Why the Mississippi Went Dry00:16:21

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In the autumn of 2022, the Mississippi River dropped so low near Memphis that Civil War shipwrecks resurfaced from the mud, intact belt buckles and all. At Baton Rouge, a steamboat hull that sank in 1915 was exposed for the first time in over a century. Meanwhile, saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico pushed 60 miles upstream, contaminating drinking water for communities with no other source. The river had not gone dry but by any historical standard, what happened was unthinkable.


The reason goes back to a century of engineering decisions that began with good intentions. After the catastrophic 1927 flood drowned 700,000 people out of their homes and inundated 27,000 square miles of land, Congress handed the Army Corps of Engineers a mandate to tame the Mississippi permanently. They built levees, dug artificial cutoffs, and shortened the river by 170 miles. It worked until it didnt. A faster, straighter river with no floodplains and no natural reserves proved catastrophic in drought, and the record lows of 2022 and 2023 were only the beginning.


#ItsHistory #MississippiRiver #AmericanHistory

ITS HISTORY - Weekly Tales of American Urban Decay as presented by your host Ryan Socash.

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Scriptwriter - Ryan Socash
Editor - Karolina Szwata
Host - Ryan Socash


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» Sources

NOAA National Weather Service Memphis gauge records, 20222023 low water events
NASA Earth Observatory Aerial documentation, 2022 low water
WBRZ Baton Rouge / Louisiana State Archaeologist Chip McGimsey Brookhill shipwreck exposure, 2022
Scientific American Saltwater intrusion, Gulf of Mexico, 20222023
NPR Plaquemines Parish drinking water contamination, 20222023
Britannica Steamboat history; Robert Fulton; New Orleans, 1811
American Battlefield Trust New Orleans port rankings, 1846; Mississippi cotton production, 18201860
Mississippi Encyclopedia John Adams sinking, 1851; steamboat era history
Charles Dickens, American Notes, 1842 Boiler explosion frequency
National Park Service Upper Mississippi barge tonnage, modern figures
PBS American Experience / Grist Charles Ellet congressional report, 1852; levees-only policy
Mississippi Encyclopedia / 64 Parishes 1927 flood statistics and aftermath
Wikipedia / EBSCO Flood Control Act of 1928, $325 million appropriation
ASCE Transactions, Gerard H. Matthes Diamond Point cutoff, 1933; 16 cutoffs; 170-mile shortening
USGS Circular 1375 Sediment load reduction; Louisiana coastal land loss
Practical Engineering / Responsible Alpha Old River Control Structure history; 1973 near-failure