Living with the Mississippi River in the nineteenth century
People living on the upper Mississippi River in the American Bottom
region in the nineteenth century regularly contended with the
river's dynamic forces. In the early part of the century people
were just beginning to consider using steamboats.
Before they
could, large quantities of debris had to be removed, otherwise
travel would be too dangerous. Besides cleaning up the river,
the inhabitants of Illinoistown and
St. Louis had to deal with
the Mississippi's changing riverbed. At one point, St. Louis faced
becoming land-locked as its river front filled with silt.