The area we call the American Bottom is a widening in the Mississippi River floodplain that runs some 70 miles in Illinois from Alton to the mouth of the Kaskaskia River just north of Chester. Just across the river from St. Louis, the area has a deep history. For thousands of years, Native Americans lived in and around the rich bottomland forests and wetlands. About a thousand years ago, one of the largest Native American cities sprung up practically overnight, the place we call Cahokia today. French colonists built communities at the southern end of the American Bottom, and Lewis and Clark based in the area before venturing west on the Missouri River. Before the Civil War, a small group of African Americans – some free, some who had recently escaped from enslavement – founded a little enclave called Freedom Village that later became Brooklyn (also known as Lovejoy). Brooklyn offered a sanctuary for generations of African Americans in an area defined by segregation and prejudice. By the twentieth century, companies eager to avoid the taxes and regulations of St. Louis bought land and founded municipalities they could dominate, then built large factories there: East St. Louis, Sauget, National City, East Alton. In the mid-1950s, organized crime got a foothold in and around Venice. As the American industrial economy declined, so did the communities in the American Bottom. 

All that deep history, much of it long forgotten, caught the attention and lens of photographer Jennifer Colten. In this episode, I talk with her about her work photographing this area layered in sediment and history. After she describes her path to professional photography, we talk about the first project that pulled her into the American Bottom. We then talk about some of the history that is too easily overlooked, what catches her attention as she driving around, what remains of the original floodplain forest, how it feels to explore places many people are too afraid to visit, and some of the stories she’s telling with her photography. It was fascinating to learn about the American Bottom from the perspective of someone who has spent so much time documenting it in photographs.

A hundred years ago, the Mississippi River that ran through Minneapolis and Saint Paul was basically a dead river. Factories, people, and local governments dumped sewage and industrial waste into the river until it was a slimy, fetid mess incapable of supporting life. But by the 1930s, attitudes started to shift and the first steps were taken to reduce the flow of pollution into the river. In this episode, Abby Moore and Cassie Champion, two of the people involved with a campaign called Sacred Water, Shared Future, describe how the Great River became the Great Sewer, then how local folks gradually cleaned it up and restored the river’s ability to support life and its status as something worthy of admiration. 

They describe the goals behind Sacred Water, Shared Future and who is involved, then we talk about the importance of sharing success stories, especially the ones that unfold across time. They share a few thoughts about how we can continue to build and maintain support for clean water initiatives and what other cities might be able to learn from the success of the Twin Cities. This is a fundamentally a good-news story, one that shows that regardless of how bad something might seem, a better future isn’t just a hope but something that can be achieved, even if it takes a while. 

How do you tell the story of a river that's tens of millions of years in the making? In Episode 79, I sit down with Dr. Roy Van Arsdale, Professor Emeritus at the University of Memphis, to trace the deep geologic history of the Mississippi River—and it's a more dynamic ride than you might expect.

We go back 100 million years, to a time when rivers in North America generally flowed north and west, then follow the dramatic forces that reversed the continent's plumbing, including a drifting hot spot that lifted part of a mountain range nearly two miles, which then eroded and sank, creating a trough for the river we call the Mississippi. Roy talks about the pre-Ice Age river that was much bigger than today’s Mississippi (and why it carried more water) and explains how glaciers rerouted the river's course. He also describes one of his first studies where he learned how bald cypress tree rings in Reelfoot Lake still bear witness to the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811–12. We even peer into the river's future, describing how uplift that is still in progress will likely change the future Mississippi River, as well as ongoing seismic risks.

If you've ever wondered how America's greatest river came to be, this conversation is for you. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or find show notes at MississippiValleyTraveler.com/podcast.

In this episode, I talk with Dr. David Beadenharn, a river engineer who has spent over 45 years studying the lower Mississippi River. David grew up in Vicksburg, Mississippi, stumbled into river work after leaving the Air Force, and never really managed to leave.

Our conversation starts with a picture of what the Mississippi looked like a couple hundred years ago, when the river was wide, shallow, full of sandbars, islands, and massive logjams. Back then, the river was constantly on the move, eating away at its banks and shifting course. That erosion was producing an almost unimaginable amount of sediment — around 600 million tons a year. In comparison, the river today carries somewhere around 120 to 150 million tons. 

Then we transition to the engineering projects. The Army Corps of Engineers has spent decades trying to get the river under control — first for navigation, then for flood control after the catastrophic 1927 flood. They built levees, tried to stop the river from naturally shortening itself, and eventually decided to deliberately cut off some of those big sweeping bends. The immediate effect was dramatic — water levels at some spots dropped 10 to 15 feet almost overnight.

But shortening the river made it faster and more powerful, and the Mississippi started scouring its own bed looking for more sediment to carry. That process is still rippling through the system today, decades later, slowly working its way upstream toward Cairo, Illinois.

On top of the cutoffs, the Corps locked the riverbanks in place with concrete mattresses in the 1950s and 60s, essentially freezing the river's shape. That stopped the bank erosion — but it also cut off the river's natural sediment supply almost entirely.

David's big takeaway after all these years? You can't just fix one spot on a river and call it a day. Every change you make sends ripples — upstream, downstream, decades into the future. The Mississippi has a long memory, and it's still responding to decisions made 80 or 90 years ago. Understanding that complexity, he says, is what keeps him coming back to the river year after year.

Travel has played an outsized role in my life, has shaped it in overwhelmingly positive ways. In this episode, I share the story behind my new memoir, Better Safe Than Sorry? Slow Boats, Chicken Buses, and the Radical Choice to Trust the World. Drawing from 25 years of independent travel, this book is a raw, honest collection of travel stories that will challenge what you think about playing it safe. 

These are stories with real highs and lows that showcase my drive to get past the reflexive fears and anxieties that once kept my world small. These stories illustrate how choosing curiosity over caution transformed me and fueled travel to places across the planet. From canoeing to the Gulf of Mexico with John Ruskey to exploring Southeast Asia, Madagascar, and Guatemala, these 18 stories celebrate the joy of saying yes. 

The book launches exclusively on Kickstarter on June 15, 2026, and includes the option to buy a hardcover edition featuring 63 full-color photos that won't be available anywhere else. The paperback, audiobook, and ebook will release widely in late summer 2026. Stick around to hear a sample from the audiobook edition, the Introductory chapter to the book.

The weather is warming in our part of the world, which means many of us are working on plans to spend time on or near the Mississippi River. And now we’ve got a couple of excellent ways to kick it off, two events that have quickly become central to celebrating the river and doing our part to help restore the health and beauty of the river: River Days of Action (June 1-15) and National Mississippi River Day (June 2).

In this episode, I talk with Michael Anderson, the Director of Outreach and Education for One Mississippi, and one of the prime forces making them happen. He describes each event’s unique focus, what events are happening to mark them, why these events are important to the present and future of the River, and what he’s learned from his years working so diligently on issues related to the Mississippi River. 

After the discussion with Michael, you’ll hear a couple of other people describe why the Mississippi matters to them and the organizations they are affiliated with, and why they believe carving out time to celebrate the Mississippi and give something back to the river are important. You’ll hear from  Amanda Wigen from Owámniyomni Okhódayapi and avid kayaker Perry Whitaker who also volunteers with many river-related groups, including the Mississippi River Water Association. 

To find out more about these events and to see the full schedule of events and opportunities to help the river, head to mississippiriver.org.

Lake Pepin is a natural widening in the main channel of the Mississippi River and one of the most popular sections of the river. In this episode, I have a wide-ranging conversation about the lake with Michael Anderson, Executive Director of the Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance. After we cover the basics about the lake (where it is, how it formed), we talk about the long human history in the region and delve into the lore about monsters that many believe inhabit the lake. We then take a virtual tour around the 100-mile perimeter of the lake, highlighting the communities and offering tips about what to visit, including recreational options such as paddling and hiking. We also take a brief detour to talk about one of my favorite events, Grumpy Old Men Days in Wabasha, which celebrates the joys of winter. We finish by talking about threats to the health of the lake, focusing mostly on sedimentation, and what the Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance and others are doing to address those threats. In the introduction, I offer a few additional tips on making the most of a visit to Lake Pepin.

Deep into the night on April 27, 1865, the boilers on the steamboat Sultana exploded, triggering the worst maritime disaster in US history. More than a thousand people died, either from the explosion itself or trying to survive in the freezing cold Mississippi River afterward. The disaster was tragic well beyond the number of casualties as most of the dead were Union soldiers returning home from Confederate prison camps at the end of the Civil War. In this episode, Jeff Kollath, the executive director of the Sultana Disaster Museum, gives a detailed recounting of the events that led to the Sultana’s demise, from the corrupted boarding process at Vicksburg, to the conditions on the boat before the boilers exploded, to the immediate impact of the explosion, and how people scrambled to survive. We finish the episode with a discussion about the Sultana Disaster Museum’s plans to expand their ability to tell the story of the disaster and its victims. 

From the brothels of post-Civil War-era St. Louis to the streets of New Orleans' Storyville, this episode traces the history of prostitution along the Mississippi River — and the endless tug-of-war between tolerance, regulation, and suppression that has defined it.

We start with Eliza Haycraft, a remarkable St. Louis woman who arrived penniless by canoe in 1840 and built a fortune running brothels, becoming one of the city's most generous philanthropists — and one of its most socially shunned residents. Her story opens a window into how 19th-century river towns grappled with an industry that was everywhere and officially nowhere.

The episode moves through St. Louis's short-lived Social Evil Ordinance of the 1870s — a bold experiment in regulated prostitution that sparked fierce debate, drew powerful opponents like Washington University co-founder William Greenleaf Eliot, and ultimately collapsed under the weight of corruption and public backlash. Then it's downriver to New Orleans, where Storyville's cleverly worded 1897 ordinance created a ten-block entertainment district that boomed for 20 years before the federal government forced it shut in 1917.

We also stop in La Crosse, Wisconsin and Winona, Minnesota, where local officials spent decades cycling through raids, crackdowns, quiet reopenings, and willful blindness. Throughout it all, one theme keeps surfacing: no matter what officials decided, the industry simply adapted and carried on.

Of all the great archaeological sites around the world, I suspect the one near my hometown, Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, is among the least appreciated. While the rich floodplain along the Mississippi River south of Alton, Illinois (known as the American Bottom) has a long history of human settlements, around the year 1050 a new community sprung up that would grow into the largest pre-Colombian settlement in North America, what we now call Cahokia Mounds. In this episode, I talk with Dr. Julie Zimmerman about how Cahokia grew into such a large and important city. We talk about the immigrants who migrated into Cahokia and what their daily lives might have been like, as well as how the community was connected to other indigenous people in North America. Julie theorizes that storytelling was the primary factor that attracted so many people into Cahokia, and she describes what we know about a couple of the stories that were likely the centerpiece of Mississippian beliefs. Julie offers her insights into the factors that may have led to the eventual decline and depopulation of the city, although Mississippian people and culture didn’t go away, they just spread out. We finish with a discussion of the role of contemporary Native American communities in the interpretation and preservation of the site. In the introduction, I offer a couple of tips for making a visit to Cahokia richer and more meaningful.

The lower half of the Mississippi grows to an immense scale that is hard to comprehend until you’re sitting on a small boat in the middle of it. In this season of the Mississippi Valley Traveler podcast, we’re going to go deeper into that world, of the lower Mississippi. We’re kicking off this new season with an episode where we dive into the ecology of the lower River. Long-time fisheries biologist Jack Killgore takes us through the past and present of the lower river’s world. We talk about the lower Mississippi before engineers began to remake it, then talk about how human engineering has altered the lower river’s ecology. He describes the significance of the 2,000 miles of uninterrupted channel that run down the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, and describes work in progress to restore ecosystems harmed by river engineering. We finish with a description of the fish the river sustains, with an emphasis on the big ones, such as sturgeon, paddlefish, and alligator gar, as well as the problems posed by invasive carp. 

Coming soon! The Mississippi Valley Traveler Podcast resumes a new season on March 4. Listen for a quick preview of upcoming episodes.

Mary Ann Sternberg has spent twenty years challenging the idea that the River Road between Baton Rouge and New Orleans is nothing more than rows of noxious chemical plants interspersed with 19th century plantation houses, so in this episode, we dig into its past and present. Mary Ann begins by orienting us to the geography of the River Road and the region’s indigenous inhabitants. She describes the arrival of European settlers, which included an influx of Germans in the early 1700s. We talk about the role of the Mississippi River in the daily lives of people along the River Road and the development of early agriculture. She talks about the Slave Revolt of 1811 (also called the German Coast Uprising) and where visitors can learn more about that tragic event, as well as which plantations best incorporate the history of enslaved people into the stories they tell. We touch on the history of Canary Islanders and Cajuns who settled in the region, as well as the Jewish community in Donaldsonville. She describes the transition from agriculture to heavy industry, then we finish with a few tips about visiting the River Road.

In this episode, I talk with Jim Gass, Director of Research and Education at the Centre for French Colonial Life, about the long and rich history of Sainte Genevieve, Missouri. We begin with a discussion of what we know about the indigenous people who lived in the area before Europeans arrived, then talk about the French settlers who moved into the region in the 18th century. Jim describes their daily lives, the crops they grew, connections to other early settlements (including New Orleans), and how they had fun. We then talk about the architectural style the town is best known for today, including how it developed, what makes it unique, and its advantages and disadvantages. We talk about the different organizations working to preserve Sainte Genevieve’s architectural past and wrap up with a discussion of the work of the Center for French Colonial Life.

In this episode, I interview long-time river guide and Sage of the Lower Mississippi, John Ruskey. John has been guiding and living on the Mississippi for nearly 30 years, so I start by letting him describe the Lower Mississippi River that he knows. We talk about some of the river’s characteristics that make it a special place, including its vastness, its extreme variations from high water to low water, and the diversity of life it supports. Still, John emphasizes that to get to know the river, to learn its language, we have to be willing to slow down and look at the details around us. He offers ideas on how we can encourage more people to connect with the river, overcome their fears about it, and grow into stewards. He also offers a few observations about how the river has changed over time. John closes out the interview by singing an original song inspired by the river he knows so well.

A hundred years ago, shantyboat communities could be found along many rivers in the US. Historian Gregg Andrews went in-depth to research these communities, inspired in part by the discovery of a personal connection to them, which resulted in a book called “Shantyboats and Roustabouts: The River Poor of St. Louis, 1875 to 1930.” In this episode, I talk with Gregg about those shantyboat communities. After Gregg describes how he got interested in shantyboat communities, he describes what a shantyboat was and who lived in them, what it was like to live in one of these communities and their frontier-like culture, some of the characters he came across, including Louis Seibt and Rose Mosenthein, the legal basis shantyboaters used to defend their communities (often successfully), and their eventual dissolution. 

You probably know a little bit about Hannibal, Missouri, because of the books written by a guy named Mark Twain, but I bet you don’t know much about the history of African Americans who’ve lived in Hannibal, even though Hannibal has had African American residents from its earliest days. I didn’t until I talked with Faye Dant, founder of a Hannibal museum called Jim’s Journey. 

In this episode, Dant fills me in on the history that’s been hard to come by.  We talk about her deep family roots in Hannibal and Missouri, and how the lack of recognition for Black history in Hannibal inspired her to create the museum. She describes how she researches the history of the area’s African American communities, and what she learned about the first African Americans in Hannibal. She gives an overview of the city’s Black neighborhoods and how African Americans weren’t allowed to be in many Hannibal neighborhoods after dark.  

She describes the limited economic and educational opportunities available to African Americans in town, and her own experience going through the public schools as they integrated. We talk about the foundations of community life, and a couple of people who left an outsized mark on the area’s history: Joe Douglas and George Coleman Poage. We wrap up with a discussion of what she learned about Mark Twain growing up in Hannibal and what she thinks about the way Hannibal presents Mark Twain today.

Our summer road trip down the Great River Road continues in this episode. We start just after Lake Pepin and make our way to the Mississippi’s confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois. Along the way, I’ll comment on the following places: the Upper Mississippi River National Fish & Wildlife Refuge; Winona, Minnesota; in Wisconsin: Alma, Fountain City, La Crosse, and Prairie du Chien; Dubuque, Iowa, and Galena, Illinois; the Quad Cities of Illinois and Iowa; in southeast Iowa: Muscatine, Burlington, Fort Madison, and Keokuk; in Illinois: Nauvoo, Quincy, Grafton, Alton, Chester, Shawnee National Forest, and Cairo; in Missouri: Hannibal, St. Louis, Sainte Genevieve, and Cape Girardeau, plus a few places in between these. I obviously won’t be going into great depth about any particular place but instead want to give you a sense of the variety of attractions and experiences you can expect along the Mississippi River, with some picks about my favorite spots (and where to get good food and drinks). 

It’s summer and many of y’all will be hitting the road to travel and see something new (or revisit places you enjoy). I haven’t done a travel-themed podcast in a while, so in the next couple of episodes, I’m going to go over the highlights of driving the Great River Road. In this episode, I start with an overview of what to expect from the drive plus some overall highlights. Then, I start a north to south trek down the Great River Road from Itasca State Park and ending at Lake Pepin. Along the way, I’ll comment on the following places: Bemidji, Grand Rapids, Crosby, Brainerd, Little Falls, St. Cloud, Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and the communities around Lake Pepin. I obviously won’t be going into great depth about any particular place but instead want to give you a sense of the variety of attractions and experiences you can expect along the Mississippi River, with some picks about my favorite spots (and where to get good food and drinks). In the next episode, I’ll cover the rest of the Great River Road from Lake Pepin to the Mississippi’s confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois.

In this episode, we continue our detour along the Missouri River with part 2 of my conversation with Steve Schnarr from Missouri River Relief. In part two, Steve describes the process the Corps of Engineers used to channelize the river, how it changed the river, what we lost, and how some folks gained new land. He talks about a Missouri River bridge that was built over land, and about the hopes for commercial navigation on the Missouri River that just never seem to realize.  

We talk about the growing community of Missouri River paddlers and the special relationship between residents of river towns and the Missouri River. Steve offers a few tips on places to visit the Missouri River, including a couple of areas where you can check out remnants of the old river. We finish with a description of the mission of Missouri River Relief and their big annual event, the race known as the MR340.

In this episode, we detour off the main channel of the Mississippi River to get to know its longest tributary: the Missouri River. Our guide for this exploration is Steve Schnarr, Race Director for Missouri River Relief. We covered a lot of territory (like the Missouri River), so our conversation is split between two episodes. In this one, part one, we cover some of the basics of the river’s geography, including where it begins and how long it is. Steve describes what we know of the ecology of the natural river, including where it picked up all the sediment it was so famous for. Steve describes the history of dam building on the Missouri River, why we did it, and how it impacted the Native American communities that lived along the river. 

February 1 is National Baked Alaska Day. April 14 is National Ex-Spouse Day, but April 22 marks Earth Day. We’ve had these (and more!) national days celebrating things silly and crucial, but we’ve never had a National Mississippi River Day. Until this year. It’s long overdue. On June 2, we’ll celebrate the first National Mississippi River Day. In this episode, I talk with Michael Anderson, the Director of Outreach and Education for One Mississippi, about it.  

Michael begins by sharing a story about how the river lifted him out of a deep emotional hole and inspired him to help other people connect in their own ways to the Big River. He explains how his work at One Mississippi has helped grow a river-based community of 20,000 plus people who enjoy the Mississippi and take action to help protect it. He describes the varied ways people connect with the river and how any of us can find a way to build a new or deeper connection with the Mississippi, perhaps on the inaugural National Mississippi River Day. We talk about the events happening for National Mississippi River Day, as well as for the two following weeks known as River Days of Action. We finish with a few thoughts about what makes the Mississippi such a unique and special place.

In the Mississippi Minute, I offer a few thoughts about our work to protect the Mississippi and what we need to consider to do differently in the days and years ahead.

In this episode, I have the pleasure of talking with accomplished chef and St. Louis area resident Josh Galliano. We talk about his path to becoming a chef and the family and cultural influences. He grew up in southern Louisiana near the Mississippi River, where he had regular access to fresh, seasonal products. Mostly, though, we talk about campfire cooking. Galliano prepares memorable meals on sandbars for a local outfitter, Big Muddy Adventures, and just generally loves the outdoors.

We talked about the importance of advance preparation, what foods do and don’t lend themselves well to campfire cooking, essential equipment, and maintaining cleanliness and food safety. We get distracted talking about paw paws, and Galliano offers some tips for breaking out of the hot dog and burger routine. We wrap up with a discussion about river-themed foods, which is the subject of a new cookbook he is working on. 

Whether you camp from your car like I often do, or hike or paddle for longer trips, you’ll find Galliano’s thoughts and tips helpful.

In 1964, four members of the Ku Klux Klan killed two African American men in Mississippi. The story of their murder and the following decades of stops and starts in the prosecution of their killers inspired my latest Frank Dodge mystery: Murder on the Mississippi. In this episode, I give some background on the murder of Dee and Moore and how their murder influenced my latest book. Murder on the Mississippi takes place on a Mississippi River cruise from New Orleans to Memphis. The story centers around the story of three African American sisters whose father was killed in Vicksburg, Mississippi, in the 1970s by a gang of white men. They got a tip that the killers would be on the riverboat, so they booked a cruise to find them and hold them accountable. Their father’s murder, though, impacted each sister differently, which is one of the main themes of the novel. And while trying to find the killers, Dodge and his friends learn that some people on the boat aren’t who they claim to be. The book is already available for pre-order and officially releases on April 8, 2005.

Living out of an RV or van seems more possible than ever before, and, based on what’s out there on social media, a lot of people have already taken the plunge. If you’re someone who is curious about what it takes to make the switch to full-time RV life, this episode is for you. I talk with Patti Hunt, host of the RV Life podcast, and someone with plenty of first-hand experience. We focus mostly on her personal story as she and her husband made the switch from living in a house to living in an RV. 

Patti describes how they prepared to make the switch, the priorities that guided their choice of RV, and how they eased into RV life. We talk about the challenges of getting used to living in a much smaller space, when it’s advantageous to plan, and when it’s not. She passes on a few tips she learned about the etiquette of RV life, managing health needs on the road, and dealing with emergencies. Finally, she shares how, above all, the community she connected with in the RV world has been the most meaningful part of the journey for her.

In April 1965, the Upper Mississippi River surged to heights never before recorded, threatening to swallow entire towns whole. This episode plunges you into the chaos as the perfect storm—deep snowpack, torrential rain, and frozen ground—transformed America's greatest river into an unstoppable force.

Journey from the imperiled bridges of Minneapolis to the desperate fight for survival in Winona, where 1.3 million sandbags stood between 15,000 homes and the raging river. Experience the flood through the eyes of those who lived it—teenage volunteers working feverishly for $1.50 an hour, the Navy veteran who crawled through sewers to prevent catastrophic explosions, and the stubborn river dweller who, after losing everything declared, "Custer's last stand is over."

With 40,000 people displaced, 19 lives lost, and damages exceeding $1 billion in today's dollars, the 1965 flood rewrote the relationship between river communities and the upper Mississippi. Yet most Americans know little about this watershed disaster.

Don't miss this riveting account of nature's raw power and human resilience in the face of overwhelming odds. 

In this week's episode, we uncover the surprising story of Iowa's pivotal role in African American civil rights. From the groundbreaking 1839 court case that made Iowa a free territory to the remarkable story of Charlotta Pyles—a formerly enslaved woman who raised $3,000 through East Coast speaking tours to free her family members—we explore how this Midwestern state led the nation in civil rights advances.

Learn about Alexander Clark, a self-made businessman who successfully fought to desegregate Iowa's schools nearly 90 years before Brown v. Board of Education, and hear the inspiring tale of the Pyles family's daring escape from Kentucky to freedom in Keokuk.

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You may never have heard of Dallas City, Illinois, but to the folks who grew up there, Dallas City was idyllic. The town had a small but diverse business community. Crime was rare and mostly petty stuff. The local streams, creeks, and woods fed a child’s curiosity. And the biggest playground, the Mississippi, challenged and calmed young and old.  

Jon Kukuk is one of those folks whose childhood was shaped by the rhythms of life in this small town next to the Mississippi. Kukuk composed a CD’s worth of songs and wrote a book about growing up in Dallas City. He called both collections Uncharted Currents, and they are loving tributes to the family and neighbors from his childhood.  

In this episode, I talk with Jon about growing up as a free-range child in a small town next to the Mississippi River. He describes his favorite places, the family and friends who brought joy to his life, the tight-knit nature of the community, and the small businesses that kept folks supplied with the stuff they needed. He also explains what a slop jar was, and why you wanted to handle it carefully, and shares why music has also always been important to him.  

Jon’s stories tell us about life in a time and place often overlooked by standard historical texts. I hope Jon’s efforts will inspire you to document and pass along your own stories of the people and places from times too easily forgotten.

What started out as one guy with a jon boat picking up trash along the Mississippi in his hometown has since evolved into one of the largest, best known, most inspirational organizations in the country. In this episode, Educational Facilitator Mike Coyne-Logan describes how Living Lands & Waters (LLW) grew from the hands and mind of Chad Pregracke to the purpose-driven organization it is today. We talk about LLW’s core mission and how it has evolved over time from clean ups to also include summer camps, planting trees, and teaching about conservation and stewardship. Clean ups remain their primary purpose, though, and they run them across the Midwest on rivers large and small, even a couple of lakes. Mike talks about the logistics required to arrange clean-ups, some of the unique items they’ve found, and how they managed to pull 52 cars out of the rivers around Pittsburgh. We talk about where all that trash comes from, what they do with it after it has been collected, and what we can each do as individuals to reduce the impact of trash in our rivers.

A busy year is coming to an end, so we’re going to ease our way out of 2024 with a short episode that features a note of thanks and bonus interview content. This year, I asked eight interviewees to pick a song that represents something about their experiences with the Mississippi River. I’ve spliced together their picks for this episode, and they cover a lot of territory, from classic river songs to a couple of unexpected choices. While I can’t include the songs in this podcast because of the copyright police, head to Spotify and look up “MVT Podcast Episode 53 playlist” to listen to them. I wish you all a relaxed and meaningful end to 2024. 

Historian John Anfinson has spent much of his adult life working in jobs that keep him close to the Mississippi River, first with the US Army Corps of Engineers, then later with the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, a part of the National Park Service. In this episode, we have a wide-ranging discussion about his career as a river historian. During his tenure with the Corps of Engineers, for example, he learned of the work of Henry Bosse, whose photographs and maps documented the Mississippi before the lock and dam system was constructed. We discuss the early history of the lock and dam system, including a brief overview of the forces that propelled that project forward. Anfinson also describes the origins of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, how they’ve driven greater engagement with the river, and the challenges they face just letting people know they exist. We conclude with a few thoughts about the future of the river, from short-term challenges to the hope that more people will get involved to shape the river’s future.

Every year, dozens of people load up their canoes or kayaks and set out to travel the length of the Mississippi River. Anne Sherve-Ose and two friends took a different approach. Over the course of 13 years, they paddled the Mississippi River one week at a time. In this episode, I talk with Anne Sherve-Ose about those trips. She describes how the trips evolved and changed over time, shares an episode where they got stranded, and talks about the joys she experienced being on the river. We also talk about her history with outdoor adventures and taking adolescents and young adults on wilderness experiences, including a community college course she taught that included a week-long expedition in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area; students on that trip completed art projects to describe their personal experiences while camping and canoeing.

Steamboats revolutionized travel, dramatically shortening the time it took to get from place to place. When we think of the peak period of steamboat travel, we often picture images of tall boats with lacy trim and passengers dressed in finery relaxing in elegant lounges. But those steamboats were also prone to catastrophic failure that even the well-heeled passengers couldn’t escape. In this episode, I describe the threats that steamboat passengers and crew faced every day: the dangers of floating debris in the river, worries about boat-engulfing fires, and the terror of a boiler explosion. I share a few first-hand accounts from survivors of steamboat disasters and describe a boiler explosion inflicted terrible suffering on one of our most beloved personalities, Mark Twain.

In this episode, I talk with wildlife biologist Mark Vukovich about the unique area known as Snake Road. Located about 40 miles south of Chester, Illinois, Snake Road passes through the LaRue-Pine Hills and Otter Pond Research Natural Areas. It’s an area full of surprises any time of year, but it’s best known for a few weeks in spring and fall when snakes move between the bluffs and nearby wetlands and the paved road is closed to protect them. In this episode, Mark talks about this unique ecological area and the 22 species of snakes that make it home. He offers tips for when to visit and how to be a respectful visitor and describes a citizen scientist project that he started. Mark also has responsibilities for forest management in the area, so we talk about the forests of that area, past and present, and the birds they attract. He offers a few thoughts to help identify migrating birds in the fall, when they may look and sound different from other times of year. 

Today, we all know—assume—that the Mississippi River begins at Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota. How did we figure this out? Why does it matter? In this episode, I dig into the history of how European and American explorers searched the swamps and forests of Minnesota trying to figure out exactly where the Mississippi River springs to life, as well as what motivated their searches. Henry Schoolcraft is usually credited as the person who figured it out, but he had a lot of help, wasn’t even the first Euro-American to visit the lake, and doubters continued to challenge his claim for another 60 years. I finish by asking what exactly we mean by a river’s “source” and wondering if it’s time to think much more broadly about how and where rivers begin.

Amy Janik has a passion for winged creatures, which is how her professional career shifted from birds to insects in the order Odonata—dragonflies and damselflies. In this episode, we go deep into their world. After Amy describes how she got interested in dragonflies and damselflies, she offers a few tips about how to tell them apart, describes the species native to the Midwest near the Mississippi River, what they like to eat, and their life cycles. Based on her experiences in the field researching dragonflies and damselflies, she suggests a few places that offer especially good viewing opportunities. It’s everything you ever wanted to know about dragonflies and damselflies—and then some!

John A. Logan grew up in a well-to-do household in Murphysboro, Illinois, in the years before the Civil War. He had political ambitions early, maybe even from the moment he took his first breath, but the trajectory of his career took some remarkable turns. In this episode, I talk with Betsy Brown and Laura Varner from the General John A. Logan Museum in Murphysboro about his remarkable life and what lessons we might take from it. We talk about the early years of his political career, when, as a Democrat, he helped author laws that prevented Blacks, even free Blacks, from moving into Illinois. We discuss why he and most of his fellow southern Illinoisans opted to support the Union when civil war broke out and how Logan proved to be an exceptional military leader. We cover how his experiences during the Civil War had a profound impact on his view of slavery and African Americans, and how that led him to change political parties after the war and become a champion of equal rights for African Americans. After the war, Logan played a major role with a veterans group known as the Grand Army of the Republic, a group that helped establish the holiday that we now know as Memorial Day. Logan’s wife Mary was every bit as impressive as him, and we spend some time talking about her life, as well, and her accomplishments after John passed away. The story of Logan’s life is a big one, yet I think it’s largely been lost to the pages of history. I think you’ll quickly see how the story of his life offers lessons for us now and for the future.

Aaron Brown is a writer, teacher, and lifelong resident of the Mesabi Iron Range, an area that has produced an enormous share of the iron ore that built America and won two world wars. In this episode, we take a look at the Iron Ranges of Minnesota with Aaron Brown as our guide. Aaron describes the geography of mining in Minnesota, the initial boom that drew thousands of immigrants to the area to work the mines, the experience of working in a mine, and how the continuous boom and bust cycles have shaped the lives of people in the area. We then talk about places folks should visit when they travel to the Mesabi Range and a few foods that should be on your short list. We finish with a few tips on how to connect with Bob Dylan’s history in the area (he was born in nearby Duluth but grew up in Hibbing.)

Some people have the outdoors in their blood. Will Collins is one of them. From the time he attended his first summer camp as a child, he felt drawn to the outdoors. In this episode, I talk with Will about his path from childhood summer camps in Wisconsin to multi-week expeditions in remote areas. In 2017, he paddled source-to-sea on the Mississippi River. I ask him how he planned for the trip, about the generosity of people he met along the way and the daily rhythms of a long-distance trip, and also about adjusting to life after the completion of a big expedition. The year after his Mississippi River trip, he paddled for 70 days on the Yukon River. He describes how that trip differed from paddling the Mississippi. Will’s love for the outdoors extends well beyond his own expeditions, so we finish with a discussion of his podcast, Buffalo Roamer Outdoors, and the guided trips he coordinates. Will’s enthusiasm for getting outside is infectious and may inspire you to get out for your own adventures.

Did a 70-foot-long river behemoth really lurk in the river’s channel in the 1870s? Are there monsters in the river’s depths that have eluded us so far? In this episode, we delve deep into the Mississippi’s murky waters and mystical swamps to uncover stories about the terrifying creatures that we have imagined prowl the river. 

We also take a deep dive into a much smaller—and deadlier—monster along the river. The mosquito. We dig into stories about the swarms of mosquitoes that plagued early settlers, bugs that brought with them deadly diseases including malaria and yellow fever. We relate the stories of the devastating yellow fever epidemics that swept through cities New Orleans and Memphis, leaving a trail of death and despair.

Are you brave enough to venture into the mystical, monster-filled world of the Mississippi? Don’t forget your lucky charm—you’re going to need it!

NOTE: This episode includes graphic descriptions of the effects of yellow fever on the human body.

Very few people today have any memory of a relatively free-flowing Mississippi River. The scale and persistence of river engineering is staggering, and for many of us, the engineered Mississippi is the only Mississippi we have known. That’s one reason journalist Boyce Upholt’s new book is so important. In The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi, Boyce details our century-plus history of tinkering with the natural Mississippi to remake it into a river that suits our wants and needs.

In this interview, Boyce and I talk about how he got interested in the Mississippi, the relentless engineering projects we’ve pursued to alter the river for commerce and flood protection, who manages the river, and what values have ultimately been driving these changes. He describes the costs of these projects, not just the dollars but also the loss of ecosystems and wildlife. We finish by talking about the importance of making a personal connection to the Mississippi and how there are many ways to do so. This interview is ultimately a wide-ranging discussion of the river’s past and future. 

In the Mississippi Minute, I praise John Ruskey and the Quapaw Canoe Company for how they’ve influenced me and the importance of their work bringing people to the river. The Quapaw Canoe Company has been struggling financially since the Covid pandemic, and they are currently running a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to secure their future. Please consider helping.

This year marks a major milestone, not just along the Mississippi but for conservation efforts across the United States. In June, the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge will celebrate its 100th anniversary. In this episode, I talk with Sabrina Chandler, Refuge Manager and Hallie Shulz, Visitor Services Manager about the past, present and future of the refuge. We talk about the early years, about the tasks the early managers faced to establish the refuge. We also talk about how the refuge’s conservation mission and public use have changed over time. We praise the thousands of volunteers, many organized as part of one of the Friends groups, who help care for these precious public lands. The refuge has been a success by nearly any measure, but they still face significant threats, particularly from climate change and invasive species. Still, this is a year to celebrate, so we finish by highlighting a few of the events happening this summer to mark the refuge’s centennial. 

In the Mississippi Minute, I give a shout out to many other federal refuges that protect land and water along the Mississippi River.

If you’re like me, as you’ve driven along the Mississippi River, or even around the country, you’ve noticed communities that aren’t doing too well. Many of these are older urban areas, but I see plenty of small towns struggling, too. What’s going on? Isn’t this just the free market at work? To dig into this issue, I invited my brother, Kevin Klinkenberg, onto the podcast. Kevin is an architect and planner who has spent much of his career working to improve communities. In this episode, we talk about what makes cities and towns good places to live. Kevin describes the traditional way that cities and towns developed and how we upended all that in the United States. Kevin briefly details some of the policies that transformed development patterns and the consequences of those policies. We finish by looking at two Mississippi River towns—one that is doing well and one that isn’t. Kevin emphasizes that there are no silver bullets to magically turn places around, but communities aren’t helpless, either. 

In the Mississippi Minute, the American Queen has been in the news, but for all the wrong reasons. The company went bankrupt, and a rival bought their boats in the bankruptcy auction. Will the American Queen return to river cruising? We don’t know, yet, but you can let the company know you’d like to see that happen. 

For years, I’ve been visiting the places along the Mississippi and writing guidebooks about the history and culture of the towns and people. Now I’ve got something new to add to the list: a guide to the natural history of the river itself. In my new book, The Wild Mississippi: A State-by-State Guide to the River’s Natural Wonders, I describe the complex and varied world of the Mississippi River and offer practical tips about how to experience the river’s world. In this episode, just ahead of the book’s formal release on May 21, I talk about The Wild Mississippi, so you know what to expect from it: how it’s organized and what content to expect. I also pull back the curtain and describe what I set out to do with this book and why I included what I did. But, wait: there’s more! At the end of the episode, I read the preface, so you can get a sneak peek at what’s to come. 

In July 2002, Trapper and Mandy Haskins set out an epic trip to row a handcrafted boat down the Mississippi. The boat performed great, but the grind of dodging industrial traffic around Baton Rouge wore them down, so they ended the trip at New Orleans. That decision turned out to be hard for Trapper to live with, so a few years later, he and his family put the boat back in the Mississippi where they’d left off in 2002. The last 100 miles presented more drama and challenges than they had imagined, but they made it to the Gulf. Trapper wrote a book about the experience called Crooked Old River that releases on April 13 (2024).

In this episode, I talk with Trapper about his childhood experiences with the Mississippi growing up in Memphis, how he got interested in boat building and the idea that sparked an interest in rowing down the Mississippi, how he and his wife prepared for the trip, his love of history and how that added to the experience, the circumstances around ending their trip early in 2002, and then going back years later. Trapper talks about how the trip changed him and how traveling on a river can encourage introspection and reflection. 

In the Mississippi Minute, I look ahead to a busy summer of Mississippi-themed books to read. From sweeping histories of the river itself, to novels that reimagine river life from new perspectives, you’ll have plenty to keep you busy this year.

In 1924, Will Dilg and the newly formed Izaak Walton League of America fought the proposed drainage of the lush Winneshiek Bottoms near Lansing, Iowa by lobbying for the creation of a new, unprecedented-in-scope federal refuge. In less than a year, they succeeded, and the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge was born. This year, events throughout the upper Mississippi mark its centennial.

Will Dilg was probably more responsible for the success than anyone else. He was one founder of the Izaak Walton League and intimately familiar with the channels and islands of the upper Mississippi River. In this episode, I talk with Steven Marking, a musician and riverlorian who was so fascinated by Dilg’s story that he wrote an entire show about him.

In this episode, Marking talks about his own childhood on and near the Mississippi and explains how he felt connected to Dilg. We talk about Dilg’s love of the upper Mississippi, a tragedy on the river that changed his life, his role with the Izaak Walton League and lobbying for the refuge creation. We also talk about some of Dilg’s character traits that didn’t always endear him to others. We finish with a description of the new show that Marking created about Dilg.

In the Mississippi Minute, I preview some events coming up this summer to mark the centennial and mention a couple of my favorite spots.

The Mississippi River has inspired artists of many stripes, including Prairie du Chien-based sculptor Florence Bird. In this episode, I talk with Bird about her path into a career as a professional artist, how she found inspiration from the Mississippi, and the details of how she goes from idea to a life-sized bronze statue. Bird is enthusiastic about her art and the Mississippi and was an absolute delight to interview. I start this episode with a brief review of the history of the area that Bird finds so inspiring.

In the Mississippi Minute, it’s spring! But it’s also very early for spring, especially Up North. I describe some of the action going on and wonder what you’re seeing in your part of the river.

On April 8, 2024, a full solar eclipse will make is way across North America from Texas to the Northeast. It’ll cross the Mississippi River south of St. Louis. Much of southeast Missouri and all of southern Illinois will be in the path of totality, with some places experiencing the eclipse for just over four minutes, including Trail of Tears State Park just north of Cape Girardeau. Many of these places were in the path of another total eclipse just 7 years ago. 

In this episode, I talked with Alison Dubbert from Missouri State Parks and Cory Jobe from Great Rivers and Routes in Alton, Illinois. We gave an overview of the places that will have a good view of the total eclipse in Missouri and Illinois, with an emphasis on public lands, and some of the special events going on to celebrate it. Accommodations will be hard to come by in the eclipse zone if you haven’t booked a place yet, so we offered some tips about where you should look. We have some tips for daytrippers, too, and a few thoughts on how to deal with the expected crowds. (Hint: Be patient.) We also talked about some of the lessons learned from 2017, when crowds got very big in many places. 

In the Mississippi Minute, I share a few memories about viewing the eclipse in 2017.

In The Log of the Easy Way, John Mathews wrote about a honeymoon trip he and his wife took in 1900. No, they didn’t relax at an all-inclusive resort in Jamaica; they traveled a couple thousand miles down the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers in a homemade shantyboat. 

Their book is just one of many written by people who have taken a long trip on the Mississippi, from Charles Lanman’s trip in 1841 straight to shantyboat travelers like Mathews and on to the present and the many books from long-distance paddlers on the Mississippi. 

In this episode, I offer a few impressions about what these books have to say about the Mississippi, what it was like in the past and what it is today. While river travelers weren’t shy about detailing what they liked and what they didn’t, their stories go far beyond expressing simple preferences.

Stories from people who traveled the Mississippi at different points in time illuminate how we’ve changed the river’s world. Wildlife sightings are less common than they used to be, for one thing. They also highlight the transition from the wonder travelers felt at the river’s natural abundance to the days when we dumped anything and everything into the river to today when water quality is much better. The books document the increasing presence of engineers, especially from the Army Corps of Engineers, along the river, and the coincident decline in communities of people who lived off the river. The accounts of river travelers offer a peek inside those vanished river communities, along with unflinching descriptions of the deeply held prejudices toward African Americans and Native Americans, views that many of the travelers themselves shared. 

Join me in this episode and let’s time travel along the Mississippi River!

In the Mississippi Minute, I suggest a few books from river travelers that I think you’ll enjoy.

What’s it like to work on a riverboat? Lee Hendrix entered riverboat work in 1972 as a deckhand, worked his way up to mate, then into the pilothouse. He has spent most of his adult life as a pilot of riverboats big and small, from tows pushing barges to elegant overnight cruise ships. 

In his new book, Peep Light: Stories of a Mississippi River Boat Captain, Lee shares stories from those years on the river. In this interview, we talk about how he got his start working on the river, the grueling but satisfying work of a deckhand, and the jobs on a towboat. We also discuss his path to the pilothouse, the basics of steering a tow pushing a load of barges, and the differences between piloting big and small boats. Near the end, Lee talks about the allure of river life and the long, sometimes lonely life of working on a towboat. 

In the Mississippi Minute, I offer a few tips for paddling on the Mississippi River around commercial and recreational boat traffic.

Find out more about the Mississippi River at mississippivalleytraveler.com.

Men have dominated the world of outdoor adventuring and guiding for so long, that it’s easy to overlook the increasing presence of women in all spheres. More women now complete long-distance paddles on the Mississippi, as well as through hikes on the major trails. The world of guided paddling on the Mississippi reflects the trend. In this episode, I talk with five women who worked this past season as river guides on the Mississippi for one of the outfitters or river-focused organizations. I asked each to talk about their paths to guiding, to describe their stretch of the Mississippi, and to spotlight a few places and experiences that highlighted their year. At the end of the conversation, I asked each woman to identify something about their experience on the Mississippi this year that they’re grateful for. 

You’ll hear from:

• Amber “Sparky” Lynum from Paddle Bridge in the Twin Cities
• Melissa Sauter from the Mississippi River Water Trail Association in St. Louis
• Heather “Red River Otter” Crosse from the Quapaw Canoe Company in Clarksdale, Mississippi
• Cory Maria Dack and Sarah Lent

 In the Mississippi Minute, I mention a few things that I’m grateful for.

It’s easy to take weather forecasting for granted, especially given the difficulties with producing accurate forecasts, but at least we almost never get surprised by big storms. That wasn’t true in 1940, when an unusually warm November day turned deadly. In this episode, I tell the story of the Armistice Day Blizzard, a massive storm that plowed through the central part of the United States, shutting down cities and killing around 200 people. Thousands of people scrambled for makeshift shelter in downtown Minneapolis, while rural families took in hundreds of school children when buses got stuck in snow drifts. Duck hunters, though, were hit the hardest. The storm stranded hundreds of them in perilous conditions along the Mississippi River. Dozens died. The storm also brought out the best in many people, as strangers helped strangers, and ordinary people went to extraordinary lengths to rescue storm victims. This story is an except from my book Mississippi River Mayhem. 

In the Mississippi Minute, I have a few thoughts about low water on the Mississippi, and— hint— I don't see it as a tragedy.

Drive anywhere along the Mississippi or most any other river and you’ll see a levee, an earthen wall that parallels the river to keep water in the main channel and out of the adjacent floodplain. In this episode, I talk with Nicholas Pinter about levees and the good and bad that has come with them. We discuss the evolution in responsibility from local jurisdictions to the federal government, how levees have altered the ecology of big rivers, and who pays for them. We talk about how levees provide a false sense of security and the concept of residual risk, which is one way to quantify how much of our property and lives is at risk behind levees. We also talk about options for reversing some of the worst damage from levees and the obstacles to putting them in place. 

Levees didn’t just rise on their own, of course. In the Mississippi Minute, I give a brief history of who built the levees and the deplorable working conditions that were often present in levee camps, especially for Black workers. And in the end, I offer a playlist of songs about levees and levee camps.

I don’t know if there’s another animal that has been simultaneously reviled and admired like wolves. We have a primal fear of them—their howls can make the bravest among us pick up their pace. But wolves also occupy a unique place in many cultural myths representing family, loyalty, and intelligence. In this episode, I talk with conservation biologist Matt Fox about those contradictions and much more. Fox describes the two species that are native to the Mississippi Valley—red and gray wolves—and how they’re doing today, then we get into their life cycles, myths about their behavior, and how they deeply influence the ecosystems in which they live. We also talk about our conflicting and troubled relationships with wolves and what we may be able to do to turn that around. 

In the Mississippi Minute, I mention two places where you can see and learn about wolves up close and personal, the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota, and the Endangered Wolf Center near St. Louis, Missouri.

In this episode of the podcast, we wade into food traditions in the places along the Mississippi. Chef Regina Charboneau, a 7th generation Natchezian and author of Mississippi Current Cookbook: A Culinary Journey Down America’s Greatest River, is our guide as we talk about food traditions in places as different as Minnesota and Natchez, Mississippi. Chef Regina talks about her path to a stellar culinary career that has included owning a popular restaurant in San Francisco and her role as culinary director for the American Queen Steamboat Company. We talk about the foods that have inspired her and how her love of regional food is helping me reshape the menus on river cruises. We also spend a few minutes getting to the essentials of enjoying catfish.

In the Mississippi Minute, we continue the food theme. I talk with St. Louis’ Andy Fair about gelato, sourcing local food, and his dreams for the restaurant he owns, the Gelateria Coffee Company.

Coffee shops, bars, diners, churches, bowling alleys—these are all important places in our social lives, so-called third places after home and work. When I’m traveling, I am drawn to them, whether I’m traveling for work or fun. They are not only great places to learn about the community, but I’ve also made new friends at many of them. In this episode, I share a list of some of the places where I’ve had especially good luck meeting people and offer a few tips about being a good guest. This list covers places from northern Minnesota to Mississippi, and includes a mix of businesses, from coffee shops to craft breweries and bars to restaurants. In the Mississippi Minute, I share my love for Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota.

Welcome back! Last week, I shared the first part of my conversation with General Gerry Galloway, the person chosen by President Clinton to lead a review what happened in 1993 and what could be done to prevent such extensive damage in the future. Because our discussion ran long, I split it into two episodes. Check out the previous episode to hear the first half of our conversation, as well as a summary of the events of the 1993 flood. In this episode, our discussion turns to talking about how we define and count costs and benefits for river projects, and how those analyses have slowly moved beyond simple mathematical formulas. We also talk about the difficulties with trying to assign dollar values to many of the benefits, including environmental benefits. We touch on issues related to who has a voice in determining river management policies, as well as what values our policy choices reflect. We end by talking about the idea of sustainable infrastructure, one of General Galloway’s primary interests. In the Mississippi Minute, I have a few thoughts about how federalizing projects blurs the lines between people who merely have an interest and those who have a stake. 

In 1993, the Great Mississippi River Flood upended lives throughout the Midwest, although the greatest damage was in the Mississippi River floodplain from the Quad Cities south to around Cairo, Illinois. Thousands of people were forced into temporary shelters, and 52 people. In the aftermath of the flooding, President Clinton established a commission to review the events of the Great Flood and to make recommend policies that could reduce future damages from big floods. He appointed Gen. Gerry Galloway to head the commission, which, after its release, became known as the Galloway report.

In this episode of the Mississippi Valley Traveler podcast, I have a wide-changing conversation with Gen. Galloway to review how we’ve done in the past 30 years to prepare for floods and reduce damages from those inevitable periods of high water. Our conversation went long, so I’m splitting the interview into two parts. In part one, we talk about how flood policy has evolved since 1993 and get into some of the difficult issues were still facing, such as who is ultimately responsible for flood protection and dealing with the risks of high water, who should pay for it, the challenges of coordinating floodplain policies among federal, state, and local governments and how expectations of federal bailouts can complicate those policies; the newer problems we’re facing with intense rainfall events that flood urban areas like the recent flooding in Burlington, Vermont, and the complications and problems with the federal flood insurance program.

In the Mississippi Minute, I share a couple of my memories from the flooding around St. Louis in 1993, but mostly I want to hear from you. What are your stories from the Great Flood of 1993? Share your stories with me at MississippiValleyTraveler.com/contact, and I’ll choose a few to share on the next podcast. 

Louisiana is known for its swamps, and for good reason. In spite of some of the associations with have with the word swamp, I find them beautiful, mysterious, and magnetic. In this episode, I talk with Jessica Gauley about a section of swamp along the Pearl River known as Honey Island. Jessica grew up with the swamp and today runs Honey Island Kayak Tours, a company that specializes in intimate tours of the swamp. We talk about her childhood in the swamp, the rich plant and animal life at Honey Island, how the swamp changes with the seasons, and the fears inspired by the word swamp. She offers a few tips on visiting and paddling around Louisiana’s swamps. Alligators come up a couple of times in our conversation, so in the Mississippi Minute, I offer a brief peak into the world of alligators.

Dense forests of white and red pine once ranged across northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. Tall, ancient trees that were part of a rich ecosystem well-adapted to the northern climate and one that had evolved to rely on periodic fires to stay healthy. Those trees were also highly desired by logging companies and builders who needed vast amounts of lumber to feed the appetites of growing communities in the middle part of America. In this episode, I describe what those forests were like, then get into stories from the era when those forests were leveled. I talk about the logging camps, the men who worked in them, and life in the communities that grew up around those camps. You’ll hear stories about the daily life for a logger, the speed of frontier justice, and the rapid decline of the industry. People once believed that those tall trees were a virtually infinite resource, yet almost of them were taken down in Minnesota and Wisconsin in just a couple of decades. I finish with a few thoughts on what those forests are like today. In the Mississippi Minute, I talk about a couple places where it’s still possible to walk around old growth pine forests. 

People in North America have been getting around in canoes for thousands of years. The basic design was so perfectly engineered that we’re still using it today. In this episode, I talk with Mark Neuzil, who co-wrote “Canoes: A Natural History in North America” with Norman Sims. We talk about the basic design, variations in materials used to build them from traditional bark canoes and dugouts to modern composites. We cover the ways canoes were engineered for specific purposes, and the transition from canoes as transportation to canoeing for fun. Mark shares a couple of standout memories from canoe trips he’s taken, and in the Mississippi Minute, I share a couple of my own. Paddles up! We’re all about canoes in this episode!

It’s summer, which means it’s a great time to get out on or along the Mississippi River, and this year’s version of River Days of Action is a great place to start. In this bonus episode, I talk with Michael Anderson, Director of Outreach and Education for the Mississippi River Network, about what’s happening for River Days of Action this year, why it matters, and how anyone can participate. We also talk about how Michael cultivated his own strong connection with the river and his hopes for the kind of Mississippi River he’d like his children to know. In the Mississippi Minute, I talk about the mental health benefits of spending time along the river and being outside.

What are the challenges involved with managing a small rivertown? And how does a dyed-in-the-wool Northeasterner and international business consultant end up living in a small town on the Mississippi River in the middle of America? That’s the path Philip Stang has followed to Kimmswick, Missouri, where he has served multiple terms as Mayor. In this wide-ranging interview, we pull the curtain back for a look at what it takes to manage the historic community. We talk about his old career as a corporate consultant, his current life as an artist, and his entry into local politics. We discuss challenges that include fighting floods that are increasingly threatening and looking for ways to diversify the small town’s revenues. And we do it all with plenty of laughs along the way. In the Mississippi Minute, I offer a few tips for visiting Kimmswick, including what to expect when you visit for one of the city’s two big festivals. 

On May 17, 1673—350 years ago—Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette began an epic trip from the Great Lakes through Wisconsin and down the Mississippi River, one that would prove to be enormously consequential for European colonial ambitions and for the lives of indigenous people in the region. In this episode, I talk with Michael Douglass, an enthusiastic historian and former director of Villa Louis Historic Site in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, who has a deep and abiding interest in the expedition. 

We cover a lot of ground in this discussion, beginning with the context in which the expedition occurred, mainly New France’s ambitions to advance their economic and colonial interests and the status of many indigenous communities after decades of losses from disease and war. We then get into the progress of the trip itself, the indigenous communities impacted by the trip, and discuss recent concerns about the reliability of the documents that we’ve been using to understand the trip. 

In the Mississippi Minute, l describe a few of the events happening in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, this summer to mark the 350th anniversary of this trip and a few ways folks can visit sites associated with the expedition.

What’s your Mississippi River like? Why do you keep coming back? For many people, the Mississippi means barges and Mark Twain, but the river is so much more than that. In this episode, we hear from five people who have a strong connection with the river that doesn’t involve barges or Mark Twain: a writer and poet, a sculptor, two long-distance paddlers, an owner of a guiding company, and an artist. They describe how they got interested in the Mississippi, their experiences of time along the river, and what time along the river means to them. Thanks to the Mississippi River Network for providing the funding and encouragement that made this project possible. In the Mississippi Minute, I have a few thoughts on the way we cover and think about the normal cycle of high water in spring.

It seems to be in our nature to draw lines that separate us from this or that. Rivers offer a convenient way for us to draw some of those lines, those boundaries, especially big rivers. In this episode, I tell a few stories about how we’ve used the Mississippi River to draw political lines, some of which didn’t quite go according to plan. (Ever wonder why Minnesota has that funny hat-shaped addition at the top?) I also look at how the Mississippi River marked a boundary between freedom and oppression for pre-Civil War African Americans in St. Louis and dig into the troubles we’ve made for ourselves by trying to define a hard boundary between land and water along a big river. We eventually, inevitably, built bridges—over a hundred of them!—to span the Mississippi and make crossing that boundary much easier. I take a look at what was involved in building a few of the earliest bridges, from the very first bridge to span the river at Minneapolis to its most enduring (the Eads Bridge at St. Louis). In the Mississippi Minute, I offer a tribute to a friend who passed away this year, David Lobbig, and wonder who will pick up his legacy of busting boundaries.

Just across the main channel of the Mississippi River from downtown Winona, Minnesota, you’ll find a unique community of folks who live intimately with the river. Dozens of boathouses line the eastern shore of Latsch Island, and many of them are home to people who live there year-round. In this episode of the Mississippi Traveler Podcast, I talk with Gina Favano about her recent podcast, Back Channel Radio, that took a deep dive into the world of Winona’s boathouse community. We talk about how the boathouses trace their roots to the shantyboats of an earlier era, the battles to protect the legal rights of boathouse residents, and some of the big personalities who called the boathouse community home. We also talk about what it takes to live full-time in a boathouse, the hard work required most days, and the joys of living so intimately with the Mississippi. In the Mississippi Minute, I recommend a book about the boathouses of the Upper Mississippi that takes a broader look at these unique structures and the people who enjoy them.

Spring is in the air, at least for the lower two-thirds of the Mississippi Valley. Birds are on the move already, and early spring flowers are popping up in my part of the river. With migration season just getting going, it’s a good time to talk about a few places where it’s relatively easy to appreciate all those birds on the move.

In this episode, I describe five day trips that’ll get you outside and close to the birds. Each day trip includes two or three places to hike and ends with a recommendation about where you can rest and refuel with beer (or another beverage of your choice) and food. The day trips in this episode are based around New Orleans, Memphis, St. Louis, the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois, and Galena, Illinois. In the Mississippi Minute, the spring rises along the river remind me of flood walls and the creative ways some river cities have tried to decorate them with art.

Over 3,000 years ago, a community of people who lived off the land constructed a remarkable group of earthworks that includes mounds, a plaza, and a series of C-shaped rings where they probably built houses. In this episode, I talk with Dr. Diana Greenlee about this amazing place, Poverty Point World Heritage Site. We talk about the various earthworks that make up the site, how they were built, and what we know about the people who built them. Dr. Greenlee patiently corrects my misunderstandings about the site, and clearly explains what we know about it. In the Mississippi Minute, I’m reminded about a piece of river history that can give us hope today.

If there’s one thing we love to debate, it’s history and what history we should teach and idolize. In this episode, I share a few thoughts about the history we know and why we should dig deeper into stories from the past. I also interview the founder of the Mississippi River Photos group on Facebook, Norman Schafer, and share a Mississippi River-inspired poem from New Orleanian Jorge Abadin.

Bald eagles! January and February are popular months for eagle watching along the Mississippi River, as the birds congregate near open water along the river where the fishing is easy. In this episode, I go deep into the lives of bald eagles with Ed Hahn, Director of Marketing and Communications at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota. Got a question about the lives of bald eagles? We probably answer it in this episode, from the challenges faced by fledglings to the solitary lives of adults. Ed describes the acrobatic ways that eagles choose a mate, as well as how (and why) they build their massive nests. We cover how they bounced back from near extinction and some of the threats that they still face today, and so much more!

Early in the morning of December 16, 1811, residents of New Madrid, Missouri were literally shaken out of their beds. One of the largest earthquakes in United States history shocked and disoriented residents of the busy frontier town. For several weeks, earthquakes continued to tremble and terrify folks and, in the process, rearrange the land and reshape the Mississippi River. In this episode, I talk with Jeff Grunwald, the administrator of the New Madrid Historical Museum, about those earthquakes, what it was like to live through them, and their legacy on the area around New Madrid. In the Mississippi Minute, I talk about Bubbleland, the geographic oddity on the other side of the Mississippi from New Madrid.

In 2019, Victoria Bradford Styrbicki ran the length of the Mississippi River. Not content with the physical challenge of doing that, she used the run as a way to hear about people’s lives and their stories about the Mississippi River. In this episode of the podcast, I talk with Victoria about the project called Relay of Voices, about the inspiration and the physical challenges. We also talk about the importance of listening, about what she learned about our relationship with the big river, and about the upcoming launch of her new website that will showcase the people she met. In the Mississippi Minute, I confront my irrational fear of spiders and do a little research about orb weavers.

What’s in a name? Would the Mississippi sound as sweet by any other name? If Colbert had carried the day, would Mark Twain have still been inspired? Big Muddy, Old Man River, Father of Waters, we sure seem to have a hard time sticking to one name for this river. In this solo episode, I retrace the steps for how we came to use these names and why names matter. I even take a little detour into the much celebrated but ultimately inconsequential search for the spot where the Mississippi begins. In the Mississippi Minute, I praise an app that has helped me find my way out of the forest more than once.

In this episode, I wrap up the two-part mini-series on fall travel along the Great River Road. Arkansas-based travel writer Kim Williams and I talk about when fall colors are likely to bloom and the best places to catch them. We also talk about the upcoming King Biscuit Blues Festival and how the state is gearing up for a once-in-a-lifetime event, a full solar eclipse that will be visible across much of the state in April 2024. Kim shares her thoughts about foods we should try, schools me on the options for eating catfish, and explains why I should definitely try something called chocolate gravy. 

It's bonus episode time already! This episode is part one of a two-part series on fall travel along the Mississippi River. First up: fall travel through the spectacular Driftless Area.  Reggie McLeod, founder and editor of Big River Magazine, and I talk about places to enjoy fall hikes, places with good views, food, and festivals. We get specific about the places we like to visit, so grab a notebook as you listen!

In 1849, St. Louisans must have wondered what they had done so wrong to deserve suffering through two terrible tragedies. Steamboats brought cholera to the city, triggering a deadly epidemic that would ultimately kill thousands of people. In the early waves of the epidemic, a steamboat fire on the levee got out of control and quickly spread on land. While only three people died in the fire, the central part of the city was devastated. In this episode of the Mississippi Valley Traveler podcast, I describe how these two events unfolded and the impact they had on the booming city.

For decades, Louisiana has been losing coastal marshes in areas around the mouth of the Mississippi River. The biggest causes for the loss of land are the levees built along the Mississippi and the hundreds of canals cut through the marshes for oil and gas exploration. Hurricane Katrina helped renew the determination to not only stop this loss but find ways to restore the Mississippi River’s ability to build land again. Journalist Boyce Upholt wrote about one of the plans to rebuild land in a recent article. In this episode of the Mississippi Valley Traveler Podcast, I talk with Boyce about those plans, why not everyone is on board, and who will pay for the project. We end with a short discussion about ways to value this land that goes beyond dollars and cents.

Historian, musician, and author Gregg Andrews grew up in the Mississippi River bottoms south of Hannibal, Missouri, in the shadow of Mark Twain. In this episode, Gregg shares stories about the struggles and hardships his family faced but also about how the community known as Monkey Run stuck together and looked out for each other. . He also describes how growing up in a working-class family influenced his life and views of the world. In the Mississippi Minute, I talk about my first visit to Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota, what turned into a delightful and surprising experience.

The Mississippi River is polluted! It’s for barges only. Dams on the upper river were built for flood control. These are a few of the myths about the Mississippi that persist. In this episode, Klinkenberg will tackle these and other mistaken beliefs about the Mississippi. For the Mississippi Minute, I offer a few quick thoughts about Moro Island, a place near Sainte Genevieve, Missouri, that I know as a great place to camp but that once was home to a small community.

The Mississippi River is one of the great attractions in the United States, and the route that parallels the river, the Great River Road, is one of the best drives in America. What makes it so attractive? Why do so many people keep coming back? In this episode, Klinkenberg digs into the major reasons travel along the Mississippi River can be so rewarding, from the rich history along its banks to the inviting small towns and vibrant big cities, to the incredible range of people who live and shape life along the river. In the Mississippi Minute, I share my thoughts about the value of eating at locally-owned restaurants.

In the inaugural episode of the Mississippi Valley Traveler podcast, host Dean Klinkenberg describes his journey to the Mississippi River. After leaving behind a small city in the corn belt, he started college in a Mississippi River town where the river first captured his heart and imagination, but it would be a while before his life centered around learning and writing about the Mississippi. In the Mississippi Minute, I talk about my fascination with the orchids of Minnesota.