Blog

This is my Third Artist Initiative Grant blog post. 

A Working River at Rest 
Seeing the barges at rest along the banks of the Mississippi River at dusk is a reminder of how important the river is to the commerce of this nation. A single barge can carry 1500 tons of cargo. By comparison a semi truck carries about 10 tons. On the Upper Mississippi River, an average tow pushes 15 barges. Down river that is increased to around 40 barges per tow. 320 million tons of cargo are shipped up and down the Mississippi every year.

Keeping the River Open for Business
The Army Corp of Engineers has to maintain a 9-foot-deep channel the entire length of the River to accommodate barge traffic. That requires dredging millions of cubic yards of sand and silt each year. Federal and State laws requires the Corps handle dredging in the most cost-effective way possible. This rules out trucking the sediment long distances. And the Corps cannot dump it in environmentally sensitive wetlands. 

Last year the Corps of Engineers tentative plans for placement of sand on prime agricultural land near Alma Wisconsin and Wabasha Minnesota was met with stiff opposition by local residents. This area, with its 700 foot bluffs, offers some of the most breath-taking views anywhere along the length of the Mississippi River. Sites chosen for off-loading and trucking of sand to placement sites were viewed as disruptive to areas dependent on the tourism industry for their well-being.

This year the Corps, with significant public input, is exploring new options for placement of sand dredged from this scenic stretch of the Mississippi River. “I believe the new plan currently being developed answers a lot of community concerns,” Col. Sam Calkins of the Corps said of the revised plan. We'll have to stay tuned.

The Great River
When I first started doing outdoor painting in 2007, some of the best advice I received was to find subjects you love and paint them. Heeding that advice, the Mississippi River has been my muse and inspiration for hundreds of paintings over the years.  There is beauty in the flotillas of barges plying its waters, the vistas from steep embankments in Saint Paul, Alma and Wabasha, the immense flood plains that open into Lake Pepin, the bridges and dams that are engineering marvels. I am painting the “Big Paintings of the Big River” series and writing this blog to pay homage to what the Anishinaabe call “The Great River”. My hope is that through my humble attempts with the brush and keyboard I might garner a bit of appreciation for the beauty of this working river, increase understanding of the challenges it faces. We must create solutions to difficult problems that assure that what we love today will be here for our grandchildren’s grandchildren.

In my next blog
I will talk about natural and man-made sources of sediment in the Mississippi watershed. First I must do a painting of the Minnesota River’s flood plain.