Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Graduate Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2009 Navigating internal improvement: rivers, canals, and state formation in the nineteenth-century midwest Rick Lee Woten Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Woten, Rick Lee, "Navigating internal improvement: rivers, canals, and state formation in the nineteenth-century midwest" (2009). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 10755. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/10755 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Navigating internal improvement: rivers, canals, and state formation in the nineteenth-century midwest by Rick L. Woten A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Major: Agricultural History and Rural Studies Program of Study Committee: Christopher M. Curtis, Co-Major Professor Pamela Riney-Kehrberg, Co-Major Professor Charles M. Dobbs Matthew Potoski Paul Griffiths Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2009 Copyright © Rick L. Woten, 2009. All rights reserved. ii Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter One Water, Improvement, and Society 17 Chapter Two From Fall Line to Cornerstone: Louisville and Portland Canal 58 Chapter Three Illinois and Michigan Canal: Perfecting Nature’s Project 134 Chapter Four Forging the Way Upriver: The Des Moines River Improvement 208 Conclusion Defining the Legacy of Water and Society 293 Bibliography 306 1 Introduction: Water and Development Life on Earth is dependent on water. As living organisms – humans or other- water is central to the daily cycle of sustaining life. On the Great Serengeti, the watering holes left after seasonal rains become a case study of social hierarchies and relationships. Wildebeests, gazelles, zebras, and buffalos migrate from one available water sources to the next. These creatures often find themselves in an uncomfortable truce with traditional predators such as a lions, cheetahs, and canine species as all seek to consume the vital liquid. All species seeks to secure access to the resource. 1 Humans have followed a similar path to securing access to this resource. Empires rise, wars are fought, and societies collapse with water playing a pivotal role in these events. Despite this important role of water in society and developing worldview synthesis of the importance of water in the formation and life cycle of societies illustrated to this point, the American historiography is largely void of a cohesive contribution to the larger water-in-society metanarrative to date. Even with more recent scholarship on the social dynamics of natural water systems, these studies provide little to enhance our understanding of the influence water has on societal decision-making. Instead, such scholarship focuses on hydrology, morphology, and the riparian ecosystem. 2 Because few historians, environmental and other, explore the topic of water, a synthesized narrative has yet to emerge. Indeed, a general lack of attention to the centrality of water resources 1 For a general overview of the ecosystem of the Serengeti, see: A. R. E. Sinclair and M. Norton- Griffiths, Serengeti: Dynamics of an Ecosystem (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979). 2 For a general overview of the physical dynamics of water in relation to river hydrology and morphology, see: Luna B. Leopold, A View of the River (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994). 2 management and subsequent social, economic, and political effects has no doubt hindered the creation of the greater metanarrative. Additionally, one of the ongoing debates in the historical profession focusing on the loss nuance by lumping studies together informing a coherent narrative no doubt reaches to the analysis of American water management. However, despite the lack of such a narrative emerging and the loss of nuance in developing a coherent narrative, a review of American water historiography does point to the possibility of synthesizing several key points in the historiography of American water management while suggesting new directions for further research. Much of the current scholarship in environmental history addresses three major themes in the discussion of water. These themes include the traditional narrative of humans versus the environment, while also introducing greater intellectual depth with examinations of human attempts at altering the environment for society’s use, and the role of the environment in pitting humans against each other. As such, an overview of the current state of the historiography illustrates areas of research that lend themselves to the creation of a coherent narrative while also presenting some of the major areas that currently defy synthesis. One of the significant contributions to understanding the centrality of water in society is Richard White and The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbia River . Delving headlong into the discussion of the conquest of man over nature and harnessing a resource, White set out to understand how society converted the Columbia River into a machine for human gain. Mainly focused on the Grand Coulee Dam and the stoppage of salmon runs, White traced agricultural and developing urban areas’ 3 dependence on energy derived from the river. While indigenous people fished salmon from the river, later habitants harnessed the Columbia River’s current by damming the river to create turbine energy. White’s interpretation hinges on the contention that the power of water transcends any specific society. 3 Borrowing a framework from the material sciences, White linked the transformative powers of water to its energy capital and potential. White renders the premise of water’s transformative power as a simple transfer of energy and focuses on the interaction between river and life as an ecosystem. Although this scholarship offers a non-declensionist historical interpretation reflecting the scientific canon of kinetic energy, it limits understanding of the transformative powers of water by serving as a platform for decision-making. Engaging the previously mentioned historiographical question of conquest of man over nature, Mark Fiege in Irrigated Eden: The Making of an Agricultural Landscape in the American West restored some, albeit, small agency to society. 4 Focusing on the Snake River Valley in Idaho, Fiege contended that there is a critical break point where humans strike a compromise between extremes in dealing with the environment. This comes about as humans learn by working the limits of what they can take from ecosystems. Specifically, irrigation on the Snake River is a constant give and take between a manmade agricultural ecosystem based on irrigation and the environment that continues to persist. As a result, humans must be cognizant of their actions that lead to overextending the 3 Richard White, The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbia River (New York: Hill and Wang, 1995). 4 Mark Fiege, Irrigated Eden: The Making of an Agricultural Landscape in the American West (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999). 4 abilities of the irrigated ecosystem. In essence, Feige is engaging the traditional humans versus the environment inquiry. However, Feige infuses the human ability to make decisions into the metanarrative of water and society. 5 Contributing to the theme of man versus the environment, Theodore Steinberg explored the central importance of waterways in New England in Nature Incorporated: Industrialization and the Waters of New England . Specifically, Steinberg examined the transformative nature that the struggle over “taming” the New England waters of the Charles and Merrimack River Valleys provided. Steinberg contended New England society faced numerous challenges resulting from the attempts to harness the power potential of the waterways. While harnessing waterpower required overcoming technological hurdles, the cost of this investment also resulted in challenges to the legal and social status quo. 6 Introducing two other major themes, Steinberg stated that a transformation, resulting from efforts at industrialization, forced the creation of new relationships between various individuals and between the environment and the people inhabiting and utilizing the land. From early colonization of America to the present day, acquisition of 5 Also entering the discussion on the conquest of man over nature and arguing an equilibrium approach is Mart Stewart. In “What Nature Suffers to Groe,” Life, Labor and Landscape on the Georgia Coast, 1680-1920 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2002), Stewart focused on the question of whom or what dictates the interplay between humans and the environment. Stewart contended that the landscape of the eastern Georgia coastal region dictated the manner in which human interaction with the environment would be successful or not between 1680 and 1920. In other words, Stewart argued that the natural environment contained the conditions in which it would render itself to successful human activities. Therefore, if human inhabitants did not fully recognize and conform or adjust to the environment they would not achieve their