1871 Survery: Current River, MO


EXAMINATION OF CURRENT RIVER, FROM ITS MOUTH TO VAN BUREN, Missouri.
Office Western River Improvements,
Saint Louis, Missouri, December 8, 1871.

     General: I have the honor to submit the following report upon the examination of Current River, from its mouth to Van Buren, Missouri, made under your instructions, and in compliance with the act of Congress approved March 3, 1871:
   For some time after this duty was assigned to my charge I was unable to procure a competent engineer to take the immediate charge of the work, but at length secured the services of Mr. A. H. Blaisdell, who made the examination, and from whose report to me the data herein are derived. Current River rises in Texas County, Missouri. It flows through Shannon, Carter, and Ripley Counties in Missouri, and Randolph County, Arkansas, and discharges, through Black and White Rivers, into the Mississippi. Its general direction is southerly, but in the lower portion is very tortuous. Its waters are pure and limpid. The principal tributaries above Van Buren are Jack’s Fork, Blair, and  Pike Creeks; below Van Buren, Big Barren, Buffalo, Little Barren, and Brier Creeks, in Missouri, and Little Black River in Arkansas. The stream drained by the stream and tributaries is estimated at a little over two thousand square miles.
   In addition to the tributaries, there are numerous large springs near Van Buren, which add largely to the volume of water. A rough gauging of the largest showed a discharge of over 500 cubic feet per second, or nearly one-third of all the water in the stream immediately below it.
   The direct distance from the mouth of the stream to Van Buren, as measured on the map, is about fifty miles; to the State-line, eighteen miles. These distances, by the channel, are respectively ninety-two and forty miles.
   The ordinary high-water mark is 12 or 13 feet above the lowest stage, though it is said to have risen 25 feet in 1812 or 1813. The width of the stream, with the exception of a few narrow points, is from 180 to 250 feet. The bed is fine shifting gravel.
   Steamboats which navigate Black River ascend Current River to the mouth of Little Black, about thirty miles, and the latter stream a short distance, whenever there is freight to pay them for doing so.
   In Missouri the country adjacent to the stream is very hilly, the bluffs forming one of the banks; a low bottom, subject to overflow, the other. Near the State-line the bluffs disappear, and the country becomes more level.
   The hills in Missouri contain iron, lead, zinc, and other metals, but none of them have been worked to any extent, owing mainly to the want of transportation.

POPULATION AND PRODUCTS OF THE COUNTRY.
   The population in all this region is sparse. Carter County contains over four hundred and fifty square miles, and only three hundred and sixty-five taxable inhabitants. Yan Buren, the county-seat, is a small hamlet, but has a store said to do a business of $20,000 annually.
   Ripley County, Missouri, embraces an area of over six hundred square miles, and only six hundred and eighty-two taxable inhabitants. Doniphan, the county-seat, has one hundred and twenty-three inhabitants, but is said to do a business of $50,000 annually.
   Pittman is a small settlement on the State-line. A store here reports an annual business of $22,000. There is a cotton-gin at this place, and 240 bales of cotton were shipped here last year.
   Shumacker’s is a settlement sixty-nine miles below Yan Buren, where .a cotton-gin is being erected. It bids fair to become quite a business point.
   D. C. West owns a cotton-gin and steam saw-mill, located eighty-three miles below Van Buren; 400 bales of cotton were shipped from this point last season, and a store reports an annual business of $20,000.
   It is difficult to estimate the amount of cotton raised in the country, as much of it is carried to Pocahontas on the Black River for shipment.
 The lumber interest is at present the important one of the region; numerous small saw-mills, on or near the stream, manufacture the fine yellow pine of the neighboring hills; 1,000,000 feet of lumber and 500,000 feet of logs have been the annual average export for the past three years.

SHOALS AND OBSTRUCTIONS TO NAVIGATION.
   Between Van Buren and the mouth of the river there are ninety-four shoals, only three of which have as little as 1 foot of water on them. Fifteen have more than 1 foot and less than 2 feet upon them at the lowest stage, while the remainder vary from 2 to 3 feet in depth. Thus, by improving less than twenty places, we would have a depth of 2 feet at all stages, and, by improving only three, would, at all times, have a depth of 18 inches.
   Some of the shoals are caused by islands dividing the river into two or more channels. They would be improved by closing all the channels but one with low-water dams. One of the worst places on the stream has been caused by Kittrill’s dam, made for milling purposes; its removal is required if the navigation is to be improved. The fact that the building of this dam has been permitted shows the low estimate that has heretofore been put upon this stream as a means of communication.
   The other obstructions to navigation are snags and leaning timber. It is estimated that seven hundred snags and six hundred leaning trees should be removed.

PREVIOUS SURVEYS AND IMPROVEMENTS.
   In the year 1857 an approximate compass-survey was made between Jack's Fork, thirty-four miles above Van Buren, and the State line. The fall was estimated at 133 feet between these points, a distance of eighty-six miles.
   As the fall is more rapid above than below Van Buren, the descent from that point to the State line can probably be fairly estimated at 50 feet from the State line to the mouth. The fall is about 10 feet, or approximately 60 feet for the whole distance of about ninety miles.
   As far back as 1855 the State of Missouri appropriated $10,000 for the improvement of the Current River. The first expenditure was in 1857, when some snags were removed and timber cut, but the work not having been judiciously done, no permanent good was effected.
   The rebellion prevented the further prosecution of the work until 1870, when a contract seems to have been made to have the steamer Malta (length 90 feet, beam 18 feet, and drawing 22 inches) ascend the river to a point twenty-three miles below Van Buren, the idea being, apparently, that it would be necessary to improve the navigation to comply with the contract, but the feat was accomplished by the usual method of “sparring,” when the owner transferred her machinery to a flat-boat, and left the hull to mark the “head of navigation."
   At the last session of the legislature of Missouri a bill was introduced appropriating $20,000 for the further “improvement” of the stream. It is said there is a prospect of the appropriation being made by the legislature now in session.

PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS.
   The expense of improving this stream will, of course, depend largely upon the nature of the work proposed. In any event, the removal of the snags and leaning timber will be required, and that much should be done. This, with the improvement of some of the shoals, by low wing-dams, to throw all the water at low stages into one channel, would probably be all that the present development of the country demands.
   This work could probably be performed at comparatively little expense by the use of a flat-boat, provided with steam-power, for pulling snags, and a party to cut trees, as has been successfully done the past season on the Ouachita.
   To deepen all the shoals would require the use of a dredge-boat and the expenditure of a larger amount of money than would be justified by the present demands of commerce. Should the future development of the country call for a lock and dam navigation, it can doubtless be made, but before making the estimate a more careful survey would be necessary than we have been able to make.

ESTIMATES.
The estimates for the proposed improvements are as follows:
Monthly cost of running the crane-boat:

Supervising engineer………………………………. $200.00
Mate………………………………………………….150.00
Engineman…………………………………………...150.00
Cook…………………………………………………...60.00
Second cook…………………………………………....45.00
Ten laborers, at $60 per month……………………….600.00
Subsistence of fifteen men, at $1 per day…………….450.00
1,655.00

Building crane-boat……………………………………………..$6,000.00
Outfit of tools……………………………………………………..1,000.00
Repairs of tools……………………………………………………...500.00
Removing 701 snags, five months’ work, at $1,655 per month…8, 275.00
Building 1,800 linear feet of stone and brush-dam for cutting
of chutes, two and a half months' work, at $1,655 per month…..14,137.50
Cutting 600 trees……………………………………………………300.00
Removing Kittrell’s dam……………………………………………500.00
Add one month for passage down stream…………………………1,655.00
        22,367.50
Add 15 per cent, for contingencies………………………………...3,355.12
Total……………………………………………………….25,722.62

Yours, respectfully,
W. F. RAYNOLDS,
Lieutenant- Colonel, Corps of Engineers.

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