MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO FACULTY OF EDUCATION
Department of English Language and Literature
The Mississippi River in Mark Twain's Writings
Bachelor Thesis
Brno 2016
Supervisor: Author: PhDr. Irena Přibylová, Ph.D. Aneta Pavlišová
Prohlášení
Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou bakalářskou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných literárních pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.
……………………………………
Aneta Pavlišová
Brno, 17. 3. 2016
Bibliografický záznam Pavlišová, Aneta. The Mississippi River in Mark Twain's Writings: bakalářská práce. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, Fakulta pedagogická, Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury, 2016. 63 s. Vedoucí bakalářské práce PhDr. Irena Přibylová, Ph.D.
Anotace
Bakalářská práce s názvem 'The Mississippi River in Mark Twain's Writings' se zabývá řekou Mississippi v díle Marka Twaina a porovnává její minulost, představovanou Twainem v jeho dílech Život na Mississippi, Dobrodružství Toma Sawyera a Dobrodružství Huckleberryho Finna, spolu se současným stavem řeky na základě serveru National Park Service. Práce je rozdělena na dvě části. První z nich nastiňuje teoretický základ o historii řeky Mississippi a životopisu Marka Twaina v souvislosti s řekou. Druhá část práce je analytická a zabývá se porovnáním aspektů řeky Mississippi z pohledu Marka Twaina v konfrontaci s moderní dobou. Tato část práce se soustředí na klimatické jevy, splavnost, parníky, rybaření a rekreaci v kontextu Mississippi a nakonec dnešními vzdělávacími možnostmi na řece.
Klíčová slova
Mississippi, historie, parníky, Mark Twain, realismus, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, splavnost, rybaření, klima.
Bibliography
Pavlišová, Aneta. The Mississippi River in Mark Twain's Writings: bachelor thesis. Brno: Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Department of English and literature. 2016. 63 pages. The supervisor of the bachelor thesis: PhDr. Irena Přibylová, PhD.
Abstract: Bachelor thesis called 'The Mississippi River in Mark Twain's Writings' deals with the theme of the Mississippi River in Mark Twain's writings and compares the river's history, introduced by Twain in his books Life on the Mississippi, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, with present state of the river based on National Park Service's web page. Bachelor thesis consists of two main parts. The first part outlines the theoretical background of the Mississippi River and Mark Twain's biography related to the river. The second part of the thesis is analytical and provides the comparison of the Mississippi River's aspects from Mark Twain's point of view in confrontation with modern times. This part of the thesis focuses on climatic phenomena, navigability, steamboats, fishing and recreation within the Mississippi's context and finally on today's educational possibilities on the river.
Key words:
Mississippi, history, steamboats, Mark Twain, realism, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, navigability, fishing, climate.
I would like to sincerely thank to my supervisor PhDr. Irena Přibylová, Ph.D. and to my father, for their kind support and valuable advice.
Content Introduction 1. The history of the river ...... 1
1.1. The early history ...... 1
1.2. European explorers and colonialism ...... 4
1.2.1. French domination ...... 5
1.3. Commerce, steamboats and products ...... 6
2. Mark Twain's biography related to the river ...... 8
2.1. Introduction to his texts ...... 9
2.2. Mark Twain's realism ...... 13
2.2.1. Realism in general ...... 13
2.2.2. What made Twain a realist ...... 14
3. The River as a unit ...... 15
3.1. Climatic phenomena ...... 16
3.1.1. Floods ...... 16
3.1.2. Storms and tornadoes ...... 18
3.2. Explosions of steamers ...... 20
3.2.1. The cause of explosions ...... 20
3.2.2. Fires on the Mississippi River in 21th century ...... 22
3.3. Navigability of the Mississippi River ...... 24
3.3.1. Mark, a steamboat pilot ...... 24
3.3.2. Navigability of the river after 21 years to the end of 20th century ...... 27
3.3.3. The completion of the changes in the 20th century ...... 29
3.4. Important cities along the Mississippi River ...... 30
3.4.1. Twin cities , Minnesota ...... 30
3.4.2. New Orleans, Louisiana ...... 33
3.4.3. Hannibal, Missouri ...... 35
3.5. Ethnical groups along the Mississippi ...... 37
3.5.1. Twain and African Americans ...... 37
3.5.2. Twain and Native Americans ...... 39
3.5.3. African Americans and Native Americans on the river nowadays ...... 39
3.6. The Mississippi River nowadays ...... 40
3.6.1. Swimming and fishing ...... 41
3.6.2. Cultural and historical points of interests ...... 43
3.6.3. Discovering the nature of the Mississippi ...... 45
3.6.4. Educators on the Mississippi ...... 45
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………46
Resume……………………………………………………………………………………….49
Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………50
Appendix……………………………………………………………………………………..58
Introduction
The Mississippi River flows through the United States of America and it is one of the largest rivers in the whole world. It is a significant part of the history and presence of the United States of America. Except for many other people, the Mississippi River affected the life and writings of Mark Twain, one of the greatest American writers. He grew up in Hannibal, a town which borders with the Mississippi River in the state of Missouri. The Mississippi River is reflected in his best known pieces – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In later stage of his life, he gathered more information about the river and published Life on the Mississippi which contains his memories of the river when he became the river pilot in his young age and his impression of the river and its surroundings in the later stage of his life when he came back there as a famous writer. His writings are interesting source of history in the Mississippi River area because Mark Twain described the change of the river from the time he became a steamboat pilot in 1859 and the time he came back to the river as a famous writer in 1882. This means that his Life on the Mississippi contains a reflection about changes that occurred as the time passed by, but also a report of the surrounding area and its phenomena. When I first read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as a child I was interested in the Mississippi river because it was obvious that this theme is somehow close to author's heart. I was especially intrigued by his ability to describe the river and nature around him. After some time of studying the history of colonialism, I discovered the Mississippi River's part in human history and found out about his Mississippi writings. Since then I wanted to know more about Twain's relation to the river. The aim of this work is to examine the Mississippi River as Twain describes it and compare it with nowadays state of the river. I will analyse the portrayal of the environment, navigability of the Mississippi, towns and cities along it and other phenomena depicted in Mark Twain's books. I want to compare Twain's approach to the Mississippi in the 19th century with today's approach to it. I am interested in what is the approach to the Mississippi different today in comparison with Mark Twain's times. I also want to find out whether the use of the Mississippi River has somehow changed and what today's possibilities for the visitors here. Also, as a future teacher, I will focus on the educational possibilities on the Mississippi River nowadays.
Thanks to my previous observations of rivers and lakes during fishing, I am excited in the Mississippi River's theme. For the comparison, I will use Mark Twain's writings and modern sources, especially the National Park Service web page. As for the structure of the thesis, it is divided into two main parts which are then divided into subchapters. The first part of this thesis focuses on the theoretical background of the Mississippi river and consists of two subchapters describing the history of the river and Mark Twain's life related to the river. The main sources for the comparison are Twain's Life on the Mississippi, selected volumes of The New Encyclopedia of Southern culture and the National Park Service web page showing today's life on the river. Charts and pictures related to the comparison of the Mississippi River are then visible in the Appendix.
1. The history of the river This chapter is focused on the historical side of the Mississippi river and its surroundings. Because the history of the river is very rich, I divided this chapter into four subchapters devoted to the origin and discoveries of the river, the period of colonialism, the period of French domination and the commerce on the Mississippi. In these chapters I will examine and summarize the history of the river. This subject is maybe more important than people actually realize because the history of the Mississippi River is greatly connected with discovering the American continent and is a close part of the European history, too. It is important to know the evolution of the river which had led to the formation of the future thoroughfare. This theoretical knowledge of the Mississippi's history will be then needed for the analytical part of the thesis. There has been many studies devoted to this subject and as the most useful I find the National Service Park web page, The River of History publication by John O. Anfinson published in 2003 and selected volumes of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture and the Life on the Mississippi book by Mark Twain. According to the Volume 8 of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, the history of the river is divided into two phases. The first phase is characteristic for the efforts to secure strategic control of the river and the second phase is characterized by the use of engineering to gain a control over the river. (Melosi, 2007, 239)
1.1. The early history Native American history in the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (MNRRA, Figure 1 in Appendix) is very wide and it has been done a lot of historical researches including few excavations. First written records are dated to the 17th century thanks to European explorers' arrival. Therefore it is possible to reconstruct the history of the Mississippi before Europeans' arrival only from archaeological information. ''The Early Native American Life in the MNRRA Corridor'' study by Forsberg, Drew M. is very useful. The study was published in 2003. Forsberg says, ”Because archaeological data pertaining directly to the MNRRA corridor is limited, it is necessary to look at a broader region of Minnesota when discussing pre-contact Native American history.” (Forsberg, 2003, 39) First periods of settlement in the Mississippi River area are divided into 4 traditions and cover approximately twelve thousands years. The first period is called Paleoindian because of Paleoindian people. ''Paleoindian'' is the term which archaeologists use for earliest
1
Americans. The Paleoindian tradition is then divided into two periods, the early one which took from 12,000 to 10,000 years before present and the late period which took from 10,000 to 8,000 years before present. When the last glaciers melted, Paleoindian people began inhabiting this area. (Forsberg, 2003, 39) Krippner says that it was the Des Moines Lobe ice sheet which was the dominant in the Minnesota landscape. (Krippner, 20151) The knowledge of Paleoindian period is not very well known because there were not many excavations in Minnesota. “These people probably lived in small, highly mobile bands, hunting large, now-extinct animals, such as the mammoth, mastodont, or camel.” (Forsberg, 2003, 40) Based on a few finds of Paleolithic tools such as the Clovis-like projectile point it can be assumed that the MNRRA corridor was inhabited in the earliest periods, but we do not know anything specific about their life or the size of their occupation. (2003, 40) At the end of the Paleoindian period (circa in 8500 B.P.) a broader culture in the middle of United States created, being referred to as the Dalton period. Evidence of the Dalton people has been found throughout the Mississippi River Valley (Morrow, 20132) Boszhard, the author of A projectile Point Guide for the Upper Missssippi River Valley claims that only few examples of the Dalton points were found in southern Minnesota (Boszhard, 2005, 32), but it is obvious that this period is significant for the whole American continent. Then there was Archaic tradition, slightly more explored than the Paleoindian. Forsberg claims that the Mississippi River area changed a lot during the Archaic period. “After about 6,000 B.P., the climate gradually became wetter and cooler. In response, forests pushed the prairie to the southwest. The forest-praire border reached its present location by about 3,000 years ago”. (Forsberg, 2003, 42) The Archaic Tradition took from 8,000 to 2,500 years before present. (Forsberg, 2003) Forsberg acknowledges that the Woodland Tradition followed the Archaic one and lasted to 350 years before present. This tradition seems to be similar as the Archaic one except there are more sites identifying this period, namely the La Moille Rockshelter, where fishing was the primary source of living. During the Middle Woodland (from 2,000 to 1500 years before present) period the evidence of Havana Hopewell influences was found. Forsberg claims that the Havana Hopewell evidence suggests that craft ideas travelled from Illinois
1 Krippner, Mark. ''The Glacial Landscape of Minnesota''. [online], downloaded 15 Oct. 2015. Accessible from: http://academic.emporia.edu/aberjame/student/krippner1/minngeo9.htm
2 Morrow, E. Juliet. ''Dalton Period''. [online], downloaded 25 Oct. 2015. Accessible from: http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=545 2 through the Mississippi River. (Forsberg, 2003, 45) From that I assume that the Mississippi river was considered to be the source of information even back then. As in Europe back in that time, the Mound-building cultures occurred here in the Mississippi River Valley. The American Journey: A history of the United States publication by David, R. Goldfield is very helpful in this matter, because it fills in the blank spaces in Forsberg's chapter about earliest history. It introduces the Mound-building cultures which occurred in Europe at the same time. Goldfield says the oldest Mound-building cultures developed in Louisiana between 1500 and 700 years before present. The most important of those mound-building cultures is definitely The Mississippian which arose between 1000 and 1500 in the Mississippi Valley. (Goldfield, 2006, 8) “Mississippian farmers raised enough maize, squash and beans to support sizable populations and major urban centres. One of the largest of these was Cahokia, located near present-day St. Louis.” (Goldfield, 2006, 8) This Mississippian era is important because it lasted to the arrival of European explorers. The society developed in this period and some typical crops occurred near the Mississippi River, namely beans, maize and tobacco. The development of the advanced society in the MNRRA corridor is depicted in the Encyclopedia of American History: Three Worlds Meet Beginnings to 1607 by Mancall, who says that “native societies began to reorganize from an egalitarian society to a ranked society known as chiefdom”, naming the The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex as the most important chiefdom. (Mancall, 2003, 250) The final period which was already marked by arrival of Europeans, was made by Natchez people. This era is also the first one about which we have some written evidence. It is a publication named Histoire de la Louisiane by French colonist Antoine Simon le Page du Pratz and it depicts the Natchez culture and society during 18th century. (Mancall, 2003, 251) The Encyclopedia of American History: Three Worlds Meet Beginnings to 1607 describes Natchez as now extinct nation inhabiting the territory near today's Natchez. Mancall also acknowledges that “Natchez Indians had enormous power in the Mississippi Valley when they first encountered European in the middle of the 16th century.” (Mancall, 2003, 251) According to Mancall, the Natchez people were culturally connected to Mississippian people. The head chef was considered to be the great sun and held the responsibility for sunrise every day. (Mancall, 2003, 251) “Corn agriculture, supplemented by beans, pumpkins, peaches and melons, was the basis of their diet. The Natchez also grew tobacco and gathered locally available plants, including wild rice and grapes.” (Mancall, 2003, 251) Their means of transportation were canoes and they were involved in trade with
3 other Native Americans. The Natchez first encountered Europeans when Hernando De Soto arrived to the Mississippi area in 1542. Europeans introduced new diseases to Native Americans which resulted into collapse of population in some areas. (2003, 251) “From a population of perhaps 4,500 in 1650, the Natchez declined to only 300 in 1731.” (Mancall, 2003, 251) The conflicts of Native Americans with Europeans caused the decline of the Natchez community because Europeans eventually defeated the Natchez people and sold them into slavery. (Mancall, 2003, 251) Europeans encountering with Native American marked the end of the earliest history in Mississippi River area. The lack of written evidence causes that only assumptions can be made about the lifeways during prehistoric times. Because I intend to focus mainly on the 19th century and the current state of the river, these prehistoric data are not that important as the ones from Mark Twain himself, but it is necessary to know the basic history to understand the river as complex unit, future thoroughfare and a “Body of the Nation” as Mark Twain calls it in the Life on the Mississippi. The next subchapter is more to the Mississippi a thoroughfare subject because from now on I can gain some information from Mark Twain's books. This is due to Twain's introduction of the Mississippi to readers in the Life on the Mississippi, where he paid a lot of attention to French, occupying the area.
1.2. European explorers and colonialism In this chapter I will depict the Europeans arrival to the Mississippi River area and its effects on life on the river. I will also summarize the pros and cons of European settlement in America and especially the consequences of it. In my opinion this part of the Mississippian history deserves more attention than the earliest one because everything that made Mississippi the future thoroughfare began to be formed in this period. As the main source I will use Twain's Life on the Mississippi as he dedicates a lot of attention to the French explorers and their arrival to this area. As for other sources I will use The Encyclopedia of American history. Volume 1, Three Worlds Meet Beginnings to 1607 by Mancall, Peter C., and Nash, Gary B., Encyclopedia of Southern Culture vol. 3 by Charles Reagan Wilson and Encyclopedia of Southern Culture vol .8 by Martin Melosssi. From the beginning of time, rivers played an important role in human's life. People settled along rivers because it was a source of water, fish and a quick mean of transportation. Authors of the Ship Island, Mississippi: Rosters and history of the civil war prison summarize the activity of Europeans on the new continent simply, but accurately. France, England and Spain fought for decades for the domination of the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast. These
4 three European nations were all interested in the wealth of America, especially in fur, gold and above all, the colonization of this area. (Scriber-Arnold, 2008, 10)
1.2.1. French domination Mississippi's importance as a mean of transportation arose only just with European's arrival to North America. The name Robert de La Salle stands out when it comes to exploring North America and is mentioned couple of times in Life on the Mississippi. But in fact, it was Hernando De Soto who had seen Mississippi as the first white man. It was the year 1542 but Mississippi remained unnoticed for another 130 years until the Robert de La Salle's arrival. (Twain, 2006, 29) As Twain says in the second chapter of the Life on the Mississippi named ''The River and Its Explorers'', it is undoubtedly interesting that the Mississippi remained neglected for such a long time. “But at last La Salle the Frenchman conceived the idea of seeking out that river and exploring it.” (Twain, 2001, 6) And this is how it all begun. Twain continues with question why these people needed river just now when they did not need it before? The reason was that those people realized that the Mississippi River may be a shortcut from Canada to China. (Twain, 2006, 30) “The French era in the Mississippi's history began when Rene-Robert, Cavalier de La Salle, claimed the area for France during his famous voyage down the Mississippi River in 1682. He named the region “Louisiana” in honor of French King Louis XIV.” (Bunn and Williams, 2007) Native Americans had to witness Frenchmen possessing their land by setting up French crosses for Louis the XIV. (Twain, 2006,36) The editor of the New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, volume 8: Environment says that in 1717, French were actually the first who built levees for protection against floods. (Melosi, 2007, 239) Under the leadership of Frenchmen, colonists focused on growing crops as tobacco and rice and developed the deerskin trade which then became the most profitable product of the whole colony. African slaves were brought to the French Mississippi region to help in agricultural projects (Bunn and Williams, 2007) I could assume that from the Europeans' arrival the trade evolved quickly but it took another few decades as Twain adds in the third chapter of Life on the Mississippi, named ''Frescoes from the Past''. “Between La Salle's opening of the river and the time when it may be said to have become the vehicle of anything like a regular and active commerce, seven sovereigns had occupied the throne of England, America had become an independent nation, Louis XIV. and Louis XV. had rotter and died, the French monarchy had gone down in the red tempest of the revolution, and Napoleon was a name that was beginning to be talked
5 about.” (Twain, 2006, 40) This shortly summarizes first attempts of Europeans to colonize the Mississippi's region. The last period of colonization is also marked by English efforts to colonize the Mississippi's territory. England had several conflicts with France and eventually managed to gain the control of French holdings. The end of these conflicts in North America was marked by Treaty of Paris, signed in 1783 by the United States and Great Britain. It confirmed American independence and ended the revolutionary war. (Foner, E. and Garraty A. John, 19913) This all marked the end of French era in the Mississippi's history and although France was not able to achieve their goals, their period has formed significant part of Mississippi's heritage. When I think about it, I suppose that French domination had some positive and negative effects on the life along the river. In my opinion, French were the first who realized the Mississippi's area economic potential and helped to develop the agriculture here. The other positive was extended production of crops which then enabled the Mississippi to become a significant part of the United States' economics. As a negative I consider the epidemic diseases which Europeans brought to America. “Native southerners' susceptibility to introduced European diseases (smallpox, scarlet fever, measles, typhoid, diphtheria, and others) was a prime factor in depopulation rates, which, by some conservative estimates, accounted for well over one-third of the population in the 18th century alone.” (Ray, 2007, 33) Overall, Europeans introduced new culture and knowledge to Native Americans and as Bunn and Williams acknowledge, they introduced slavery which defined much of America's later history. (Bunn and Williams, 2007). Therefore French era is an essential part in American history which cannot be omitted when looking at American history in a complex unit.
1.3. Commerce, steamboats and products As for the next chapters regarding Mark Twain's biography related to the river I briefly outline the development of the river transportation to learn the state of the river in 19th century. The main source for this brief summary is Twain's Life on the Mississippi because he pays a lot of attention to the evolution of the Mississippi to a future thoroughfare. Thanks to that, readers can understand the changes he eventually compares as he comes back to the Mississippi after 21 years of absence from it and remembers the river in his young age.
3 Foner, E. and Garraty, J. ''Treaty of Paris''. [online], downloaded 13th Nov 2015. accessible from: http://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/treaty-of-paris 6
As Lafcadio Hearn claims in The Mark Twain anthology: great writers on his life and works, “the first two hundred and fifty pages possess a large historical value, and will be referred to in future years as trustworthy paintings of manners, customs and social phases”. (Hearn in Fishkin, 2010, 42) True commerce on the river using barges, keelboats and other types of boats as Mark Twain knew them began to form at the end of 18th century. Twain depicts how precisely the earliest commerce functioned. “They floated and sailed from the upper rivers to New Orleans, changed cargoes there, and were tediously warped and poled back by hand. A voyage down and back sometimes occupied nine months.” (Twain, 2006, 41) Then he adds that this commerce increased and eventually gave employment to many men. (Twain, 2006, 41) This leads to a question what were the main products of commerce in this area? Before I depict the commerce on the river in detail, I focus on the resources of production which diversified the South from the North. I gained the basic knowledge of North and South products in my history classes dedicated to the Civil War so I will summarize it shortly. South was prospering mainly in agriculture as opposed to North which focused on the industry. South's wealth was represented mainly by cotton production. The Mississippi's Historical Society web page is a helpful source on this subject of a matter. “On the eve of the American Civil War in the mid-1800s cotton was America's leading export and raw cotton was essential for the economy of Europe. The cotton industry was one of the world's largest industries, and most of the world supply of cotton came from the American South.” (Dattel, E., 20084) Besides cotton the main products of the South was the rice produced along the coastal areas, sugarcane produced mainly in Louisiana and tobacco, produced in border areas. It is not difficult to understand the success of the South in agriculture because there were naturally good conditions for it, especially along the Mississippi River which provided natural environment for plantations. Those products grown in the South were ready to be utilized further and therefore needed to be transported from the location of production to the location of commerce which allows me to return back to the Mississippi River's transportation. By and by, the steamboats were invented and eventually caused the extinction of keelboats because they took over the entire commerce. (Twain, 2006, 41) The steamboat transport started in 1811 with first steamboat named New Orleans (Figure 3 in Appendix) and speeded up the central South's economy. (Melosi, 2007, 239) It caused a revolution in river
4 Dattel, E. ''Cotton and the Civil War''. [online], downloaded 15th Nov 2015. accessible from: http://mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us/articles/291/cotton-and-the-civil-war 7 transport and during 30 years it gained international prestige but in less than thirty more it was over. The railroads ended the golden years of steamboats because they could do in three days the same as steamboats did in a week. (Twain, 2006, 248) Steamboats also had its own culture as Twain shows in the chapter ''Racing Days''. He lets readers to take a look at the races of two fleet steamers and acknowledges them that back in the 'flush times' it was an important event and people were so excited about it that they could not talk about anything else. (Twain, 2006, 63) Based on this chapter depicted in excitement I easily understand the importance races had in the cultural life on and along the Mississippi River. I think this brief summary of the situation on the river in 19th century is sufficient for imagining the state and situation of the river as Mark Twain experienced it himself because I will focus on it more in detail in the second part of the thesis and will use analysis on some data pertaining the steamboats, life on the river within the climate along the river from certain parts of Life on the Mississsippi book. In my opinion, the most important facts to know in this moment are the products being transported in the 19th century on the river and more or less the time when steamboats first occurred and what revolution it had caused. This is due to the fact that the Mississippi River truly became a thoroughfare in this period and partly also because these facts help me to imagine the phenomena of the river in Twain's life.
2. Mark Twain's biography related to the river Mark Twain is one of the most famous writers in the whole world and therefore many publications dedicated to his life and works were and still are being published. I would like to focus on his biography connected to the Mississippi River. As I already mentioned, this river had a great influence on his life and works and it is reflected in his best known books as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and above all in the Life on the Mississippi. Life on the Mississippi is a serious portrayal of the history and life on the river in the 19th century. Another reason why this book is so extraordinary is the fact that author had included a lot of his personality into it so readers can imagine his impressions of the river in the context of his life. For this and many more reasons I intend to depict Mark Twain's life and I believe that chart in chronological order is suitable for that. I also include a subchapter concerning his main writings, essential for this bachelor thesis and a subchapter regarding Twain's realism.
8
The aim of this chapter is to outline the importance of Mississippi river in Mark Twain's life and to see in which particular parts of his life did the Mississippi River dominated. To demonstrate it visibly I designed a chronological chart where according to the colours, the contact with Mississippi throughout the years of his life is clearly visible. The white colour represents no direct contact with Mississippi River while the light blue represents partial contact with the river – Mark Twain was not living directly on the Mississippi in these years but he was thinking about it. The darker blue represents years in which he was living on the river and therefore had a straight contact with it.
Mark Twain´s life as from the point of view of Mississippi 1835 born at Florida in Missouri state 1839 moved to Hannibal on the Mississippi River childhood observations of the river and dreaming of becoming a pilot 1851 begun to write for newspapers 1853-1856 travelling and working in New York, Philadelphia, Nevada and Ohio 1857 apprecience pilot on Mississippi 1859 fully licensed pilot 1861 end of river days caused by start of Civil War 1863 first use of his pen name, originally a Mississippi River term 1871 moved to Hartford in Connecticut 1876 The Adventuresof Tom Sawyer published 1878-79 travelling around Europe 1882 gathering information about the Mississippi River 1883 Life on the Mississippi published 1885 The Adventures of HuckleberryFinn published 1885-1902 travelling, just few brief visits of Hannibal (Figure 3 in Appendix) 1902 last visit in Hannibal and contact with Mississippi 1902-1910 living in New York, travelling around Europe 1910 health complications, died April, 21.
Source: Twain's Life and Works. The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum, 2012.5
2.1. Introduction to his texts To conclude something from the timeline above it is necessary to know something about his main writings as to be able to understand the role of the Mississippi River in his life better. For this matter of subject it is important to know at least the introduction to his texts and some basic data as in what part of his life did he write it, the reason why and his personal
5 ''Twain's Life and Works.'' The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum, 2012. [online], downloaded 5th Dec 2015. Accessible from: http://www.marktwainmuseum.org/twains-life-and-works/
9 opinion of these books. I will focus just on three of his many works and those are chronologically The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Life on the Mississippi. As visible in the timeline, one of Mark Twain's most famous books, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, was published in 1876. Knowing the plot, some people probably wonder whether the book is based on some real events in author's childhood and if the characters from the book were real-life people. For the answer I have to look no further than to the preface of the book itself. “Most of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred, one or two were experiences of my own, the rest those of boys who were schoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from life, Tom Sawyer also, but not from an individual – he is a combination of the characteristics of three boys whom I knew.” (Twain, 2015, 6) I can conclude many things from this preface. Firstly I need to say that even as a child who read this book for the first time, I noticed the author's special ability to write about childhood. The description of it was so accurate that I couldn't help but to think that these must be author's own childhood experiences. In the 9th volume of the Encyclopedia of Southern culture dedicated to literature, the author depicts Twain's ability of portraying an idealized South. “One commentator, Arthur Pettit, has observed that in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain transformed antebellum Hannibal into a Golden Age of prelapsarian innocence and charm.” (Thomas, 2008, 225) Thomas also claims that Twain was often thinking of Hannibal which is reflected in his books. (Thomas, 2008, 225) This can be considered as another evidence of Twain's childhood memories and a special relationship he had to his hometown which provided an inspiration for setting in both of his most famous books. The internet article named ''Getting Tom to Market'' written by Stephen Railton from the University of Virginia is very helpful when finding out the time and situation in which Twain wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Railton claims that Twain wrote the Adventures of Tom Sawyer at three different times. He began to write Tom in the winter of 1872 to 1873, continued in the spring and summer of the upcoming year 1874 and finished in the spring and summer of 1875. (Railton, 20126) In addition to releasing the book there are also contemporary reviews listed right from the 1876 when the book was originally published. I picked just one of them from the Daily Enquirer in Ohio: “Mark Twain's new book, 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,' is the most notable work which Twain has yet written, and will signally add to his reputation for variety
6 Railton, S. ''Getting Tom to Market''. [online], downloaded 5th Dec 2015. Accessible from: http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/tomsawye/tomcomp.html 10 of powers.” (Railton, 2012) Although it is generally known that this book was a major break- through in his career, we can persuade ourselves about it when going through other reviews. Railton accurately summarizes the success of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by saying that by the time Mark Twain died, this book already belonged amongst the American classics. (Railton, 2012) In 1882 Mark Twain came back to Mississippi River as a famous writer to gather information for his new book. (Kaplan, 2001) Kaplan also says in his introduction to Life on the Mississippi that Mark Twain had been planning this book for nearly two decades before the publishing date. “I am the only man alive that can scribble about the piloting of that day”, he told his longtime friend and literary criticist Howells. (Kaplan, 2001, 18) In this new introduction we also find out how Life on the Mississippi and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn formed. Twain's six-week trip to the Mississippi river gave him enough material for two books which he was writing simultaneously. (Kaplan, 2001, 20) “The two books had become symbiotic and he used one to jog the other.” (Kaplan, 2001, 20) Before the Life on the Mississippi was about to go to press, Mark Twain described his personal opinion of this book to William Dean Howells, his personal friend and literary critic and said to him “that he had never have such a fight over a book in his life before”. (Kaplan, 2001, 20) This suggests that he may have put slightly more hopes into this book than into the previous ones. This is confirmed by Kaplan who ends the paragraph with stating that “it was to be more than sixty years from publication in 1883 that Life on the Mississippi came near the 100,000 sale its author hoped for it.” (Kaplan, 2001, 20) However, Life on the Mississippi was accepted well by critics what proves an article published in September 1883 in The Atlantic Monthly. “We are very sure that Mr. Clemens has given us the most thorough and racy report of the whole phenomenon which has yet been forthcoming, and that much more significance is contained in it than we are able to concentrate in these few words.” (The Atlantic, 18837) But the best was yet to come. Tom Sawyer led straight to a sequel called The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which was first published in 1885. This book was Twain's most successful work and was immediately celebrated as one of the greatest American books. (Railton, 2012) The most famous quote about this book must be definitely the one which came from Ernest Hemingway in 1935. “All modern American literature comes from one
7 ''Life on the Mississippi, by Mark Twain.'' Atlantic Monthly, 1883. [online], downloaded 10th Dec 2015. Accessible from: http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/classrev/lifemiss.htm 11 book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. All American writings comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.” (Fishkin, 2010, 5) In The Mark Twain anthology: great writers on his life and works by Shelley Fisher Fishkin we also find out that Huck Finn was considered as racist by some critics. I concluded that because great writers defending the masterpiece are included in this book too. As for example Ralph Wiley, who said: “there is not one use of ‛nigger’ which I consider inauthentic and I am hard to please that way.” (Fishkin, 2010, 6) Thomas, the editor of New Encyclopedia of Southern culture, explains than as other Southern authors, Mark Twain wanted to explain why he had lived in a land where human slavery was approved. “I was not aware that there was anything wrong about it. No one arraigned in my hearing, the local papers said nothing against, the local pulpit taught us that God approved it.” (Thomas, 2008, 225) But the discussion regarding the matter of slavery is not that important for my bachelor thesis so I am going to leave this subject with saying that with great books there is always a lot of discussion included. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was thought to be different than Tom Sawyer, somehow more serious, mainly because of the image of slavery. The critics considered Tom Sawyer a juvenile book and Huck Finn being a book for adults, although Twain thought of it as a sequel to Tom Sawyer which proves Railton who claims that Twain began so absorbed by writing Tom Sawyer, that he began writing Huckleberry Finn even before Tom was published. (Railton, 2012) When it comes to the motive of this book, there is a notice by Twain himself right at the beginning of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, saying that anyone who finds a motive in this book will be prosecuted. In my opinion, there really was not any higher motive intended. Despite all the discussion, the fact still remains that it was Twain's finest novel and by publishing it he truly became one of the America's greatest writers. (Thomas, 2008) These three are the most significant works for this bachelor thesis because they are all dealing with the Mississippi River's theme. Thanks to this chapter I already know quite a lot about his personality concerning the Mississippi River and it is quite easy to understand why the Mississippi River was so important for him – his life was literally formed by it. The river was a basic element of his life and career because he grew up there and all his childhood experiences happened in its nearness. I believe that he missed the Mississippi River right after he left it in 1861 because he was planning to write the book about it for nearly two decades. The Mississippi River was something he always came back to and never forgot the nostalgia he felt there while growing up and working as a steamboat pilot. As he once said, the pilot
12 was “the only unfettered and entirely independent human being that lived in the earth.” (Kaplan, 2001, 15) In my opinion, Mississippi River was so important in his life that without its presence he would maybe never became such a famous author. But this is nothing but a personal hypothesis based on what I have read from and about him. In the end the facts are clear. The Mississippi River affected not only his childhood and adult life, but also his writing career because “the southern experience of Samuel L. Clemens is so thoroughly and deeply imagined in his life and work that one may scarcely read a chapter of any of his book without encountering it.” (Thomas, 2008, 223)
2.2. Mark Twain's realism Realism as a writing technique was invented in 19th century, therefore in Mark Twain's time which makes it quite an important subject considering that Twain was a professional writer. Realistic features define all of Twain's works and it is necessary to know something about this subject because Twain is considered to be one of the greatest American realists. This technique is partly a reason of his success and it deserves to be depicted firstly in general and then in Mark Twain's conception. It will help me to understand his style of writing, perceive the features on which he focused and realize how realistic style of writing caused his books to be so extraordinary. This chapter will be divided into two subchapters dealing briefly with general realism and then Twain's personal realism.
2.2.1. Realism in general Realism in literature first occurred in France in 1830 and was on its peak in 1850. Its main purpose for the writers is to focus on the presence and depict the reality in its real form, without any embellishments. Author should concern himself with his own environment and also with social, political and other movements. (Cuddon, 1991,774-775) According to the realist and Twain's close friend William Dean Howells are the main ideas of realism as following. The commonplace is preferred over the unusual and the character is more important than plot. He also says that it is an expression of democracy and therefore suitable as an American method. (W. D. Howells, in Spiller, 1955) Realism varies in many forms, for example according to a continent. Realism in USA was different from the European one, because the form of it differed according to particular topic which was current in these places. What was contemporary in the United States, did not have to be contemporary in Europe. This leads us straight to American realism which, as
13
Spiller says in The Cycle of American Literature was formed mainly by special interests in colonial history, regional dialects, gender and racial conflicts in contemporary society. He also says that attention of writers back then focused more to the immediate facts of life than to general ideas. This period in America was from the year of 1865 to 1895. (Spiller, 1955, 107) To depict the main features used in realism, we have to mention the use of authentic detail, representation of the world as it is and using the description in detail. The use of colloquial speech in the dialogues is also very important. (Ousby, 1992, 780) The colloquial speech is one of the features we can observe in Twain's works, especially in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The most significant realists are Mark Twain, his already mentioned friend William Dean Howells, Charles Dickens, Honoré de Balzac, William Makepeace Thackeray, Gustav Flaubert, Leo Tolstoy and many others. These are the main data necessary to be known when studying a realistic work. By now, I summarized what features make a book realistic and this will be very helpful when finding those features in Mark Twain's books.
2.2.2. What made Twain a realist In this subchapter I try to depict and examine what made Mark Twain a realistic author and analyse the realistic features he used in his books. I also intend to explain in what his books were so extraordinary and why they belong to the masterpieces of realism. As the most useful sources in this matter I consider Twain's books as for example The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which is often used as an exemplary work of realism. As already stated before, American realists tended to write about colonialized South and matters of racism. I also mentioned that the South, unlike the North, was prospering mainly in agriculture and slavery was a big part of it. Thomas says that Clemens' family had owned slaves “which provided him an insight into that system of bondage”. (Thomas, 2008, 225) That is the first realistic feature which can be seen in his works – he was portraying the environment he knew well, the South environment, to be accurate. This can be seen in all of his three books I am writing about, so we can consider it the first feature which fulfils the principles of realism. Another realistic feature we notice immediately is the regional dialect. I think that everyone notices the way Jim speaks right at the beginning of Huckleberry Finn. “Say – who is you? Whar is you? Dog my cats ef I didn' hear sumf'n. Well, I knows what I's gwyne to do. I's gwyne to set down herer and listen tell I hears it again.” (Twain, 1994, 14) This is one of
14 the reasons why the book was so extraordinary. Twain introduced the vernacular speech and “Jim's patois and Huck's vernacular in Huckleberry Finn enriched the form of the American novel forever.” (Thomas, 2008, 226) The last but not least, is the realistic way Mark Twain used to write. He did not use any embellishments and tried to depict the reality how it really was. Ousby states that: “realist writers frequently look to the lowest social classes and to cruelty and suffering for their subject matter.” (Ousby, 1992, 780) While reading this we can recall the Huckleberry Finn's father, an abusive drunkard demanding money for alcohol from his son. We could find much more realistic features in Twain's works but in my opinion, these main points are sufficient for understanding the realistic approach Twain used when writing his books. In my opinion Twain's aim was to show some contemporary problems which society back then was afflicted by and he wanted to achieve it by narrating the story through an innocent, but real person. He wanted to do so without any trials to embellish the reality because that is what people back then wanted to read – the realistic books which they could identify with. After all, the reason why realism developed in the first place was to react to romanticism in literature. Therefore it is also quite probable that adapting his works to requirements of contemporary society played certain part in Twain's realism too.
3. The River as a unit
In this chapter I depict the Mississippi River as a complex unit, considering its particular aspects such as environmental changes, navigability of the river, towns and cities along the Mississippi and today's possibilities for visitors of the Mississippi. I also focus on certain weather conditions because Mark Twain emphasised some of these weather changes in his books. These certain weather conditions in my opinion make his books an interesting source of Mississippian regional history. In this chapter I focus on the climate, navigability of the river and also other important aspects of the life on the river such as swimming and fishing. I intend to confront these aspects of 19th century's river with the present state of the Mississippi River to which I use the National Park Service web page. Then I intend to compare the main differences between these aspects. As the main sources of this chapter I use Twain's Life on the Mississippi, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Adventures of Tom Sawyer to see Twain's opinion and depiction of these topics. Then I use the National Park Service webpage and other sources dealing with these aspects to see the modern point of view.
15
3.1. Climatic phenomena In this subchapter I focus on the typical weather conditions connected with Mississippi River. I intend to focus on the particular climate changes about which Mark Twain wrote in his books. Then I intend to compare these 19th century's climate changes on the Mississippi with modern climate of the river. To see the difference, I use Mark Twain's books again and The National Service web page where there is many documents concerning the climate change topic.
3.1.1. Floods The most typical environmental change during the whole year is definitely the rise out of the Mississippi River, described by Twain at ''The River Rises'' chapter in The Life on the Mississippi. As for the rise out, Twain considers the state of the river in different parts of it. He says that from Cairo to Baton Rouge there are no troubles in the night, but from Baton Rouge to New Orleans it is different. (Twain, 2006, 134) “The river is more than a mile wide, and very deep – as much as two hundred feet, in places. Both banks, for a good deal over a hundred miles, are shorn of their timber and bordered by continuous sugar plantation, with only here and there a scattering sapling or row of ornamental China-trees. The timber is shorn off clear to the rear of the plantations, from two to four miles.” (Twain, 2006, 134) National Park Service web page is very helpful with this flooding subject of matter. It provides an insight to the flooding of the river in recent past and today. Spring is generally known to be the period of flooding on the Mississippi River and this is due to melting of ice and snow which “cannot permeate the still-frozen ground and instead runs rapidly off the land, swelling the Mississippi and its tributaries, at times over their banks.” (National Park Service, 2015) As already mentioned in the chapter dedicated to history, French explorers were the first building the levees in New Orleans to protect the Mississippi River area. By the 1830s, states started to involve in flood control on the Mississippi River, but even with these efforts, the flooding still continued throughout the whole 19th century, causing the major floods in 1882 and others. (New Orleans District, 2015) The 1882 flood is especially important because Twain wrote about it in Life on the Mississippi. “It put all the unprotected lowlands under water, from Cairo to the mouth, it broke down the levees in a great many places, on both sides of the river, and in some regions south, when the flood was still at its highest, the Mississippi was seventy miles wide!” (Twain, 2006, 282) Then Twain continues to describe the great destruction of property, horrible suffering of people and their evacuation. (Twain, 2006, 282) This description reflects what I have seen on the National Park Service's
16 web page to the flood of 1952. The web provides the chronological process of the 1952 flood. I tried to seek for some resembling points of Twain's description of flood in 1882 compared to the flood in 1952. The first thing to notice is the period of time in which the floods of 1882 and 1952 started. Both of these floods started in the same period of time – the ice began to melt at the beginning of the year and it culminated between March and April. Then it continued with evacuation of people, who lost their homes and received help from the Red Cross. (The National Park Service, 2015) In Twain's depiction, the Red Cross is not mentioned. In my opinion, it is maybe because the Red Cross was established in 1863 in Europe and by the time of the year of 1882, the Red Cross did not operate in United States yet. (International Committee of the Red Cross, 2016) However, Twain confirms that “the poorer ones must have starved by the hundred if succor had not been promptly afforded.” (Twain, 2006, 282) This suggests that some organized help was provided which is then confirmed at the ''Appendix A'' at the end of the Life on the Mississippi. At the end of the ''Appendix B'' in the Life on the Mississippi, there is a reflection by Edward Atkinson, describing the need for governmental intervention to achieve the control of the floods. “It has needed but little attention to make it perfectly obvious that the control of the Mississippi River, if undertaken at all, must be undertaken by the national government, and cannot be compassed by states. The river must be treated as a unit; its control cannot be compassed under a divided or separated system of administration.” (Atkinson in Twain, 2006, 610) At the end of the ''Appendix B'', Atkinson acknowledges adopting new method of improvement by the Mississippi River Commission. (2006, 614) Mentioned governmental control is from my point of view interesting because the flood in 1952 ended with national governments starting the discussion about possible flood prevention changes. However, these 1952 flood prevention reforms turned out to be unsuccessful. After few trials as establishing floods emergency funds, the clamor on Capitol Hill eventually receded. (National Park Service, 2016) The issue of floods also makes me question whether the reasons of these floods are still the same even now in 21st century. It is worth mentioning that it is only 5 years since there was one of the biggest floods in Mississippian history. The flood of 2011 was devastating for the areas of St. Louis, Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The National Park Service web page provides us with report of this enormous flood, addressing the initial reason behind it. It
17 claims that it was the amount of melted snow which caused the high levels of water along the Mississippi. (National Park Service, 2016) To me it seems that in conclusion, the process of these floods may have not been so different, considering the fact that one century and 3 decades passed by between them. Of course there are some slight differences, but the original reason behind the floods still remains the same – melted snow and still frozen ground, unable to consume the amount of water. The fact that the Mississippi River is an element which cannot be surpassed by people stands out. Government unsuccessful efforts to prevent these floods only prove Twain's claim that people simply cannot make the Mississippi River obey. And what is important, this claim seems to be truth even nowadays.
3.1.2. Storms and tornadoes In my opinion, storms maybe are not as typical for the Mississippi as the annual flooding, and yet Mark Twain wrote some notable things about it. Right at the beginning of the Life on the Mississippi he recalls his memories of the rafts which used to sail by Hannibal when he was a child. “An acre or so of white, sweet-smelling boards in each raft, a crew of two dozen men or more, three or four wigwams scattered about the raft's vast level space for storm quarters.” (Twain, 2006, 42) These wigwams are indeed very interesting because they enable readers to imagine how exactly the crew members protected themselves from storms before the steamboats were invented. This also brings out the question what impact do these storms have on environment and the Mississippi river itself? The National Park Service's web page provides information about devastating storm of 2011 but it is essential to know the process of the storm in the 19th century first as to be able to compare the potential resemblance or difference. In Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain depicts the process of storm when Huck and Jim find their way into the cavern where they hide from the storm. At first it darkened up and then the thunder and lighten occurred, after which it immediately started to rain. The wind was very strong and Jim says to Huck that animals can sense the upcoming storm. (Twain, 1995, 70-71) Taken from the National Park Service, storms have always had devastating impact on animals and since animals live with the river, it is natural that they sense things humans cannot sense. Another reason why animals may have sense the upcoming change of climate is that it has terrible impacts on their nests. According to National Park Service, the tornado struck North Mississippi Regional Park in 2011 and caused a great damage of island where Great
18
Blue Herons had their nests. They say that most of the Great Blue Herons flew away seeing that tornado was approaching to them. This proves Jim's claim that birds can sense approaching storms. Tornado damaged most of Great Blue Herons' nests. (The National Park Service, 2016) The tornado in 2011 also caused the death of one person and enormous amount of completely damaged homes and trees. (Brewer, 2011) That is just a short outline of one of the storms lately and its aim here is to get an idea of its impacts on Mississippian area. What I am curious about is whether Mark Twain wrote about storms or tornadoes in detail or he considered it to be unimportant for his writings. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jim and Huck hide before the storm in wigwam on their raft and see a steamboat which hit the rock. Soon, they find themselves on that steamboat with intention to explore it but eventually find out that their own raft had disappeared. (Twain, 1995, 92) After going through the Life on the Mississippi and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn I noticed that Twain wrote about storms a lot. But he always highlighted the wreck of ships and the impact the storm had on them, not the impact it had on the environment. In conclusion, I definitely think that storms and tornadoes were essential for Twain's writings. It makes sense because storms were weather conditions with which steamboat pilots fought very often. I haven't found any mentions about the impact storms had on the environment or on fauna. I believe that it is partly because Twain did not consider it to be that important for the story. Of course he wrote about damage of trees, but somehow he always put steamboats and rafts before it. This in my opinion shows that Twain used storms for outlining the situation and then focused on the main story – the rough situation of steamboat pilots during the storms. When comparing the Mississippian storms in 19th century and nowadays, I believe it is important to be aware of the rise of environmental efforts in the last few years. There was no such thing as environmental protection of fauna in Twain's time so maybe this is also reason why people on the river did not focus on it. In the conclusion I think that what is different now than back then is the point of view on these storms. Nowadays, there is National Park Service community which puts much effort to conserve the natural inhabitants in the MNRRA area. So the main difference nowadays is that when there is a storm or tornado, there are more points of view from which people focus on the impact of that particular storm. We focus not only on the damage caused to people and their homes but also on the damage caused to environment and the impact on fauna and flora. In Twain's time people did not focus on it so much because they did not observe nature the way we do now. And another reason why storms did not have that strong role in Twain's
19 writings is also because his books are focused rather on the destiny of people than on the environment and things which surrounded them.
3.2. Explosions of steamers In the 19th century, according to Twain, fires were altogether with floods two of the most fearful obstacles on the Mississippi. He acknowledges that in the Life on the Mississippi: “a Mississippi inundation is the next most wasting and desolating infliction to a fire.” (Twain, 2006, 327) At first I intend to examine the reason behind the fires on the Mississippi. In this matter, my main sources are Mark Twain's books and especially The Life on the Mississippi. I use also Lloyd's Steamboat Directory, and Disasters on the Western Waters published in 1856. Lloyd's book is very helpful because it contains the complete history of steamboats and the very first application of steam. The Steamboat Directory, and Disasters on the Western Waters also includes detailed description of all disasters on steamboats. After that I intend to find out whether the fires are still a persistent issue on Mississippi and if so, are the reasons behind the fires still the same as in 19th century? The most helpful source in this matter is again the National Park Service's web page, because it maps the whole Mississippi National and Recreational Area. At the same time, the National Service Park deals with current problems in the area and therefore is the perfect source.
3.2.1. The cause of explosions 19th century is mainly known for its industrial revolution which led to many discoveries and developments. “The Industrial Revolution, which took place from the 18th to 19th centuries, was a period during which predominantly agrarian, rural societies in Europe and America became industrial and urban.” (History.com Staff, 20098) This is a short extract from article about the Industrial Revolution, where the steam engine is mentioned as one of the developments which characterized the whole period of 19th century. “Paddling upstream from St. Louis to St. Paul in 1823, the Virginia became the first steamboat to navigate the upper Mississippi River. It did so twice that year. Other boats had been plying the upper river – Indian canoes, piroques, flatboats and keelboats – but the Virginia announced a new era. Under steam power, people and goods could be transported upstream far more quickly and in greater numbers and quantities than on boats with sails or oars or poles.” (Anfinson, 2009, 75) The steam engine invention was a big step in commence on Mississippi, but it also caused a lot of disasters.
8 History.com Staff. ''Industrial Revolution.'' [online], downloaded 26th Feb 2016. Accessible from: http://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution 20
Fire has always been a problem on boats, even before the steam engine was invented. On boats with sails for example, the problem was usually caused by cooking. Before the steamboats, there were boats with sails which were only made from wood. The wooden construction was naturally a problem when crew did not manage to guard the fire properly. It sometimes resulted in fire with fatal consequences for the boat. But with invention of steamboats, the number of fires magnified because of the enormous need of coal. There were multiple of reasons which could lead to fire, for example the wet coal. Firstly, when the coal was wet, there was a slight chance that it could ignite. High temperature was necessary for the propulsion, because it enabled to create the steam underneath it. The big steamboats needed a lot of coal to be able to create the steam and therefore the steamboat became one large firebox. Fires could also be caused by the sparks going from the funnels, because there was a possibility that this sparkle could fell onto the deck and cause a fire on it. From my point of view, these are the possible reasons which caused fires on the steamboats in the 19th century. Mark Twain was affected by fires on steamboats not only as a steamboat pilot, but also as a family member. He describes the most horrible fire on Pennsylvania steamboat in the chapter ''Catastrophe'' of Life on the Mississippi. Twain depicts how he and his brother Henry chatted three nights before about steamboat disasters, not knowing that one of them was so close. (Twain, 2006, 227) Twain gives readers a hint of what happened: the steam. “The Pennsylvania is blown up at Ship Island, and hundred and fifty lives lost!” (Twain, 2006, 227) Pennsylvania was sailing on half-head of steam and emptied its wood flat. After emptying the wood flat, the Ealer decided to go on a full steam. Four out of eight boilers then exploded and the rest is history. Mark Twain's brother eventually died because his hurts were too serious. (Twain, 2006, 235) Right at the preface of Steamboat Directory, and Disasters on the Western Waters, Lloyd says that he wrote this book because such disasters occur in certain areas too often, as for example on the Mississippi River, where there is many of unsafe and dangerous boats. He highlights the most awful disasters which happened on the Mississippi River. There is no mention about Pennsylvania because the book was published before the disaster on the Pennsylvania happened, but there is plenty of other burned out steamboats. I intend to look at few of them briefly, just to find out whether the reasons for burning were similar or not. I have searched almost every exploded steamer in the Lloyd's Steamboat Directory, and disasters on the Western Waters and noticed few interesting facts. I compared briefly the explosions. Lloyd says what caused the explosion and in the majority of cases, the boilers were the problem which caused it.
21
NAME OF STEAMER CAUSE OF EXPLOSION The Pennsylvania four of eight boilers exploded The Redstone two of its boilers exploded after the steamer stopped The Kate Flemming boiler exploded after being given signal to go ahead slowly The Anglo-Norman explosion of boilers The Caroline burning of the wood pile The America head of one of the starboard boilers blew off The St. James all boilers exploded when the steamer stopped
Source: Lloyd T., James. Lloyd's Steamboat Directory, and Disasters on the Western Waters. Library of Congress, 1856. Ebook.9
Above are only few from the exploded steamers, but in my opinion it is sufficient for giving a picture of what the most common cause for explosion was. Most of the steamers burnt because the boilers exploded. Boilers exploded mainly because an overheating occurred in them. The stokers had to use manometer which enabled them to measure a pressure in boilers but it was very hard to maintain an optimal pressure. One of the most probable reason for these explosions was not only the overheating, but also technical fault. Sometimes the boilers couldn't stand the excess of pressure and they burst out. To summarize it, the most probable reason for the explosion was the overheating. It must have been very hard to maintain the optimal pressure in it. When overheating occurred, it must have been difficult to reduce the pressure in the boilers. Another cause of the explosion could have been technical fault in the firebox as visible in the chart at The America steamboat case. On the other hand, the burning of the wood pile or burning on the deck was not as common as the problem with boilers.
3.2.2. Fires on the Mississippi River in 21th century There has been a lot of change from the times Mark Twain lived on the river. Firstly, the steamboats were replaced by railroads after only 50 years or so of existence. The invention of railroads marked the end of the golden age of steamboats. (Twain, 2006, 188) Steamboats quickly disappeared from the Mississippi River, but it didn't mean the end of
9 Lloyd, James. Lloyd's Steamboat Directory, and Disasters on the Western Waters. [online], downloaded 27th Feb 2016. Accessible from: https://archive.org/details/lloydssteamboatd00lloy
22 boats at all. On contrary, the government tried to give the Mississippi River new shape which led to changes we know today. Anfinson says that the only commerce which remained on the Mississippi River was timber rafting. In ''Transforming the River I: Commerce and Navigation Improvements, 1823-1906'' Anfinson acknowledges, the reshaping of the Mississippi River began in 1907 and new locks and dams were to change the river's appearance. Then the hydro power was invented which gave the rivers new purpose. (Anfinson, 2013, 90) It is necessary to know the current state of the river when comparing it to the 19th century's. The system of boilers and firebox has been replaced by marine steam engines, which were eventually replaced by four stroke diesel engines. These four stroke diesel engines are the most common on the river nowadays. With this new system of diesel engines, the number of explosions was reduced, but there are also some disadvantages of this modern system of marine propulsion. The problem of today's ships is that when there is a ship going under, the fuel leak may occur. The fuel leak usually leads to an ecological catastrophe which can take years to fix. When there was a ship going under in the 19th century, only some wood sank with it which was no catastrophe at all. This is the main problem of today's rivers. Back then, the steamboats were not technically perfect as ships today but at least they did not cause much damage to the environment when some disaster happened. This all naturally proves that explosions on ships stopped to occur, but does it mean that there are no fires at the Mississippi River area caused by something else? The National Park Service provides maybe not obvious, but clear evidence of nowadays' fires on the Mississippi River's ships. When looking up the explosions of boilers nowadays, nothing seems to be found on The National Park Service. I looked up in a several different sources and everything I could find out to the explosions was from 19th or (in few special cases) from the 20th century. I could not find out anything to the fires on the Mississippi River nowadays from which I conclude that it is not a problem in the river's life anymore. The chance that the diesel engine explodes is absolutely minimal nowadays because there is a security system protecting it. I intended to find out the possibility of other causes of fires on the Mississippi but could not find anything to this subject either. From that I conclude that such things do not occur in the Mississippi River's area anymore. I only found out that in the past there were many fires because of the Native Americans. Native Americans used to set fires so they would maintain savannah's ecosystem, but Europeans supressed the fire which caused the practical extinction of savannahs in nowadays' America. (The National Park
23
Service, 2016) But this is more of an interesting fact than it is related to the nowadays' fires on the Mississippi River. In this subchapter I analysed the cause of frequent explosions on the 19th century's Mississippi River. The problem was the boiler in almost every case I examined. There is a completely different system of marine propulsion nowadays – the diesel engines. These diesel engines do not explode, what I conclude from the lack of evidence about it. Explosions used to be an inevitable part of steamboat pilot's life in Mark Twain's time but nowadays they are not. This was to analyse another essential part of the life on the Mississippi River in the 19th century and to comparison with 21st century.
3.3. Navigability of the Mississippi River Mark Twain pays a lot of attention to the navigability of the river in Life on the Mississippi. This is due to the fact that at the beginning of steamboats the navigability of the river was quite poor. With rise of the steamboats a lot of improvement occurred which is greatly reflected in the Life on the Mississippi. It is mainly because at first, Mark Twain had the chance to observe the navigability of the river as a steamboat pilot in training. After he came back to the river after 21 years of his absence on the river, he had the chance to compare the differences between those two periods. In this chapter I intend to analyse the navigability of the Mississippi when Twain lived on it. I plan to compare the differences after 21 years and then see how the Mississippi is navigable today. I am also interested in finding out how was the river navigable during the day and during the night. My main sources are Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain and the National Park Service's webpage. Information gathered from the Life on the Mississippi serve as an evidence of 19th century's navigability of the river. The National Service webpage demonstrates the change between these two periods of time.
3.3.1. Mark, a steamboat pilot In this chapter I focus on the days when Mark Twain worked on the river. First as a steamboat pilot in training and then fully licensed pilot, he had the chance to observe the navigability of the river. I intend to analyse the most important points concerning the navigation of the Mississippi River in 19th century. As this is a chapter entirely dedicated to the navigability of the river, it is necessary to define what the navigability actually means. Webster's online dictionary defines navigable river as “deep enough and wide enough to afford passage to ships. “ (Merriam-Webster,
24
201610) This practically means that the steamboat pilots had to be aware of the deepness and wideness of the river in particular places. Mark Twain first encountered with complicacy of navigation as a pilot's cub which he depicts in the ''Daring Deed'' chapter of the Life on the Mississippi. Description of his confidence to get to know the river under his chief Mr. Bixby accurately reflects the complicacy of the navigability. “I entered upon the small enterprise of “learning” twelve or thirteen hundred miles of the great Mississippi River with the easy confidence of my time of life. If I had really known what I was about to require of my faculties, I should not have had the courage to begin. I supposed that all a pilot had to do was to keep his boat in the river, and I did not consider that that could be much of a trick, since it was so wide.” (Twain, 2006, 80) Pilots back in 19th century had to know every inch of the river even during the dark nights. They used to know the river by certain points which they had named as for example the Six- Mile-Point, the Twelve-Mile-Point and so on. This helped them for a better orientation on the river. Besides the mile points, they had named different parts along the river such as Plum Point. The fully licensed pilot needed to know the river by heart like an alphabet as he must have known all points as towns, islands, reaches, bars and bends. (Twain, 2006, 81) This took some time of observing to get to know the river so well. There was also a big difference while piloting the steamboat in the daylight and piloting it in the night. Twain describes that at the beginning, he could not recognize the shore for certain – he could only assume that the steamboat is along the bank based on hearing the wheels. It is worth pointing out that the only thing to help them orientate in the night was a torch which they used after the ship came to the land with its nose. (Twain, 2006, 87) This was to demonstrate the visibility in night right at the beginnings of Twain's steamboat career. But since the 19th century is called the age of industrial revolution, this visibility at night was soon to be changed and the navigability with it. Another essential part in navigability of the Mississippi was the depth of water. It was necessary to measure the depth of water and to do that, the pilots used a tap of the bell. It was a signal to heave the lead. (Twain, 2006, 489) Twain claims this to be an innovation, comparing it to the previous need of pilots to speak to the men below when the measure the depth was needed. Twain demonstrates the process of measuring in chapter dedicated to it. At first, the boat is supposed to tie up at the shore just above the shoal crossing. The pilot who is not on the watch takes the sounding boat and his cub, steersman or sometimes an officer.
10''Navigability'' Merriam-Webster. [online], downloaded 29 Feb. Accessible from: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/navigability 25
Then they search for the most navigable place while the pilot watches and helps them by signalizing. After finding the best water, the pilot sounds the depth using a pole which is ten or twelve feet long. Then they prepare the buoy and let it go. After that, the crew is given a signal and steamboat carefully goes down the stream over the buoy and the sand to the deep waters beyond. (Twain, 2006, 142) The unit of measuring the depth of water is also quite important to know about. “Half twain! Quarter twain! Mark twain!” (Twain, 2006, 97) The unit of the water depth is called a fathom. One fathom equals to six feet which equals to 1,83 metres. (Merriam-Webster, 201611) Therefore, the exclamation “mark twain” means that the water depth is two fathoms. In the Life on the Mississippi, Twain through Uncle Mumford's character depicts the way government in his time tried to improve the navigation of river. He says that they used to wall, pile and dike the little European rivers, but the Mississippi River is not like that. It can't be forced to go where the government wants it to go. As a matter of fact, he also provides some examples of governmental methods to improve the navigability. The government built up a stone wall at Devil's Island to make the Mississippi River go another way. But the Mississippi River bulged through it. (Twain, 2006, 297) Uncle Mumford compares the governmental efforts in the past and after the rise of steamboats. “Government is doing a deal for the Mississippi, now – spending loads of money on her. When there used to be four thousand steamboats and ten thousand acres of coal barges, and rafts and trading scows, there wasn't the lantern from St. Paul to New Orleans.” (Twain, 2006, 298) With Mark Twain's return to the river, certain improvements of navigation of the river were invented. But since this subchapter is dedicated only to the navigability of the river while Mark Twain worked as a steamboat pilot here, I intend to highlight the change after his 21 year absence from the river in the following subchapter. This is to summarize the main points of navigability of the Mississippi River from 1857 to 1859. To me it seems that the most important thing was the pilot's perfect knowledge of the river because in that time there were no things to be relied on except their sense. The only helpful thing was the torch and of course the measurement of water depth. This was also very important. Pilot must have tapped the bell first to let heave the lead from what I assume that the knowledge of the river was still the primary and most important point in terms of navigability of the river. The governmental methods are especially interesting for the following subchapters dealing with improvements of navigability on the Mississippi. I believe
11''Fathom'' Merriam-Webster. [online], downloaded 29 Feb. Accessible from: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fathom 26 that this subchapter outlines the problems of navigability in the 1850s and will be useful in comparison with following subchapters dealing with the same matter, only in newer times.
3.3.2. Navigability of the river after 21 years to the end of 20th century In the year of 1882, Mark Twain began to gather information about the Mississippi for his new book. On this occasion, he came back to the river and he observed the changes on it. These were visible in a change of navigability of the river. As mentioned in the previous chapter, there were times with no lanterns on the river at all. The golden age of steamboats was already over but as Uncle Mumford declared, the safety of the river was now perfect. (Twain, 2006, 298) “Government has snatched out all the snags, and lit up the shores like Broadway, and a boat's as safe on the river as she'd been in heaven.” (Twain, 2006, 298) The navigation of the river changed a lot during Twain's absence. When it comes to snags, they used to be a big problem in navigability of the river too. In the chapter ''Transforming the River I: Commerce and Navigation Improvements, 1823-1906'', Anfinson claims that “snags could, in an instant, impale a steamboat or tear it apart.” (Anfinson, 2003, 77) Another typical problem of navigability was caused by rocks and rapids. That was especially in area from St. Anthony Falls to St. Paul, where the river fell 100 feet and more. This slope along with narrow gorge and boulders made this area too hazardous for steamboat navigation. Therefore, the head of navigation was established in St. Paul. (Anfinson, 2003, 79) After St. Paul District was established in 1866, the Congress authorized its engineers to build a 4-foot navigation channel. One reason to build this 4-foot channel was the disintegration of the Falls of St. Anthony and the other one to raise the commerce and industry of this area. (US Army Corps of Engineers, 201612) The government tasked Major General Gouverneur Kemble Warren and under his leadership, the surveying of the Upper Mississippi started. The government wanted to insure the passage at all navigable seasons by this. The 4-foot channel was supposed to be at least 4 feet deep, in case the river would fell as low as in the year of 1864. (Anfinson, 2003, 79) Anfinson also acknowledges that the improvement of the navigability started mainly because the Upper Mississippi was highly unreliable. The Corps of Engineering established its first offices on the upper Mississippi River so the works on the 4-foot channel could begin. “From this time forward, the Corps' role in the river would become as deep and broad as the river itself.” (Anfinson, 2003, 80) General Warren began his surveys and found out that the
12 ''St. Paul District History''. US Army Corps of Engineers. [online], downloaded 29 Feb. Accessible from: http://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/About/History.aspx 27 river's navigation changes frequently and that pilots are scarcely able to find the deepest water in daylight. In the night, of was of course much harder for the pilots. Anfinson continues that General Warren asked the local companies and interests what they had done for improving the navigability of the Mississippi. He found out that they removed the boulders so they would encourage steamboats, and they also established wing dams. These slight dams were only temporary because the water usually swept them away. (Anfinson, 2003, 80) This confirms what Uncle Mumford said – there was no point in these slight dams because the Mississippi River just bulged through. (Twain, 2006, 297) As Anfinson says, Warren eventually found out that it is necessary to build a real dam. “Without a lock and dam, the river above St. Paul was too narrow, too shallow, too strewn with boulders and the current too fast for steamboat navigation.” (Anfinson, 2003, 80) Corps of Engineering decided to deepen the upper Mississippi and in 1867 planned a 4-foot channel project. It consisted of dredging sandbars, clearing overhanging trees and removing sunken vessels. “The 4-foot project did not greatly alter the river's physical or ecological character and did not improve the river much for navigation, but it initiated a series of navigation project that would do both.” (Anfinson, 2003, 81) In the end, Corps unfortunately did not have the money and equipment to do some permanent changes on the river. Then there was the Civil War which took place from 1861 to 1865 and it affected the whole area of the United States. (McPherson, 201613) Before the Civil War, there was only one railroad bridge crossing the Upper Mississippi but after the Civil War, the number quickly raised. By the year of 1877 there were 13 railroad bridges on the Upper Mississippi from the Illinois to Iowa. Due to trains, steamboats were losing their passengers. It was because trains could run throughout the whole year no matter what the current state of the river was. (Anfinson, 2003, 81) Anfinson also outlines the first nation's movement of farmers, known as The Granger Movement, saying that it was established during the crisis of commerce on the Mississippi. Grangers were not satisfied with the fact that railroads are monopolizing the commerce and they wanted to do something about it. The main problem was that railroads received grants from the governments and the steamboats did not. Thanks to efforts of Grangers, shippers and merchants from river towns, Congress eventually authorized the 4 and half foot channel project. By the beginning of 20th century, the Mississippi River was dramatically changed.
13 ''A Brief Overview of the American Civil War: a defining time in our nation's history''. Civil War Trust. [online], downloaded 29 Feb. 2016. Accessible from: http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/civil-war-overview/overview.html 28
There were hundreds of wing dams and closing dams and the riverbanks were secured with riprap. Congress eventually made almost impossible to wade across the river. (Anfinson, 2003, 82) It was the end of the 19th century when the necessary changes were made to secure the river and its navigability. When Twain was a steamboat pilot in 1857, no electric lights existed to simplify the piloting. As another changes in navigability he highlights the removal of snags and the possibility of having a chart and compass against the fog. Twain's opinion can be expressed by his statement that these new improvements completely destroyed the romance of piloting. (Twain, 2006, 293) “They are building wing dams here and there, to deflect the current, and dikes to confine it in narrower bounds, and other dikes to make it stay there..” (Twain, 2006, 295) By this sentence, Twain basically summarizes all governmental efforts in his days. In my opinion, Twain was not happy about these changes but on the other hand, he knew that it was good for the safety of passengers. I believe that he was not satisfied with government trying to reshape the river under their circumstances because he thought of the river as of a phenomena which cannot be surpassed by people. I understood that at the second half of the 19th century, the steamboats were not as popular as in the first half, but the commerce on the river was still maintained. These new locks and dams gave the Mississippi River a new look which is still visible today. In my opinion, another big step was made in this 19th century's period. It was beginning of the evolution from the Mississippi River a thoroughfare, to the Mississippi River a recreational area.
3.3.3. The completion of the changes in the 20th century Last changes which defined the character of the Mississippi River as we know it today, were made in the 20th century. To summarize the most important of them, it is necessary to mention the development of hydroelectric power. The development of hydroelectric power caused that government initiated new projects for hydroelectric power stations. The construction of hydroelectric power stations began at the end of 19th century and continued. New locks and dams were constructed. It was the St. Paul District Lock and Dam 1 (Figure 4 in Appendix), completed in 1917 or the Lock and Dam No.2 in Hastings which is today known as the Meeker Island Lock and Dam. (Anfinson, 2003, 95) After that, the 9-foot channel project was authorized by Congress and it enabled the building of 23 another locks and dams. (Anfinson, 2003, 109) This brief summary is hopefully sufficient for outlining the development of the navigability in the 20th century.
29
Based on the outline in the subchapters above, I conclude some advantages and disadvantages of this development from the Mark Twain's times. In my opinion, the biggest advantage is definitely the development of hydroelectric power because it is the most ecological way to produce power. On the other hand, there are also some disadvantages of the dams which were constructed. It is logical that by construction of new dams, the natural biodiversity in these areas is disrupted. The practical example can be the migration of fish which is not possible in the dams anymore. In my opinion, Mark Twain was right that government should not try to straighten up the Mississippi River. In the conclusion, the 20th century meant the final change of the Mississippi River. It changed its character and finally transformed from the thoroughfare to the recreational area as it is known nowadays.
3.4. Important cities along the Mississippi River In this chapter I intend to comment on the most significant cities as from Mark Twain's point of view along the Mississippi River and examine the state of them in the past. Then I intend to compare some data from Twain's books with current data of these cities. The aim of this subchapter is to find out what Twain wrote about these cities. I am interested in this matter because Twain used to write about particular places along the Mississippi River and I would like to know whether these places still exist and if so, what function do they have in nowadays life on the river. Is it possible that there any places somehow connected to the river history nowadays? As the most important cities for Twain I consider definitely the city of St. Paul and Minneapolis in the state of Minnesota, then New Orleans in the state of Louisiana and of course Hannibal in the state of Missouri. Nevertheless, in the Life on the Mississippi there are only few towns depicted in greater detail and on those I intend to focus. To begin with, I choose the city of St. Paul. On its description Twain focused at the end of his book. It is remarkable how much details he observed and I intend to outline the main point of his observations.
3.4.1. Twin cities, Minnesota Mark Twain arrived to St. Paul at the end of his journey from the city of New Orleans. In St. Paul there was the head of navigation and the distance from New Orleans was two thousand miles long. The population in 1882 was estimated to be 71 000 people. (Twain, 2006, 585) According to Census, St. Paul's estimated population in 2014 was 297 640 people.
30
(Census, 201414) In the city of St. Paul, there are three things which Twain put emphasis on. It is the Capitol, the Fort Snelling and whiskey. National Park Service provides an article about this famous city which is very helpful in this matter. According to the National Park Service, the St. Paul Municipal Elevator and Sackhouse are now the only reminders of structures connected to St. Paul as a riverfront. They now teach the town's visitors about the heritage of the former city and the importance of it in the commerce on the Mississippi River. The St. Paul Municipal Elevator and Sackhouse are the significant part of Mississippi River because they tell the visitors about the movements which brought commerce on the Mississippi River – the 6- and 9-foot channel projects. (The National Park Service, 2016) The reason why Twain did not write about this place was because the 6-foot channel project was authorized in 1907, therefore at the end of Twain's life. (U.S. Army of Corps Engineering, 201615) Since he gathered the information of the river 20 years before the channel projects, he could not know about this place and that is proven when taking a deeper look at the Municipal Elevator and Sackhouse. Their current shape was constructed few years after Twain's death but nowadays it is considered to be essential part of the history of river and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. (National Park Service, 2016) Twain also did not forget to mention the origin of the St. Paul which is related to the name of Pierre Parrant. “This great van-leader arrived upon the ground which St. Paul now occupies in June, 1837. Yes, at that date, Pierre Parrant, a Canadian, built the first cabin, uncorked his jug, and began to sell whisky to the Indians.” (Twain, 2006, 588) Based on the National Park Service's article named ''Fountain Cave'' I assume that the story of the first famous inhabitant of the future capital city is still a significant part in its history. “Fountain Cave was the first building site for what was to become the city of St. Paul.” (National Park Service, 2016) The cave was used as a tourist attraction from 1850 to 1880, but some human activities destroyed its value and it was eventually buried during the construction of road. (National Park Service, 2016) This means that during Mark Twain's life, the Fountain Cave was accessible and it had much bigger value than it has now. Another significant monument of St. Paul's city is the Fort Snelling. Twain mentions it when he outlines the history of St. Paul and he calls it as “a jail” and then “a fortress
14 ''Quick Facts: St. Paul, Minnesota''. Census. [online], downloaded 29 Feb. 2016. Accessible from: http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045215/2758000
15 ''The 9-foot Channel Project''. US Army of Corps Engineers. [online], downloaded 29 Feb. 2016. Accessible from: http://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/Missions/Navigation/NESP/The9footChannelProject.aspx 31 occupying a river-bluff a hundred feet high”. (Twain, 2006, 590) National Park Service provides an overview of Fort Snelling, claiming that it was the first National Historic Landmark in Minnesota. It also provides an explanation of the difference between the use of the Fort Snelling during Mark Twain's life and the use of it today. “During the Civil War, Minnesota used the fort to train volunteers that wanted to join the Union Army.” (National Park Service, 2016) Today it belongs to Minnesota's heritage and is accessible for public. From this I conclude that the visit of the inside of Fort Snelling was not possible in Twain's time but it already belonged amongst the most significant places in the area of St. Paul and its twin city Minneapolis. At the same time when describing the city of St. Paul, Twain does not forget to mention St. Paul's twin city Minneapolis. The points of interests in the Minneapolis city are the same as in St. Paul. According to Twain, these cities are as close to each other as Siamese twins which seems to not change over the time because the common naming Twin Cities is used when talking about them. (National Park Service, 2016) Twain also highlights some points of interests of Minneapolis itself – for example the St. Anthony Falls. “Minneapolis is situated at the falls of St. Anthony, which stretch across the river, fifteen hundred feet, and have a fall of eighty-two feet – a water power which, by art, has been made of inestimable value, business-wise, though somewhat to the damage of the falls as a spectacle, or as a background against which to get your photograph taken.” (Twain, 2006, 589) Twain highlights the St. Anthony Falls for its business – the great flouring mills and lumber. National Park Service provides evidence of the St. Anthony Falls' importance for the business. “The falls became the main source of power for the many lumber and flour mills that were built around the area during this time period.” (National Park Service, 2016) St. Anthony Falls were also very significant as a centre of the hydroelectric power (Figure 5 in Appendix). The question to consider is whether the falls are still important for its business as they were in the 19th century. In the chapter ''St. Anthony Falls: Timber, Flour and Electricity'', Anfinson provides an answer for this question, claiming that the falls are still important for the hydroelectric power, but people tend to admire the St. Anthony Falls in other ways than in its past connection with business. “This has only become possible since milling at the falls died and opened the falls to new uses.” (Anfinson, 2003, 136) Anfinson then acknowledges that Minneapolis lost its nation's flour capital title because it removed many of the mills which made the city famous. The removal began in the 1930s and it was in the year of 1965 when the last flour was produced on the west side in the Washburn A Mill. The efforts to interpret St. Anthony Falls' history are still being realized. (Anfinson, 2003,
32
137) According to National Park Service, today is possible to discover the St. Anthony Falls in many ways. “The St. Anthony Falls Historic District Area offers the Heritage Trail, a self- guided two-mile loop with a visitor centre. The Stone Arch Bridge and Water Power Park provide the best views of the falls.” (National Park Service, 2016) St. Anthony Falls' area changed a lot during the years which passed by from Mark Twain's visit in the 19th century. St. Anthony Falls gained its fame as a centre of flour, lumber and hydroelectric power. While the fame of it as a centre of business subsided, it became a recreational area where visitors can discover its importance in the past and that is important. Although the utilization changed, the roots of this area are still maintained. This is in my opinion important because Twain considered St. Anthony Falls to be a point of interest, a must-see of this area, and that did not change. As for the other points of interest near St. Paul and Minneapolis, Twain highlighted the Falls of Minnehaha and the White Bear Lake. He did not write about the Falls of Minnehaha in further detail because he thought that it was celebrated sufficiently and therefore did not need any highlights. From this I assume that the Falls of Minnehaha belonged amongst the most famous attractions. The National Park Service agrees in this subject of matter because it provides information of many possible ways to enjoy the Falls of Minnehaha. The White Bear Lake gave name to a city surrounding it nowadays – City of White Bear Lake. The City of White Bear Lake was established in 1921. (White Bear Lake, 2016) This means that the White Bear Lake is nowadays a part of city which did not existed in Twain's time but it is still a significant point of interest for visitors. Another city very important for Twain was the city of New Orleans. It is easy to understand why –New Orleans is greatly connected with history of the Mississippi as French established it as their colony.
3.4.2. New Orleans, Louisiana Twain characterizes New Orleans as the metropolis of the South, highlighting the West End, Spanish Fort and Mardi Gras celebrations. Twain acknowledges that New Orleans was very modern in his time – it had better electric lighting than New York and ice everywhere. “At the date of our visit, it was the best lighted city in the Union, electrically speaking. The New Orleans electric lights were more numerous than those of New York, and very much better.” (Twain, 2006, 442) For points of interest Twain considers the West End, Spanish Fort, Mardi Gras and Washington Artillery. Another thing he considered interesting in the area of New Orleans was the Southern intonation. Twain depicted the West End and Spanish
33
Fort as a lively places. “Thousands of people come by rail and carriage to West End and to Spanish Fort every evening, and dine, listen to the bands, take strolls in the open air under the electric lights, go sailing on the lake, and entertain themselves in various and sundry other ways.” (Twain, 2006, 441-442) This is interesting because of another typical thing New Orleans is famous for – jazz music. I noticed that Twain did not mention jazz music at all in his books which naturally made me assume that jazz music maybe did not exist yet. National Service Park provides an explanation for the jazz music's origin in New Orleans, dating it at the very end of 19th century. From this I conclude that when Life on the Mississippi was published, the jazz music still had to wait for its emerge few more years. National Service Park is not very helpful with the issue of West End and Spanish Fort because it focuses on these places as within the context of jazz. But Wikipedia claims that both Spanish Fort and West End are nowadays known as recreational areas which suggest that their utilization is still the same as in the 19th century. (Wikipedia, 200916,17) As the largest and most famous event in New Orleans Twain considers the Mardi Gras celebrations, emphasizing his attendance twenty four years ago (based on my calculations it was in the year of 1858). “Mardi Gras is of course a relic of the French and Spanish occupation, but I judge that the religious feature has been pretty well knocked out of it now.” (Twain, 2006, 461) History.com Staff explains Mardi Gras in detail, saying that it is a Christian holiday, celebrated all over the world, mainly in countries with Roman Catholic populations. Known also as a Carnival, it is celebrated before the beginning of the religious Lent. History.com Staff also confirms the role of New Orleans in Mardi Gras celebrations, saying that New Orleans is the traditional host of this famous festivity and lures thousands of tourists every year. (History.com, 201018) The tradition of Mardi Gras in New Orleans did not change much. In my opinion, the fame of Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans only rose thanks to modern technologies ensuring Mardi Gras with more publicity. The Mardi Gras celebration is nowadays one of the most important attractions of New Orleans. I would compare its fame to Rio de Janeiro's famous Carnival.
16 ''Spanish Fort, New Orleans''. Wikipedia. [online], downloaded 29 Feb. 2016. Accessible from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Fort,_New_Orleans
17 ''West End, New Orleans'' Wikipedia. [online], downloaded 29 Feb. 2016. Accessible from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_End,_New_Orleans
18 ''Mardi Gras'' History. [online], downloaded 15 Mar. 2016. Accessible from: http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/mardi-gras 34
Twain also emphasizes the Southern intonation in this area, saying that he finds it very pleasing to hear. “A Southerner talks music. At least it is music to me, but then I was born in the South.” (Twain, 2006, 444) This is very typical feature for the South and since the New Orleans was and still is the metropolis of South, I believe that Southern intonation definitely deserves to be mentioned. In my opinion, the Southern accent is still typical feature in this area and the only thing which changed is the people's awareness of it. More people know about this typical feature of South although they have never been there. This is from my point of view thanks to media which show the Southern accent in music and movies. Southern accent, West End and Spanish Fort, Mardi Gras and omnipresent entertainment are the points on which Twain focused when he described New Orleans in the Life on the Mississippi. His depiction of Southern accent is truly remarkable because of his relation to it. This summarizes all Mark Twain found interesting in New Orleans, there is nothing more to this topic in the Life on the Mississippi. What I find interesting in today's New Orleans is the jazz. Although the fame of jazz emerged in the 20th century, Twain made it obvious that New Orleans was a centre of good music even back then. In my opinion, the point of view on New Orleans did not change much when I compare its 19th century and 21st century state. New Orleans is still known for its history connected to French roots, good music (now mainly for jazz), good food and above all, great entertainment. In my opinion it is still considered to be the metropolis of the South.
3.4.3. Hannibal, Missouri Hannibal is a city of Twain's childhood and therefore he tends to write about it in greater detail than about the others, but from completely different perspective. When he describes cities, his depiction usually contains outline of the most known places of that particular city. On the other hand, when he describes Hannibal, it is very obvious that he has different approach to it. This is only understandable because as Twain explained himself – the picture of Hannibal was on his mind along with his boyhood memories and therefore he had different approach to it. He focused more on the people he used to know and buildings he used to be in than on the general picture of the city itself. He wrote about certain points of interest, but that is not the main reason I included this subchapter. The main reason why I included Hannibal subchapter is to find out whether there are places somehow related to Twain's childhood nowadays. As I mentioned in the previous chapter, Twain considered himself a Southerner, acknowledging the readers that he was born in the South when he depicted the Southern
35 intonation. As visible in the chart related to Twain's biography, he was born at Florida in the state of Missouri and then his family moved to Hannibal. But neither Florida nor Hannibal are today considered as Southern cities. United States Census Bureau is helpful with the question whether the state of Missouri belongs to Southern States, providing a map of regions and divisions in the USA. According to the map, the state of Missouri belongs to Midwest States of the United States of America. (Figure 3, Appendix) It occurs to me, that Twain maybe considered himself a Southener because Missouri's neighbouring states are Arkansas and Oklahoma, which are characterized as South States. In the chapter called ''Past and Present'' of the Life on the Mississippi, Twain describes his walk around the house he used to live in, acknowledging that someone else lives here today. (Twain, 2006, 538) Although Twain was by that time famous all over the Europe and America thanks to his book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, his former house did not show any evidence of being once Twain's home. As Hannibal provided setting for both of his most famous books – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, it was full of places which Twain portrayed in his books, as for example Sunday school. Sunday school is a place Twain used to attend as a child and he portrayed it in both of his most famous books. During his visit in Hannibal, he visited the place and was asked for a speech because “a bald-summited superintended who had been a townheaded Sunday-school mate of mine on that sport in the early ages recognized me”. This is also quite interesting because it means that people recognized him from which I conclude that they were proud of him being once a part of their city. Nowadays the city of Hannibal is greatly connected to Mark Twain's personality. He is considered to be the most famous person of Hannibal and The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum is a proof of it. Twain's museum provides and organizes many possible ways to discover Mark Twain's personality. It includes collection of Mark Twain's artifacts as for example his famous white jacket, his typewriter and writing desk and chair. In addition to that, the museum also owns 60 original letters of Mark Twain and first editions of his books. But what is more important, the museum is not only in his childhood home but it also oversees five historical building which are somehow related to Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. These are: Mark Twain's Boyhood Home, The Becky Thatcher House, John M. Clemens Justice of the Peace Office, Grant's Drug Store or Pilaster House and Huckleberry Finn House. This all indicates omnipresence of Mark Twain in Hannibal nowadays. In addition to that, there is annual contest of portraying Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher amongst the seventh grade students in Hannibal. (Mark Twain's Boyhood Home & Museum, 2016)
36
In my opinion, Twain would be very glad indeed if he had the chance to see his legacy in Hannibal nowadays. I believe so because the nostalgia in his Hannibal writings in Life on the Mississippi is obvious. To see these slight differences it is necessary to realize that Mark Twain lived in time when these interesting places were used for some purpose. Nowadays these are places which are supposed to teach visitors about regional history and heritage of the city. To me it seems that in 19th century, these places were maybe recognized as attractions and interesting places and not considered to have a cultural and historical value yet. They gained its historical value during the 100 years or so which passed by between Twain's time and the 21st century. In my opinion, it is also surprising how actual the description sounds despite the fact that it has been more than 100 years since he wrote it. The only thing different is the point of view. Mark Twain thought of these places as of the “contemporary” and nowadays, we look at them as to “historical”. In my opinion, his depictions of certain cities are great source of history when looking at the city in current context.
3.5. Ethnical groups along the Mississippi In this subchapter I intend to find about certain ethical groups related to the Mississippi River. I am interested in this issue because I noticed that Mark Twain did not mention any ethnical groups, except of black people. I intend to focus only on the black people and Indians, because these are in my opinion the most interesting. I focus on Twain's opinion of them and the reason why he rarely focused on them in his books. I also intend to find out whether some of these ethnical groups live on the Mississippi River nowadays, especially Indians. I am interested in finding out whether there are Indian reservations in the Mississippi River area in the 21st century. As my main sources to this subchapter I use Twain's books to outline his opinion of blacks and Indians, The new encyclopedia of Southern culture by Clemens Ray which deals with Ethnicity and also particular articles published in 2007 by National Park Service to see contemporary situation on the Mississippi.
3.5.1. Twain and African Americans The existence of black people was in 19th century very controversial topic to discuss and literature played a big role in it. Publishing of Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe brought a lot of discussion to black people's issue and it also contributed to the rise of abolitionism. As previously stated before, the South was prospering mainly in agriculture and that made slavery essential part of it. On the other hand, the North was focused on industry and therefore slavery was not essential for them. As already discussed few chapters above,
37
Mark Twain considered himself as born and raised Southener which means that he was very well familiar with the black community. As Mark Twain once said: “I was not aware that there was anything wrong about it. No one arraigned in my hearing, the local papers said nothing against, the local pulpit taught us that God approved it.” (Thomas, 2008, 225) This explains why Twain wrote about black people – because he knew the Southern environment so well. Some critics considered The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to be racist but in my opinion that is completely wrong. Twain made black people part of his most famous book and without black community in it, it would lose its value. Life on the Mississippi answers my questions whether black people were big part of his life or not. Twain says that entire crew of firemen and deck-hands usually consisted of ''swarthy negroes'' (Twain, 2006, 192) This in my opinion helps to understand Twain's approach to black people. As a steamboat pilot, Twain needed to cooperate with black people and to do so, he must have treated them as equal. When Twain describes seeing his boyhood home during the walk, he states that people living in it now are of no more value than him, but that in past they would cost at least five hundred dollars because they are coloured. (Twain, 2006, 538) This shows a comparison between his times as a child and as grown-up. For the proper explanation, the end of slavery was proclaimed during Twain's grown up years, in the year of 1865 by the 13th Amendment which officially marked the end of slavery in the South after the Civil War. (History.com Staff, 200919) It seems to me, that Twain only stated what was obvious, but he did not discuss the existence of blacks in greater detail. It was not necessary for his books. In conclusion I think that he included black community to his books because black people simply were part of his life. Based on Twain's description of Jim's character, I assume that he approved the freedom of blacks because he depicted Jim in ways which make readers sympathize with him. The presence of the black people working on the river suggests that black community on the river was totally common. But why exactly were black people on the river as firemen and deck- hands? In my opinion it was because steamboats provided them certain freedom and as Twain said, they liked to travel because in the past it was not possible for them. (Twain, 2006, 363)
19 ''Slavery in America''. History. [online], downloaded 15 Mar. 2016. Accessible from: http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/slavery 38
3.5.2. Twain and Native Americans Native Americans are significant part of the history of United States. They are often mentioned when discussing the topic of European arrival to the area which is now the United States of America. Europeans explored American continent through the banks of the Mississippi River and it was also on the Mississippi River, where they first encountered with Native Americans occupying this area. It is therefore natural that Europeans made notes about Native Americans and nowadays we have a lot of material regarding the Native Americans' existence. This means that when Twain decided to write a book which would map the Mississippi River, he must have studied these documents and books about Native Americans because they were essential for the chapters about river's history. Right from the beginning of the Life on the Mississippi, Twain mentions Indians quite a lot because of their constant encountering with Europeans. Europeans eventually managed to take their land and that was the cause of troubles for many centuries. In the chapter ''On the Upper River'', Twain acknowledges that this part of the river is especially rich in Indian history and traditions. He also mentions names of Indian tribal leaders: “Black Hawk's was once a puissant name hereabouts, as was Keokuk's, further down.” (Twain, 2006, 569) He mentions story about Black Hawk from which I assume that he was interested in the history of Native Americans. But as I have searched the The Life on the Mississippi for more mentions about Indians, I could only find stories somehow related to the Mississippi's history from which I assume that Twain used Indians only as for outlining the situation on the river in the past. There were probably more interesting things on the river which he wanted to write about and since Indians were by that time minority on the Mississippi River, I conclude that this was the reason why he did not write about Indians in greater detail. He could for example mention some reservations along the river, but I suppose that it was not important for what he wanted to say by his texts and so he omitted it. He also focused more on the cities along the river which is natural, because he remembered them from his days of steamboat pilot and wanted to compare the differences between it.
3.5.3. African Americans and Native Americans on the river nowadays Nowadays presence of black community on the river is of course common, but it is still a minority when compared to white or Caucasian ethnicity. That can be proven by survey of regional parks and trails which was published on National Park Service's webpage. In the
39 charts of Regional Park Use by Race and Ethnicity (Figure 7, Appendix20), the majority of white or Caucasian ethnicity is visible. Black or African race is considered to be minority on the river nowadays, showing only 6.5 percent of regional park use. But what is more interesting for me is the percentage of regional park use by Native Americans. The survey shows only 0.6 percent of American Indians to use Regional Park area which means that they are still present on the river, although now only as a minority. When looking at the map of American Indians provided by United States Census Bureau, there is a detail of Native Americans in the state of Minnesota (Figure 8, Appendix21) and it is perfectly visible that nowadays there still are some Indian reservations and areas where Indian tribes live. As visible, the Red Lake, White Earth and Leech Lake are the biggest reservations in this area. The Leech Lake Reservation's area lies directly on the Mississippi River. In the Figure 9 in Appendix, there are Native Americans in the Louisiana state. There are many Indians although not in the close proximity of the Mississippi River. It is worth mentioning that there are some tribes significant in the Mississippi's history as for example the Mississippi Choctaw. They now live in a federally Indian reservation. Figure 10 in Appendix explains the different colours of particular reservations. All of these reservations are areas which are defined by the United States Government and have their own laws and systems. I must admit that it is nice to see the old, traditional tribes still trying to maintain their cultural heritage and traditions and I believe that it is important for the area of the United States of America because it gives visitors another possibilities to get to know some different culture.
3.6. The Mississippi River nowadays In this chapter I focus on the Mississippi River nowadays, especially on the possibilities which now enable visitors to discover the Mississippi's nature, history and significance in the United States of America's history and presence. Few of these places I have already mentioned as for example Twain's museum or historical places as Fort Snelling. But now I intend to focus on the points of interest which are a must-see for the visitors, the possibilities to enjoy their stay on the river and other ways of recreation as for example fishing on the river. I also focus on educational things which the river provides to educators. To see the state
20 ''Parks and Recreation: Equal Access for All'' National Park Service. [online], downloaded 15 Mar. 2016. Accesible from: http://www.nps.gov/miss/learn/nature/upload/SalkPresent-092515.pdf
21 ''American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States Wall Maps''. United States Census Bureau. . [online], downloaded 15 Mar. 2016. Accesible from: https://www.census.gov/geo/maps- data/maps/aian_wall_maps.html 40 of the river, the points of interests and educational features on the Mississippi River, I use mainly National Service Park web page which provides loads of material about the river nowadays as for example the State of the River Report.
3.6.1. Swimming and fishing The first thing I wonder about the Mississippi nowadays is the state of the water, whether it is possible to swim in it as Mark Twain could in his childhood age. I am also interested in finding out whether there are some rare species of fish which are somehow protected by the National Park Service. I am interested in this fish species topic because I already learned that Great Blue Herons live in this area and that made me assume that some rare fish species might live in the Mississippi too. The other reason for me is that I am personally interested in fish. With this swimming and fish topic, the State of the River Report from National Park Service is very helpful. Right at the beginning of chapter ''Swimming & Recreation'', the authors of the State of the River Report Russell and Weller introduce two main threats to the Mississippi River's recreational use. “Bacteria pose a threat to human health and can limit the recreational uses of rivers, lakes and streams. Phosphorus contributes to algae blooms, and other factors that negatively impact aquatic recreation, life and health.” (Russell and Weller, 2013, 13) In most parts of the river, the bacteria concentration is below the standards, but some reaches of the river have excess of bacteria. The highest level of bacteria is near the Twin Cities area. Swimming and recreational use of the river is recommended to be careful and limited here and people should not swim in the river within 48 hours after the rainstorm because of the pollutants. (2013, 15) The swimming in the river is therefore allowed but it is highly recommended to rinse off well after it and do not drink water from it. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is working on the solution and tries to reduce the concentration of bacteria. But as stated before, this is just a part of the river near the Twin Cities which means that the other reaches of the river are possible to swim in without any worries. (Russell and Weller, 2013, 15) Another threat to the recreational use of the Mississippi is the phosphorus. ''Phosphorus is a common element in the environment and is essential for plant growth and health. However, excess levels of phosphorus in waters can harm aquatic life and recreation by reducing water clarity, depleting oxygen levels in the water, and causing toxic algae blooms.'' (Russell and Weller, 2013, 16) This is in my opinion common problem of the rivers and lakes because of algae. The Lake Pepin is unlike the majority of the Mississippi River,
41 impaired with excess of phosphorus in it so there are plans for restoring the Lake Pepin by reducing the phosphorus in it. (Russell and Weller, 2013, 16) Overall, the recreational use of the Mississippi allows the visitors to swim in it, but there are certain parts of the river which are better to avoid to, as for example the area around Twin Cities. It is recommended not to drink from it, but National Park Service claims that treated drinking water from the Mississippi is not only possible and safe, but also very tasty. It is the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency who ensures that the river is swimmable and fishable. (National Park Service, 2016) According to National Park Service, the Mississippi River and its floodplain are home to at least 260 fish species, but this is due to the restoration which begun at the end of the 20th century. In the year of 1926 it was found out about the decline of fish population in the Mississippi River and so the restoration started. Nowadays, there are several trophy species as for example smallmouth bass, catfish, and walleye. (Russell and Weller, 2013, 22) Interesting fact about catfish is that Mark Twain mentioned them in his books too. In the Life on the Mississippi he quoted captain Murray who wrote about the Mississippi: “'It contains the coarsest and most uneatable of fish, such as the catfish.” (Murray in Twain, 2001, 152) Then Twain expresses his attitude towards captain Murray's opinion of catfish. “A value, though marred in the matter of statistics by inaccuracies, for the catfish is a plenty good enough fish for anybody.” (Twain, 2006, 288) In my opinion it is interesting that Twain considered catfish as a good fish, knowing about the decline of fish in the Mississippi River at end of 19th and beginning of 20th century. The State River Report says that by the year of 1962 there were only two fish found in the 25 miles downstream of St. Anthony Falls. (Russell and Weller, 2013) As previously mentioned in the chapter of navigability of the Mississippi, I believe that this fish decline was due to new locks and dams, because the fish are then unable to migrate. As for another interesting fact, Twain portrayed Tom and Huck catching fish in the Mississippi River in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Tom and Huck caught bass, couple of sun-perch and small catfish. “They fried the fish with the bacon, and were astonished, for no fish had ever seemed so delicious before. They did not know that the quicker a fresh-water fish is on the fire after he is caught the better he is.” (Twain, 2015, 124) This proves that Twain not only knew the fish in the Mississippi River and considered them delicious, but it also gives an evidence of the preparation of the fish which is quite interesting because it seems to be the same as today's preparation of fish. As the biggest threat to the fishing in the Mississippi River, Russell and Weller consider the Asian carp, saying that there are four species of Asian carp fish which pose a
42 threat because of their large appetites and no natural predators. Asian carp can also out- compete native fish species and in addition to that they also pose a threat to boating and fishing. “Silver carp, which can grow to 60 pounds and leap as high as 10 feet from the water when disturbed, have injured boaters and damaged property in other states.” (Russell and Weller, 2013, 24) The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency makes efforts to prevent the migration of Asian carp and to reduce its numbers in the Mississippi River. (Russell and Weller, 2013, 24) Except for Asian carp, there is no bigger threat to fishing in the Mississippi River. Catching fish in the Mississippi River is allowed and the same is for eating them. “Fish from the river are safe and healthy to eat if you follow the state's fish consumption advice.” (Russel and Weller, 2013, 20) In conclusion, the swimming and fishing in the Mississippi is possible but people have to be careful and follow the state's advice. In the end, I believe that especially fishing is considered as attractive way to spend the day on the Mississippi River. I believe that because from my personal experience I know that some fishermen enthusiasts go to Italy just to try the fishing on the river Po. This is why I consider the possibility of fishing as one of the most attractive ways to discover the Mississippi River, because some people desire to discover the Mississippi's nature on their own and that is enabled by fishing.
3.6.2. Cultural and historical points of interests The Mississippi River is rich in history and provides many possible ways of discovering its heritage to visitors. I intend to focus on the most important points of interest along the river. The National Park Service's web page provides the list of options with wide spectre of activities and places to go. In the National River & Recreation Area in Minnesota there are three most significant museums. The first museum is the Mill City Museum which maps the flour industry in this area. “The Mill City Museum is housed in one of the original flour mills built along the shores of the Mississippi in Minneapolis. The building was named the Washburn A Mill and opened in 1874.” (National Park Service, 2016) The Washburn A Mill is already mentioned above in the chapter of important cities along the river as the place where the last flour on the west since in the 1965 was produced. This museum therefore maps the Minneapolis' milling industry which was famous all over the United States. As a benefit, the museum offers its visitors view on the Mississippi River and St. Anthony Falls. Amongst the activities which are offered to tourists, there are walking tours, media shows and Baking
43
Lab, where visitors can try to bake their own bread or do some experiments with flour. (National Park Service, 2016) Perhaps the most interesting historical place for visitors is the famous Fort Snelling. Its aim is to get visitors understand the history of United States. “Finished in 1824, Fort Snelling became the regional centre for intertribal gatherings and negotiations.” (National Park Service, 2016) The cause of negotiations dates back before the Fort Snelling was built. Native Americans, namely the Dakota people, lived in this area before the arrival of white Americans. It was in the year of 1803 when President Thomas Jefferson decided on Louisiana Purchase. This meant that the United States bought half of the western area of the Mississippi River from France and naturally, they wanted to discover this area and see if there could be any profits. They were interested in fur trade and places for the future military posts. They knew about the fights between tribes of Native Americans and the Pike Expedition was sent to stop the fights between the tribes and get them to sign a treaty which would grant this area to the military posts. The Dakota people signed the treaty, but because Americans did not make much effort to control this place, they continued to go there. When Fort Snelling was built, the Dakota people lived near it and used ''the hill much visited'' as the place for their dead. But tribes Mdewakanton and Wapekute signed the Treaty of Mendota here in the year of 1851 and gave up this land for a reservation on the Minnesota River. After the decade, there was the Dakota Conflict in 1862 and the Dakota people returned to this area and were prisoned below the Fort Snelling by American military. After few years, American military sold Fort Snelling they did not need it anymore with the move of frontiers to the west, but eventually reclaimed it back and the Fort Snelling served as an important military place during the Mexican Revolution, Spanish-American war and both world wars. (National Park, 2016) The last museum is the Sibley House Historic Site which provides an insight into the oldest Euro-American settlement in Minnesota. It also maps the fur trade of American Fur Company. (National Park Service, 2016) There are also some cultural things to do while visiting the Mississippi River National Park as for example go to the Guthrie Theatre from which there is beautiful view on the Mississippi River or visit the Harriet Island. “Harriet Island is a meeting place for many different types of activities – including concerts, charity runs, and ethnic events – all on the Mississippi River.” (National Park, 2016) In my opinion, there is such a wide range of recreational activities that it is really hard to pick one. Except of the museums and cultural places, the possibilities are still very wide. All these museums are worth visiting because they connect the Mississippi River with its
44 history and with history of the whole America. To be honest, the cultural things I mentioned above do not sounds very attractive to me because I would prefer to get to know the history and nature first. But at the same time I understand that the Mississippi River is a phenomena often portrayed by artists so it is natural that some cultural things as art galleries are found along the river.
3.6.3. Discovering the nature of the Mississippi The Mississippi River Trail belongs to the most attractive ways to get to know the Mississippi's nature because it follows 3,000 mile distance from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico. There are different routes as for example the Hidden Falls Regional Park, Minnehaha Falls Regional Park, City of Hastings Trail System and so on. (National Park Service, 2016) This is a good way to get to know the nature on your own because not everybody likes museums and prefers to get to know the Mississippi River on their own. As the Mississippi River is home to many birds and other wildlife inhabitants, visitors can go birdwatching to special parks, as for example to Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, Coon Rapids Dam or North Mississippi Regional Park, all of them in the state of Minnesota. (National Park Service, 2016) It is also possible to go canoeing and boating (Figure 11 in Appendix) to different places, for example to Lion's Levee Park in Minnesota. The same is with hiking and walks, which are also arranged for the visitors of the Mississippi. There are special hiking and walking routes to follow as Mill Ruins Park or Stone Arch Bridge (both of them in the state of Minnesota. And for more active visitors, there is also the game of geocaching which is possible to be played at Fort Snelling State Park and other places. I consider this outline of activities to do on the Mississippi as sufficient for getting the idea of today's life on the river within the National Park context. It is obvious that the possibilities of discovering the Mississippi River are so wide that there simply must be something for every visitor. From my point of view, it is great that National Park Service ensures these activities because the river now lives from its recreational use. I also believe that money from visitors help the Mississippi River recover from the past pollution during the commerce days.
3.6.4. Educators on the Mississippi Education became a significant part of nowadays' river and as to visitors, it offers wide range of options to educate pupils. There are many possibilities for teachers all over the world since the National Park offers not only education right on the Mississippi River, but also
45 learning programs for the classes. Thanks to National Park Service, teachers can explore the Mississippi River right from their homes or schools and they have access to educational materials which enables them to decide on which learning material they want to focus. I intend to explore these learning materials as a future teacher and highlight the best of them. Right at the introduction to the education on the Mississippi, National Park Service acknowledges that there is many points of view to learn about the Mississippi. Teachers can look at the Mississippi River from the point of view of science, history, geography, culture, reading, writing, music, art and even computer learning. Particularly the point of view of writing is interesting for me because it could be somehow linked to Mark Twain as the National Park has quite a lot of references in their materials about him. I focus on Mark Twain as a part of today's Mississippi River for educators later. The first program mentioned on the National Park Service's webpage is called The Big River Journey. It is described as award-winning. This Big River Journey program includes the riverboat excursion on the Mississippi River but what is more, it includes pre and post excursion activities in the classroom. These activities are aimed at students of grades 3 to 5 and allow them explore the science and heritage of the Mississippi River through teachers' workshops and classroom activities. All of these activities are included in the teacher's guide created by the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, therefore by National Park Service. This teacher's guide is downloadable for everyone, which allowed me to explore particular activities and workshop ideas. The content includes science-based activities for classroom and contains activities such as Water-Cycle, River Geology, River Birds, River Ecosystem, Boats and Buoyancy and so on. Activities then contain thematically based activities which focus on Geography, Fort Snelling Historic activities, History and Computer Learning and finally, the Writing and Arts activities. (National Park Service, 2016) Since I wanted to find out if there is some mention of Mark Twain in this educational material, I searched through it and found his name in the Reference and Resources section. The students are recommended to read Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and then discuss not only the book but also the influence the river had on Mark Twain's life and works. This I find very beneficial for the students as they have chance to learn not only about the Mississippi River, but also improve their knowledge of American literature and of course read a great humorous book. As for another educational program there is Journey to the Falls. This program is aimed at grades 3 to 6 and includes history and literacy activities. Students have the chance to explore the Saint Anthony Falls and the Mississippi River in the Minneapolis city area. Program
46 includes riverboat excursion and some pre and post excursion activities too. Again, the teacher's guide is available, offering many ideas of activities connected to this theme. Classroom activities include Lumber and Sawmilling at St. Anthony Falls, Exploring activities in the Twin City area and also some Archaeology activities which are quite interesting for me too since I study also history. Again, in the post excursion activities, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is amongst the recommended reading, but Life on the Mississippi is also quoted at the ''River Quotes'' chapter. “The face of the river, in time, became a wonderful book… which told its mind to me without reserve, delivering its most cherished secrets as clearly as if it had uttered them with a voice. And it was not a book to be read once and thrown aside, for it had a new story to tell every day.” (Mark Twain, 2006, 117) This program focuses on one particular area of the Mississippi River and that is the Minneapolis area. Students therefore have a chance to explore the history and nature of one area and then put it into the context of the Mississippi as a whole. The Urban Wilderness Canoe Adventures School Program also focuses on the area between Twin Cities and allows children to get to know the Mississippi's nature through paddling. Another program is called Climate Change Field Trips and is aimed for grades 5 to 8. This program takes place at Fort Snelling State Park and takes 3 or so hours. It focuses on the climate along the Mississippi and thanks to it, students can learn what to do to help the climate change. (National Park Service, 2016) The benefit of this program is from my point of view the possibility to apply gained knowledge about climate change to a broader spectre because the climate change is not only the Mississippi's problem. The program aimed to exploration of the Mississippi River through art is called the Big River Art Contest. It is an annual contest for students from 3rd to 6th grade. Their artwork focused on heritage, science or stewardship of the Mississippi River is then displayed in the galleries and museums of the Mississippi. (National Park Service, 2016) The last but not least are the School Group Programs, which are all free and take no more than an hour. These school programs include exploring the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, the Mystery of Disappearing Waterfalls, the exploration of America's National Parks, the How can we care for the Mississippi River? program and so on. In my opinion, these short group programs are something like an excursion and their main goal is to spread awareness of the Mississippi River among the school students. (National Park Service, 2016) All of these programs only prove the National Park Service's efforts to open up the Mississippi to children, students, families and basically everybody. In my opinion it is really
47 great that National Park helps students to realize something about their national treasure that Mississippi truly is and also provides ideas how to preserve it. From the point of view as a future teacher, I would definitely consider these programs as useful. There are loads of informative activities and thanks to that, students can participate actively and they gain some really useful knowledge of general things which they can apply not only to the Mississippi region.
Conclusion In this chapter, I intend to summarize what I examined in this bachelor thesis and what I found out during the process. At first I recap the Mississippi River's topic as within its historic context and significance. The Mississippi River is the most significant river on the whole American continent. Its history includes Native Americans and their encounters with European explorers, the period of colonialism, the golden age of steamboats and commerce. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Mississippi gained its international fame by becoming a thoroughfare for the whole American commerce. But as the time passed by, the Mississippi River changed its character and utilization. It became a legend, celebrated in art and literature. The Mississippi's greatness influenced works of Mark Twain, one of the greatest American writers who used the Mississippi as a setting in his two most famous books and also as a main role in his book Life on the Mississippi. The aim of this bachelor thesis was to explore the Mississippi River in Mark Twain's works, compare its phenomena in the 19th century with present state of the Mississippi River and to see Mark Twain's opinion on certain things on the river and whether these things are still part of today's Mississippi River. I focused on certain general phenomena within the context of the Mississippi River, such as the climate or nature around it. I focused on the significance of the Mississippi River in today's education and also Mark Twain's part in it. During the process of writing, I found out that the point of view on the Mississippi River changed completely because Twain looked at it as to a thoroughfare of the South but nowadays, it is looked at as to recreational area. The same is the point of view on certain places Twain used to write about along the river – in 19th century these places as Fort Snelling were still utilized whereas today they are accessible and educate its visitors about the history
48 of the United States and Mississippi's role in it. I found out that navigability of the river changed completely from Twain's times too, thanks to efforts which begun when Twain came back to the river to write his Life on the Mississippi. In the following paragraphs I summarize what I found out precisely in each chapter of my bachelor thesis. The history of the Mississippi is very wide topic and one has to study it really deeply as to be able to understand its significance in the history of the whole nation. When Mark Twain studied its history so he could map the river as a complex unit, he paid a lot of attention to details. Whole history of the Mississippi is greatly reflected in his Life on the Mississippi which makes this book a great source of regional history. Thanks to his depiction of Europeans within the context of the river, this book can be also used as great source of international history. The Mississippi's history from Mark Twain's point of view was interesting for me because besides English, I study also history. His depiction of certain eras are surprisingly detailed and above all, precise. Today, people have access to any historical data thanks to internet, but in Twain's time such a detailed description of history must have took a lot of time. From my point of view, the Mississippi River's influence in history is enormous, because French discovered this area thanks to the Mississippi and eventually took it from Native Americans also thanks to the existence of the Mississippi. The Mississippi River was for a long time the only possible way of travelling in this area and that makes it such an indispensable part of the America. When it comes to Mark Twain, he is considered to be one of the greatest American realists but from my point of view, there is more. Thanks to his books, he opened up the Mississippi River to a broader spectre of readers and that is in my opinion another reason why is Life on the Mississippi so valuable. Twain managed to open up the Mississippi River to people who will never have a chance to see it with their own eyes and thanks to Twain, they can at least understand its significance and imagine the beauty of it. By writing the chapters about the Mississippi's history, he also enabled to understand its significance in human history to people who are not interested in history at all. The reason for this is that Twain's depictions are interesting and not just a lot of data. Twain introduced the era of change on the Mississippi and it is intriguing to read about it because of author's personal relationship with the river. In the analytical part I focused on the topics which Twain highlighted in his works as temporary or common. The analytical part of the thesis focused mainly on the nature and climate, but also on the technology on the river. The navigability of the Mississippi was especially interesting for me as I have some personal experience with boats and boats engines,
49 too. Thanks to that I could compare the changes in technology and thanks to Twain's depiction see the change in navigability over the time. In this chapter I found out that the main problem in Twain's time were the explosions of boilers on steamboats and then examined the possibility of such explosions today. Eventually I found out that thanks to boat engines today, the chance for ships to explode are absolutely minimal, but on the other hand, there are more threats to environment when the ship goes down. In the chapter dedicated to towns along the Mississippi, I focused on the places in cities, which Twain highlighted in his Life on the Mississippi. I found out that most of these places are nowadays considered to be historical, whereas during Twain's life they were mostly considered as attractions and did not have the historical value yet. But in the end, places which Twain emphasized as worth visiting, are in most cases still the most visited places along the Mississippi. Eventually I found out that even though value and utilization of these places changed, their attractiveness did not. Since the ethnicity was a burning issue in the 19th century, I concentrated also on the African Americans and Native Americans in Twain's works, but concluded that Twain used them as for outlining the situation and did not write about them in greater detail. Because Twain was a Southerner, he did not consider slaves as something bad. Yet it is visible that he was probably glad when slaves gained their freedom which he also portrayed in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The black people and Native Americans are still part of today's Mississippi, only the way of their living changed, especially the Native Americans'. Nowadays, Native Americans live in their reservations designated for them by government and have their own laws and rules. In the chapters dedicated to present state of the Mississippi River I found out that Mississippi's use changed in almost every possible aspect. During Mark Twain's time, the river was a thoroughfare, important mainly for its commerce. Based on Twain's notes I understood that government did not put much money into the Mississippi's preservation or development because of railroads. Railroads were also the reason why the commerce on the river ended. But as Twain had observed, that changed. The government improved river's navigability with electric lights and its interventions. When commerce on the river ended, the river got its new shape and character. Nowadays, the river is not a thoroughfare anymore, but its areas are national or state parks. I focused only on the National Park in Minnesota and explored the state of the Mississippi River within this area. In comparison with today's state of the Mississippi, I found out that the river changed its character from thoroughfare to the area of recreation. I concluded that today, the government awards grants to preserve the
50
Mississippi and its nature. It is paid a lot of attention to birds along the river and fish living in it. The government now puts effort so they could preserve the river for educational purposes and recreational use. And in fact, they still live from the river's history which is visible through their museums, sights and monuments, but above all, they still live from Mark Twain's writings. Although it is so long since he lived here and wrote about the river, his legacy is still perceptible here. Subjectively, the Mississippi's theme was very interesting for me and especially the analytical part of this bachelor thesis. As I already mentioned, the history is close to me and so is the theme of rivers and nature. The topic of nature around the Mississippi helped me to understand the possibilities of helping to preserve the environment and this knowledge is in my opinion useful in general. This bachelor thesis also helped me to understand Mark Twain's works better because I realized just how deeply Mississippi River influenced his works and life. Finally, Twain's quote that the Mississippi River has a new story to tell every day seems to be truth even nowadays.
51
Resume This bachelor thesis focuses on the portrayal of the Mississippi River in works of American realist Mark Twain. Thesis examines the influence of the Mississippi River on life and works of this significant writer and examines the differences on the Mississippi River from 19th century's point of view represented by Twain and present point of view, represented by National Park Service's webpage. The first part of the thesis is dedicated to theoretical knowledge and consists of two main chapters dealing with history of the Mississippi River and biography of Mark Twain within the context of the Mississippi River. The second part of the bachelor thesis is analytical and consists of only one main chapter dealing with the Mississippi river as a complex unit. This part of thesis analyses changes on the Mississippi River from Mark Twain's times doing so from different aspects and compares these aspects with nowadays point of view. These aspects include climatic change point of view on the river, technology used, important cities along the river and also from the point of view of education.
Resumé Tato bakalářská práce se zabývá zobrazením řeky Mississippi v díle amerického realisty Marka Twaina. Práce zkoumá vliv řeky Mississippi na život a dílo tohoto významného spisovatele a zkoumá rozdíly na řece Mississippi z pohledu 19. století, představovaného Twainem a současným pohledem na řeku, představovanou webovou stránkou National Park Service. První část práce je věnována teoretickým znalostem a skládá se ze dvou hlavních kapitol, které se zabývající historií řeky Mississippi a životopisem Marka Twaina v kontextu řeky Mississippi. Druhá část bakalářské práce je analytická a skládá se pouze z jedné hlavní kapitoly, která se zabývá řekou Mississippi jakožto komplexním celkem. Tato část práce analyzuje změny na řece Mississippi od dob Marka Twaina a porovnává tyto změny z dnešního pohledu. Tyto různé aspekty zahrnují pohled na řeku z hlediska klimatických změn, používané technologie, významných měst podél řeky a také z pohledu vzdělávacího.
52
Bibliography:
Primary sources: Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Bookbyte Digital Edition, 2015. E-book.
Twain, Mark. Life on the Mississippi. Project Gutenberg, 2006. E-book.
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Oxford: University of Oxford Text Archive, 1995. E-book.
Atkinson, Edward. ''Appendix B'' in Twain, Mark. Life on the Mississippi. Project Gutenberg, 2006. Print.
Marryat, cpt. ''Captain Marryat's Sensations'' in Twain, Mark. Life on the Mississippi. Project Gutenberg, 2006. E-book.
Kaplan, Justin. ''The New Introduction'' in Twain, Mark. Life on the Mississippi. New York: Signet Classic, 2001. Print.
Secondary sources: Shelley Fisher Fishkin. The Mark Twain Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Works. New York, N. Y., Library of America, 2010. Print.
Pillsbury, Richard. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Volume 2, Geography. University of North Carolina Press, 2006. Print.
Palmer, Tim. Rivers of America. New York: Abrams, 2006. Print.
Goldfield, David R. The American Journey: A History of the United States. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006. Print.
Mancall, Peter C., and Nash Gary B. Encyclopedia of American History. Volume 1, Three Worlds Meet Beginnings to 1607. New York: Facts on file, 2003. Print.
Scriber-Arnold, T., and Scriber, G. Terry. Ship Island: Mississippi: Rosters and History of the Civil War Prison. Jefferson, McFarland & Company, 2008. E-book.
53
McMichael, George and Leonard, James S. Anthology of American Literature. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print.
Wilson, Charles Reagan. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Volume 3, History. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. Print.
Melosi, Martin V. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Volume 8, Environment. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007. Print.
Inge, M Thomas. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Volume 9, Literature. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008. Print.
Boszhardt, F. Robert. A Projectile Point Guide for the Upper Mississippi River Valley. University of Iowa Press, 2005. E-book.
Cuddon, J. A. Literary Terms. Penguin, 1991. Print.
Spiller, Robert E. The Cycle of American Literature. An Essay in Historical Criticism. New York: The Free Press, a division of Macmillan Publishing, Co., Inc., 1955. Print.
Ousby, Ian. The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Cambridge University Press, 1992. Print.
Lloyd T., James. Lloyd's Steamboat Directory, and Disasters on the Western Waters. Library of Congress, 1856. Ebook.
Rodriguez, Junius P. The Louisiana Purchase: A Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2002. Print.
Schwantes, Carlos A. Long Day's Journey: Th Steamboat & Stagecoach Era in the Northern West. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999. Print.
Ray, C. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Volume 6. Ethnicity. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007. Print.
Montgomery, M. and Johnson, E. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Volume 5. Language. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007. Print.
54
Internet sources:
Forsberg, Drew M. Early Native American Life in the MNRRA Corridor. Mississippi National River & Recreation Area. The Historic Resources Study, 2003. Web. 15 Oct. 2015
Krippner, Mark. ''The Glacial Landscape of Minessota''. Emporia State University, 2011. Web. 15 Oct. 2015
Morrow, E. Juliet. ''Dalton Period''. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas history & culture. Arkansas Archeological Survey, 2013. Web. 25 Oct. 2015
Dattel, R. Eugene. ''Cotton and the Civil War''. Mississippi History Now. Mississippi Historical Society, 2008. Web. 26 Jul. 2015
Bunn, J. Michael and Williams, Clay. ''A Failed Enterprise: The French Colonial Period in Mississippi''. Mississippi History Now. Mississippi Historical Society, 2007. Web. 26 Jul. 2015.
Foner, E. and Garraty, J. ''Treaty of Paris''. History, 2009. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.
''Twain's Life and Works''. The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum, 2012. Web. 5 Dec. 2015.
''Life on the Mississippi, by Mark Twain''. The Atlantic, 1883. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.
''The Flood of 1952''. Mississippi National River & Recreation Area. National Park Service. Web. 14 Jan. 2015.
''A Look Back in the Lower Mississippi Valley''. New Orleans District. Us Army Corps of Engineering. Web. 14 Jan. 2015.
''Who We Are''. International Committee of The Red Cross. Web. 18. Feb. 2016.
55
''North Mississippi Regional Park Heron Rookery''. The National Park Service. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.
Brewer, John.: ''Minneapolis tornado also devastates heron rookery on Mississippi River island''. TwinCities Pioneer Press, 2011. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.
History.com Staff,: ''Industrial Revolution''. A+E Networks. History.com, 2009. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.
Anfinson O., John. Transforming the River I: Commerce and Navigation Improvements, 1823-1906. River of History: A Historic Resources Study of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. Mississippi National River & Recreation Area. The Historic Resources Study, 2003. Web. 26 Feb. 2016
Anfinson O., John. Transforming the River II. Commerce, Navigation Improvements and Hydroelectric Power, 1907-1963. Mississippi National River & Recreation Area. The Historic Resources Study, 2003. Web. 28 Jan. 2016
"Navigable." Merriam-Webster, Web. 29 Feb. 2016.
"Fathom." Merriam-Webster, Web. 29 Feb. 2016.
''St. Paul District History''. US Army of Corps Engineers. Web. 29 Jan. 2016.
McPherson, J. ''A Brief Overview of the American Civil War: a defining time in our nation's history''. Civil War Trust. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.
''A Legacy of the River: The St. Paul Municipal Elevator and Sackhouse''. The National Park Service. Web. 29 Jan. 2016.
''Quick Facts: St. Paul, Minnesota.'' United States Census Bureau, 2014. Web. 29 Jan. 2016.
''The 9-foot Channel Project''. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District. Web. 29 Jan. 2016.
56
''Fountain Cave''. National Park Service, Mississippi National River & Recreation Area, Minnesota. Web. 29 Jan. 2016
''Twin Cities Geology''. National Park Service, Mississippi National River & Recreation Area, Minnesota. Web. 5 Mar. 2016
''St. Anthony Falls.'' National Park Service, Mississippi National River & Recreation Area, Minnesota. Web. 5 Mar. 2016
Anfinson, O. ''St. Anthony Falls: Timber, Flour and Electricity.'' River of History: A Historic Resources Study of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. National Park Service. Mississippi National River & Recreation Area. The Historic Resources Study, 2003. Web. 5 Mar. 2016.
''History of White Bear Lake''. White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Web. 5 Mar. 2016.
History.com Staff,: ''Mardi Gras'' . A+E Networks, History, 2010. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.
''Parks and Recreation: Equal Access for All'', National Park Service. Mississippi National River & Recreation Area, 2008. Web. 5 Mar. 2016.
''Spanish Fort, New Orleans''. Wikipedia, 2009. Web. 5 Mar. 2016.
''West End, New Orleans''. Wikipedia, 2015. Web. 5 Mar. 2016.
History.com Staff,: ''Slavery in America''. A+E Networks , History, 2009. Web. 15. Mar. 2016.
''American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States Wall Maps''. United States Census Bureau, 2010. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.
57
Russell, Trevor A. and Weller, Lark. The State of the River Report. Friends of the Mississippi River, Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, National Park Service, Feb. 2013. Web. 6 Mar. 2016.
''Water Quality in the Mississippi River'' National Park Service, Mississippi National River & Recreation Area. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.
''Mill City Museum''. National Park Service, Mississippi National River & Recreation Area. Web. 6 Mar. 2016.
''The Mississippi and Minnesota River Confluence''. National Park Service, Mississippi National River & Recreation Area. Web. 6 Mar. 2016.
Big River Teacher's Guide. Mississippi National River & Recreation Area, National Park Service, 2016. Web. 9 Mar. 2016. PDF.
Journey to the Falls Teacher's Guide. Mississippi National River & Recreation Area, National Park Service, 2015. Web. 9 Mar. 2016. PDF.
''Mark Twain''. Steamboat Times: a Pictorial History of the Mississippi Steamboating Era, 2007. Web. 10 Mar. 2016.
''Steamboats 1811-61.'' . Steamboat Times: a Pictorial History of the Mississippi Steamboating Era, 2007. Web. 10 Mar. 2016.
58
Appendix Figure 1. MNRRA Corridor, Minnesota.
Source: Anfinson, John. River of History. A Historic Resources Study of the Mississippi, 2003.
Figure 2. Mark Twain during his visit in Hannibal, 1902.
Source: Steamboat times, 2007.
59
Figure 3. New Orleans, the first steamboat on the Mississippi River, 1811.
Source: Steamboat times, 2007.
Figure 4. Lock and Dam no.1 under construction.
Source: St. Paul District, Corps of Engineers in Anfinson, John. A River of History. 2003.
60
Figure 5. St. Anthony Falls Hydroelectric Station.
Source: St. Paul District, Corps of Engineers in Anfinson, John. A River of History. 2003.
Figure 6. Regions and Divisions of the United States
Source: United States Census Bureau
61
Figure 7. National Park's Use by Race/Ethnicity
Source: ''Parks and Recreation: Equal Acces for All'', National Park Service, 2008
Figure 8. Native Americans near the state of Minnesota
62
Figure 9. Native Americans in the state of Louisiana.
Figure 10. A Legend.
Source: United States Census Bureau, 2010.
Figure 11. Paddlers on the Mississippi River in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Source: ''Learn about the Park''. National Park Service, 2016.
63