
Bluff Middle School asks:
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What
are some of the uses for dams?
The lock and dam systems on the Mississippi River were built
by the Army Corps of Engineers as part of the 9 Foot Channel
Project. Each dam's main use is to hold back enough water
in pools to create a 9 foot deep channel. The dams are also
used for flood control. The locks allow boats to be raised
or lowered from one pool to another.
Barges
Adam Farzen at Starmont asks:
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How
many semi trucks can a barge hold?
A barge has a cargo capacity equivalent to 58 semi-trucks.
A tow, which usually includes 15 barges, has a cargo capacity
equivalent to 870 semi-trucks.
Kim Laughead at Starmont asks:
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How
long have barges been around?
Barges have been in use since the dawn of history, they were
common on the Nile in ancient Egypt. Some were highly decorated
and used for transporting royalty. The use of such state barges
persisted in Europe until modern times.
Mark Twain
Jenna Koehn and Kristie Werning ask:
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Where is Mark Twain buried?
Mark Twain's (Samuel Clemens) grave is located in Woodlwan
Cemetary in New York.
From: [ASSOCIATED PRESS NIGHT REPORT.],
22 April 1910
REDDING (Ct.) April 21. -- Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark
Twain) died painlessly at 6:30 tonight of angina pectoris.
He lapsed into coma at 3 o'clock this afternoon and never
recovered consciousness.
PRESIDENT PAYS TRIBUTE TO TWAIN.
WASHINGTON (D.C.) April 21. -- President Taft, who has expressed
the keenest interest in the condition of Samuel L. Clemens,
since the report of his serious illness, when informed of
the death of Mr. Clemens tonight, wrote personally this
statement:
"Mark Twain gave pleasure
-- real intellectual enjoyment -- to millions, and his works
will continue to give such pleasure to millions yet to come.
He never wrote a line that a father could not read to a
daughter. His humor was American, but he was nearly as much
appreciated by Englishmen and people of other countries
as by his own countrymen. He has made an enduring part of
American literature."
To find more information about
the life and times of Mark Twain visit the Web site below:
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/index2.html
Mississippi River Facts
The Mediapolis Sixth graders ask:
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How much soil builds
at the mouth of the river yearly?
From Status and Trends of Hydrologic Modification
Reduction in Sediment Availabilty, and Habitat Loss/Modification
in the Barataria-Terrabonne Estuarine System. Courtesy of
the Bararaia-Terrebonne National Estuary program
The average suspended load (all floating
solids) presently reaching the gulf of Mexico is approximately
78,000,000 cubic yard per year. So what in the world does
this mean? It’s obviously a lot, but how can YOU put it
into terms everyone can understand? If a swimming pool is
25 yards (50 yards(6 feet deep, how many pools would equal
the amount of mud that accumulates yearly in the Gulf of
Mexico.
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How are the sandbars
formed?
From The Mighty Mississippi
by Bern Keating
The current basically runs down the
middle of the river in straight stretches. At a bend in
the river the current hugs the outside bank. A sandbar is
formed on the inside turn of the bend for two reasons:
The water on the inside of the turn moves slower since it
is out of the main current, therefore sand drops out of
the water.
The faster current on the outside of the bend digs up sand
but this water bounces off the outer bank. The water deflects
back to the inside bend where the sand is dropped forming
the sandbar.
Josh Oehlerking at Sergeant Bluff Middle School
asks:
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What
is the turbidity of the Mississippi River?
Turbididty is the amount of suspended material in water. This
is a little bit different than the clarity of water, because
although water may be murky it may not be due to suspended particles,
for example a bog where the water is actually stained.
Turbidity is the cloudiness of water resulting from suspended
material in the water. This suspended material decreases the
ability of light to pass through the water column. Reduced light
penetration can limit plant growth. This in turn affects the
fish and invertebrate communities which feed on and live in
the plants. Turbidity may be caused by silt, microorganisms,
plant material, and chemicals. However, the most frequent causes
of turbidity in rivers and other waterbodies are algae and inorganic
material from soil, weathering, and erosion.
Turbidity is normally measured by an instrument called a Nephelometer.
This instrument determines the scattering of light and is measured
in standard Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU). Normal levels
of turbidity can vary from less than 1 in clear pristine streams
to very much greater than 200 NTU in murky rivers after flood
events.
Many variables play a part in determining the turbididty of
the Mississippi River. For instance after a rainy spring, when
the water level is high, the turbididty will be high due to
the vigorous activity of the water. In late summer the water
will have lower turbididty because the water is calmer. Location
will also play a part in the turbididty measurement. The Gulf
of Mexico in New Orleans or St. Anthony Falls in Minnesota will
have higher trubididty than the headwaters in Lake Itasca. Turbididty
tends to be relative to what is happening in the river.
For more information: http://140.211.62.101/streamwatch/swm19.html
Maggie Dunagan at Sergeant-Bluff
asks:
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What is
the gradient of the Mississippi River along the Iowa part of
the river and the whole river?
The gradient of the river is
the change in vertical position divided by the change in horizontal
position. To find the gradient of the whole river, the altitude
above sea level for Lake Itasca, Minnesota and the straight
line distance from Lake Itasca to New Orleans need to be known.
Lake Itasca is 1,475 feet above the ocean's level. New Orleans
is at sea level. Therefore, the change in height (vertical position)
is 1,475 feet. The straight line distance (change in horizontal
position) between these two locations is approximately 1,436
miles. Dividing 1,475 ft by 1,436 miles gives the gradient answer
as being approximately 1 ft per mile (1.03 ft/mile). This low
gradient makes the river water flow in a gentle manner.
Using US Army Corp of Engineers
Upper Mississippi River Navigation information, the elevation
for the Highway 82 Bridge near Lansing, IA is 620 feet and the
Keokuk Highway 218 Bridge is 480 feet . The straight line distance
from Lansing to Keokuk is 204 miles (calculated using the How
Far Is It? Web site at http://www.indo.com/cgi-bin/dist
). This calculates out to approximately 0.7 ft/mile.
Settlers & Immigration
Ryan Jorgensen and Jeff Duncan ask:
- Why did people settle by
the river?
People settled by the river for a variety of reasons, including
the accessibility to fish and the abundance of wildlife for
food. Also living near the river might be something like living
near a freeway today. If you had a boat, it would have been
quicker, in some cases, to hop on the river, instead of hiking
through a dense forest.
Wildlife
The following questions have been graciously answered
by Tom Boland from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR),
who was actually driving over the Mississippi River while he answered!
Paige Prehm asks:
- Has the temperature of the
river increased over the years?
Most game fish don’t like warm water, do they? There is no evidence
of an increase in temperature overall. The DNR uses long term
monitoring programs to check water quality and temperature. Studies
conducted over the past ten years show that the average temperatures
have not increased. Some issolated locations in shallow backwaters
do show an increase temperature. This is mostly due to increased
sedimentation and turbididty rates.
Although not all of the the 150 species found in the upper Mississippi
River are considered game fish, nearly all of them are warm water
species. Minor temperature increases are not harmful to them.
Some fish such as northern pike, walleye, and sauger do, in fact,
prefer cooler temperatures.
Norway Elementary asks:
- How many fish are caught
in a year?
In Iowa, commercial fishing on the Mississippi River yields an
annual harvest of 1.2 million pounds of fish. An approximation,
therefor of the fish caught in all ten of the states that border
the Mississippi River would be about 12 million.
The sport harvest is much more difficult to estimate. Surveys
in study locations show estimates varying from 3-10 thousand fish
caught annually. Expanded to the entire river, that number would
be in the hundreds of thousands. Most of the fish are blue gill
and crappie (also called pan fish), the rest are walleye, sauger,
large mouth bass, channel catfish, and freshwater drum.
Matt Lindeblom asks:
- How many different
kinds of fish are there in the river?
There is in excess of 150 species just on the upper Mississippi
River (St. Louis to Minnesota). If the entire Mississippi River
is included, the number is upwards of 200 species, making it one
of the most diverse fisheries in North America.
Ashley Handel Sergeant Bluff Middle School asks:
- How do the changes
in the Mississippi River help the environment?
One of the characteristics of a river is it is a system of change.
The natural changes of the river are adapted to by the fish and
wildlife. Unfortunately, many changes are not natural and are
caused by humans. These changes do not help the environment. Human
changes to the river include chemical and other contaminant loading
and induced sediments from agriculture, industry, and construction.
Peter Webb asks:
- Is there any pollution
in the Mississippi River that is hurting the fish?
The biggest pollution problem is sediment called non-point sediment
which means it cannot be pin-pointed. It fills in the backwaters,
in some cases, at very elevated rates. This is where fish spawn
and wildlife reproduce. Chemicals such as mercury, lead, zinc,
or PCBs. These contaminants create problems by contaminating the
entire food chain. This affects the fish gradually depending on
their diet. In some cases the contaminents are so high that the
fish are immediately overpowered by the chemicals.
Norway Elementary, Michelle Harreld at Starmont
asks:
- What is the smallest
and largest fish in the Mississippi River?
The smallest adult size fish is the madtom catfish. This catfish
species does not exceed 2-3 inches long. Many minnow species are
2-3 inches long. One of the largest fish is also in the catfish
family. Flathead and blue catfish have been known to exceed 100
pounds. Paddlefish and lake sturgeon, weighing in at an average
100 pounds, would also be a pretty good catch.
Luke Jacob asks:
- How many fish are tagged
a year?
The number of fish tagged in a year varies considerably and depends
upon the number of studies performed by the DNR. One station may
tag as many as 5,000 fish in one year. Sometimes the DNR radio
tags the fish. This is a more specific tagging and requires fewer
(only 25-30 fish) subjects.
Regular tags are small plastic pieces placed at the dorsal fin.
These devices track movement, determine population, and fish harvest
rates. The radio tags track the fish on a daily basis to study
where they live and feed. Once this is determined, these habitats
are then protected and improved.
Brett Hood at Sergeant middle School asks
- What can students do
to help the river?
You should become aware of the issues that face the river. This
information can be found by Reading books about the river or getting
on the Internet to look for information. Become knowledgeable
and involved. If you live by a river it may drain into the Mississippi
River. By helping with community activities to clean your river,
you will be helping the Mighty Mississippi. A great way to become
effectively involved is to speak to your legislators about how
important the river is to you.
Travis Cavros at Adel/DeSoto Intermediate asks:
- What has been the biggest
mammal that ever lived in or around the Mississippi River?
In prehistoric times, there may have been
mammoth in the area. In recent history, buffalo (793-2,000 lb.)
and moose (700-1,400 lb.) are believed to be biggest mammals
along the river.
Norway Elementary School asks:
- What is a female eagle's
wingspan?
Peterson's Field Guide of Eastern Birds shows no difference
between an adult male and adult female's wing span or spread.
An average wing spread is listed between 7-8 feet.
Mussels & Clamming
Shelby Tenant School asks:
- How do you know if your
button is made of clam shell?
Clam shell buttons are still in use today.
To discern a clam button from a regular plastic button, look
at the thickness and coloring. A clam button may be a little
thicker or darker on one side. Generally , one side is also
opalescent. Although attractive, clam buttons are fragile and
tend to break easily.
Barbara Berry asks:
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What is the
history of clamming on the Mississippi River?
You can find an overview of the history
of the clamming industry on the Mississippi River in our Mississippi
River Journal. Click on the link below and chose La Crosse,
WI on the map. You'll find information and additional links
in the June 11 entry.
http://www3.iptv.org/interactive/miss/frames-journal.html
Ann Lenaers at Starmont asks:
- When was the height
of the button business?
The height of the button business occurred
in the late 1800s. Muscatine, Iowa was considered to be the
Pearl Button Capital of the World by 1890, employing over 2,500
workers in 43 different button-related businesses. (Discover!
America's Great River Road, Volume 2. Pat Middleton, 1992.)
Dinosaurs
Jessie at Laurens Middle School asks:
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Have any dinosaur
bones been found in the Mississippi River?
From Joe Artz, Project Archaeologist at the
Office of the State Archaeologst at the University of Iowa.
Whenever a dinosaur died, its bones fell on the ground or
settled to the bottom of the water. The bones either rotted
away, or became buried in the mud or sand. Eventually, the
mud and sand turned to rock (such as sandstone, limestone,
or shale) and the bones themselves turned into rocks, which
we call fossils. Dinosaurs lived during the Cretaceous, Jurassic,
and Triassic periods, many millions of years ago. Therefore,
the only place to find dinosaur fossils is in rocks that date
to the Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Triassic periods, when dinosaurs
lived (and died).
The Mississippi River valley is carved into solid rock. In
places, cliffs of rock stand along the sides of the valley.
But the rock that forms the walls and the floor of the Mississippi
valley are, for the most part, older than the Cretaceous,
Jurassic, and Triassic periods. In Iowa, for example, the
Mississippi valley is cut in rocks of the Mississippian, Devonian,
and Silurian periods. These rocks were laid down on the floors
of oceans many millions of years before there were dinosaurs.
One can find sea shells, shark's teeth, corals, and the remains
of other sea creatures in these rocks, but no dinosaurs.
Surprising as this may seem, when the dinosaurs were around,
the Mississippi River didn't even exist. The Mississippi River
valley, as we know it, only came into existence in the last
50,000 years or so, long after the last dinosaur was dead
and fossilized. The Mississippi valley, as it exists today,
was carved mostly by waters melting from thick ice sheets
that covered the northern half of North America during the
last ice age. Woolly mammoths aplenty visited the Mississippi,
but never a dinosaur.
It sounds kind of odd, but it's true. The Mississippi River
itself is too young to have been visited by dinosaurs, and
the rocks that stand like cliffs along some parts of the valley
are too old to contain dinosaur fossils. A paleontologist
looking for dinosaurs is a lot like Goldilocks looking for
the perfect bowl of porridge. Some rocks are too old, some
rocks are too young. In North America, one has to go farther
west, into the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains to find rocks
that are "Just Right!" for finding dinosaur bones.
Bridges
Exira Junior high asks:
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What
is the name of and where is the location of the largest bridge
that spans the Mississippi River?
From, Climbing The Mississippi River Bridge by Bridge by Mary
Costello
The Huey P. Long Railway/Highway bridge as the biggest. This
bridge is 22,996 feet (4.3 miles)long. However, the Thebes,
Illinois, High Railroad Bridge is 24,816 feet (4.7 miles) long
giving it the distinction of being the longest.
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