Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1997 Dams across the wide Missouri: Water transportation, the Corps of Engineers, and environmental change along the Missouri Valley, 1803-1993 Robert Kelley Schneiders Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the Civil Engineering Commons, Hydrology Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Schneiders, Robert Kelley, "Dams across the wide Missouri: Water transportation, the Corps of Engineers, and environmental change along the Missouri Valley, 1803-1993 " (1997). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 12242. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/12242 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter fiice, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right m equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Conqiany 300 North Zed) Road, Ann Aibor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Dams acros the wide Missouri: Water transportation, the Corps of Engineers, and environmental change along the Missourri Valley, 1803-1993 by Robert Kelley Schneiders A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Major: Agricultural History and Rural Studies Major Professor: James Whitaker Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 1997 DMI Number: 9737755 Copyright 1997 by Schneiders, Robert Kelley All rights reserved. UMI Microform 97377SS Copyright 1997, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against miauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 ii Graduate College Iowa Stale University This is to certify that the doctoral dissertation of Robert Kelley Schneiders has met the dissertation requirements of Iowa State University Signature was redacted for privacy. M r Professor Signature was redacted for privacy. For the lajor P m Signature was redacted for privacy. For the Graduate College iii I want to dedicate this history to a number of people, all of whom have contributed to my understanding of water and rivers: to David Wieling, for introducing me to fly-fishing and a more ultimate relationship to streams; to my brother, Tom Schneiders, for the moments at Wolf Creek and that huge rainbow that got away; to my mom and dad, Mary Jean (Lang) and Robert Joseph Schneiders, for allowing me to go to the river as a boy nearly everyday in the simMnertime and for teaching me to respect the river's power; to James Weyer and William Meier, for the shared imagination that inspired the "WeyMeiSchnei" expeditions along the Big Sioux; to Gail Evans, for teaching me to see the river as ever-changing and forever wild; and to my wife, Elizabeth Ann Wieling, for the 105-degree-day at Big Bend, the ten-foot- high elephant grass at Hudson, and the wonderful times at Niobrara. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 2: THE MODERN MISSOURI 15 CHAPTER 3: THE MISSOURI RIVER YESTERDAY 31 CHAPTER 4: THE MISSOURI VALLEY ENVIRONMENT AND AMERICAN SETTLEMENT, 1803-1880 52 CHAPTER 5: THE MISSOURI RIVER ABANDONED 82 CHAPTER 6: THE MISSOURI RIVER REDISCOVERED 108 CHAPTER 7: DEVELOPMENT DURING THE DRY YEARS, 1927-1942 143 CHAPTER 8: SOUTH DAKOTA ATTEMPTS TO DEVELOP THE MISSOURI RIVER 200 CHAPTER 9: DEVELOPMENT DURING THE WET YEARS, 1943-1951 223 CHAPTER 10: THE MIGHTY MISSOURI AND THE FINAL QUEST FOR CONTROL, 1952-1970 257 CHAPTER 11: THE UNTAMABLE MISSOURI 295 CHAPTER 12: CONCLUSION 332 BIBLIOGRAPHY 339 V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to thank my major professor, James Whitaker, for his support and critical evaluation of the dissertation. I also want to thank Gail Evans for her encouragement and helpful suggestions. 1 extend a thank you to Trevor Nelson, Director of the Study Abroad Center at Iowa State University, for his patience and understanding while I worked on this project. I am grateful to Richard Kottman, George McJimsey, Don Rawson, and Joseph Tiffany for their professional assistance. I am indebted to Sister Ramona Colling O.S.F.; she believed in me and my abilities as a young scholar. Others who lent support to this project over the years include the following individuals in alphabetical order: Vernon Ashley, Thomas Bruegger, Leonard Bruguier, John Ferrell, Robert Hippie, Michael Jandreau, and Gerald Jauron. An anonymous librarian, or librarians, at the Sioux City Public Library collected newspaper articles related to the Missouri River from 1930 to 1980. Those clippings provided an invaluable resource during the research and writing of this dissertation. A thank you goes out to the librarian(s) in Sioux City. I want to acknowledge the assistance of the following organizations: ICansas City Public Library, National Records Center (Kansas City, Missouri), Sioux City Public Library, Sioux City Public Museum, Sergeant Floyd Musemn, Omaha District of the Corps of Engineers, Missouri River Division of the Corps of Engineers, Joslyn Art Museum, Onawa Public Library, University of South Dakota I.D. Weeks Library, South Dakota State Historical Society, Iowa State University Parks Library, Dakota Wesleyen College Library, Dakota State College Library, Woodbury Coimty Conservation Board, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and the Siouxland Interstate Metropolitan Planning Commission. 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION The Missouri River, and its valley, has been transformed in the past 190 years through human action. Once a wide, shallow, silt-laden stream with islands, sandbars, side channels, and oxbow lakes, the modem Missouri, over much of the reach above Yankton, South Dakota, is a series of clear, cold, deep lakes behind massive earthen dams. The river below Yankton also possesses few of its original characteristics, having been narrowed and straightened by the Corps of Engineers. This is the story of how the Missouri changed from a broad, meandering river to a partially regulated stream consisting of dams, reservoirs, and thousands of channelization structures. The modem Missouri resulted from the cooperative efforts of local, grassroots organizations and federal entities. Numerous individuals and organizations worked together to develop the river. These human actors did not operate within a political vacuimi. Rather, the Missouri had a tremendous influence on the human formulation and implementation of development plans. The Corps of Engineers altered the Missouri River for a number of reasons, but the establishment of a navigation channel in the river to aid agriculture and the rural population of the Midwest and northern Great Plains served as the primary justification for the constmction projects. Yet, completion of a series of dams, reservoirs, and chaimelization structures from Montana to the river's mouth produced mixed results for the agricultural sector. Development plans had been initiated by the Corps without sufficient information about the river environment Inadequate information, and hasty constmction, caused disastrous and costly environmental repercussions. This history focuses on events in the lower river valley (the area downstream and south of Sioux City, Iowa) because it served as the center of efforts to alter the Missouri. Furthermore, environmental changes along the lower river valley caused lower valley residents to seek the constmction of dams across the upper Missouri. 2 Much has been written about the Missouri River. Writings can be categorized into four periods. During the first period, fi^om approximately 1804 to 1880, explorers, adventurers, and European travelers kept notes of their impressions of the river and valley and then published the accounts. The most noteworthy are the journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806), which contain extensive records of the flora and faxma they saw on their trek. The explorers also wrote detailed descriptions of Indian tribes, especially those living above