1889 Survey: Osage River

SURVEY OF OSAGE RIVER, MISSOURI.

Office of the Chief Engineers,

United States Army,

Washington, D. C., January 14, 1890.

SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith a copy of the report (with map) dated January 9,1890, made by Maj. A. M, Miller, Corps of Engineers, to comply with the following requirement of the river and harbor act of August 11,1888, viz:

The Secretary of War is hereby authorized and directed to cause a surrey to be made of the Osage River, Missouri, from its mouth up to the first shoal, and 5 miles above the same, and to report an estimate, based on such survey, of the cost of constructing one lock and dam within the limits of said survey, and the effect upon the navigation of said river of constructing said lock and dam.

  

   The most suitable location for the proposed lock and dam is shown upon the accompanying chart (No. 2), and the dimensions of the lock are given at 275 feet by 50 feet by 25 feet, and of dam 800 feet long.

   The lock is to be built of masonry, and the dam of riprap and gravel with an impermeable row of sheet-piling reaching to hard clay bottom.

   The total estimated cost of work, including contingencies, is $222,000. This estimate appears to be reasonable, while the style of lock and dam meets my approval.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Thos. Lincoln Casey,

Brig. Gen., Chief of Engineers.

Hon. Redfield Proctor,

        Secretary of War.

REPORT OF MAJ. A. M. MILLER, CORPS OF ENGINEERS.

UNITED STATES ENGINEER OFFICE,

St. Louis, Mo., January 9, 1890.

GENERAL: In compliance with instructions contained in letter dated Office Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army, Washington, D. C., April 1, 1889,1 have the honor to make the following report on a survey of the Osage River, Missouri, directed by the following clause in the river and harbor act of August 11,1888:

The Secretary of War is hereby authorized and directed to cause a survey to be made of the Osage River, Missouri, from its mouth up to the first shoal, and 5 miles above the same, and to report an estimate based on such survey, of the cost of constructing one lock and dam within the limits of such survey, and the effect upon the navigation of said river of constructing said lock and dam.

   The survey of the portion of the Osage River mentioned in the act was begun on October 5, 1889, and completed on November 23, 1889. The work was undertaken at this season as it was at the most favorable stage of the river. The survey extended from the mouth to Rice’s Island, a point 5 miles above the first or “Brennecke’s” shoal.

   From the mouth to the foot of Brennecke’s Shoal, a distance of 7.3 miles, the river at low water has a very flat slope, a rise of but 0.93 feet; from this point to the foot of Shipley’s Shoal, a distance of 4 miles, there is a rise of 0.81 feet ; from the foot of Shipley’s Shoal to the head of same, a rise of 1.56 feet in a distance of 1.1 miles; from the head of Shipley’s to the head of Prince’s Shoal, a distance of 1.5 miles, there is a rise of 0.45 feet; from head of Prince’s, a rise of 0.28 feet to the foot of Rice’s Island, a distance of 2.1 miles. Thus it is found that from the mouth to the foot of Rice’s Island, a total distance of 12.4 miles, the total rise in elevation is, at low water. 4.03 feet; of this difference of level 0.93 feet is gained in the first 7.3 miles. The remaining distance, or from the first shoal, Brennecke’s to Rice’s Island, a distance of 5.1 miles, has all the remaining fall or 3.1 feet; in fact, at low water the portion of the river from the mouth to Brennecke’s forms a pool or slack water in which there is a navigable depth of not less than G feet; this is amply sufficient for any traffic on the river, either present or prospective.

   In the portion of the river surveyed there are above Brennecke’s three shoals, Shipley’s, Prince’s, and Rice’s; these are all obstructions to low-water navigation and serious ones; at ordinary low water they do not admit of the passage of boats drawing more than 15 inches.

   This portion of the river flows through an alluvial bottom bounded on either hand by steep, rocky bluffs from half a mile to 3 miles apart. In this bottom the stream meanders between low-water banks about 18 feet high at low water, but in time of high water overflows the banks to a depth sometimes of 3 feet. This is indicated by the high-water marks as found from the high water of 1882. In general, when an overflow takes place in this part of the river it is due to high water in the Missouri, which, backing up, overflows the banks of the lower portion of the Osage, owing to the slight slope of the latter.

   Borings were made at three sections, marked 1, 2, and 3, on chart No. 2, and the bed of the stream was found to consist of a layer of mud and gravel of various thickness, averaging from 7 to 9 feet on the different sections, under which was a hard stratum of clay suitable for foundation bed.

   If this portion of the river is to be improved by a lock and dam, the most suitable location is at section 2 of the chart.

   The largest boats now navigating the river have a length of about 220 feet over all, and a beam over all of about 45 feet; a lock, therefore, to accommodate such boats should have a chamber of 250 feet long, corresponding to a length between miter-sills of 275 feet, or about 350 feet between the head and foot of bays. The locks should be of masonry, with chamber walls 15 feet thick at base and 25 feet high, foundation to be 7 feet below low-water stage and coping 18 feet above same; the lift of the lock should be feet.

   A lock and dam giving this lift would secure, at low water, a channel of 3½ feet to Dixon’s Shoal, a point 20 miles from the mouth of the river. Two more dams with locks giving the same lift would secure the same depth to Tuscumbia, a distance 60 miles from the mouth. The dam should be built of riprap and gravel with an impermeable row of sheet piling reaching the hard clay bottom. It is estimated that a lock and dam of the required dimensions would cost as follows:

Lock, 275 by 50 by 25 feet, complete………………………. $148,000

Dam, 800 feet long...................................................................... 33,500

Protection and guide pier………………………………………..10,000

Shore protection..............................................................................8,500

Land and keeper’s house ................................................................2,000

Engineering and contingencies, 10 per cent…………………......20,000

Total…………………………………………….222,000

   The Osage River proper is formed by the confluence of the Marais des Cygnes and Little Osage, on the line dividing Vernon and Bates counties, flows east and north¬ east and empties into the Missouri about 8 miles below Jefferson City, on the line of Cole and Osage counties. It passes through or touches Vernon, Bates, St. Clair, Henry, Benton, Morgan, Camden, Miller, Cole, and Osage counties.

   The river below Osceola is a succession of short pools and shoals. In the first 40 miles there are forty shoals, with an aggregate fall of 39.7 feet; in the next 20 miles there are twelve shoals, with a fall of 14.1 feet; in the next 20 miles twelve shoals, with a fall of 14.9 feet; in the next 11 miles there are eight shoals, whose fall is 9 feet, or a total in 91 miles of seventy-three shoals, with an aggregate fall of 77.6 feet.

   The bed of the river is gravel and rock, the latter found almost everywhere at a depth of from 5 to 10 feet. The bars are composed of rock or gravel and bowlders. The banks are characterized by rocky bluffs on one side and alluvial bottom on the other, and this condition exists, with few exceptions, as far as the survey extended. The bluffs are either limestone or sandstone formation, and vary in height from 75 to 250 feet; the bottom land varies in width from one-fourth to three-fourths of a mile, and is from 25 to 35 feet above low water. Wherever cultivated it produces fine crops of wheat and corn. Hickory, valuable oak, walnut, elm, sycamore, and ash are found in abundance in the bottoms; the bluffs are everywhere covered with oak and cedar.

   The principal affluents from the south, between the termini of the survey, are the Sac River, Little Wablow, Bear, and Hogle’a creeks, Pomme de Terre River, Turkey, Knobby, Big Deer, and Rainey creeks; those from the north are Monegaw and Muddy creeks, Grand River, Little Teabo, Cole, Camp, Big and Little Buffalo creeks. Of these, the Monegaw, Sac, Pomme de Terre, Cole, Camp, and Big Buffalo were barely running, the others, with many smaller creeks, affording no water whatever m consequence of the drought.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * *  *  * *

   The people of the Osage Valley are chiefly employed in agriculture. The produce in fifteen counties, according to the census of 1870, was, in round numbers, 1,500,000 bushels of wheat; 5,750,000 bushels of corn; 1,500,000 bushels of oats; 375,000 pounds tobacco, and 273,000 pounds wool, with great numbers of cattle, horses, and hogs.

   At present the commerce of the river is restricted to supplying local wants, lie- fore the completion of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas and the Atlantic and Pacific railways large portions of southwestern Missouri, southeastern Kansas, Arkansas, and the Indian Territory were supplied through the channel.

   The Osage Valley derives its chief importance from the richness of its vast mineral deposits. Professor Pompelly, in his geological report of 1873, spoke very high terms of its mineral resources, though hardly one-tenth of the real value of its deposits was known at that time. Rich banks of iron and valuable coal are found almost every day. All this vast wealth is now unavailable of transportation, and it seems to the province of a paternal Government to assist in bringing these great necessaries of life (iron and coal) into market, whereby the whole country would be benefited. The principal minerals are iron, coal, lead, zinc, burr-stone, marble, grit, and kaolin.

   Kaolin is found in Cole, Camden, Miller, and Morgan counties. Grit has been quarried for a longtime in Vernon County, and has recently been found in St. Clair; both of very superior quality. Marble of fine quality and in quantity exists in Vernon and Morgan counties. Burr-stone of excellent quality has recently been found in St. Clair, near the Osage River. Zinc is found in St. Clair in several places, but not as yet in quantity. Bituminous coal exists in large quantities in nearly every county along the river. Cannel coal abounds in Morgan and Benton counties. Lead is found in paying quantities in many localities in every county; in Morgan alone more than 3,000,000 pounds were mined during the last year. Iron ores, principally limonite, red hematite, and blue specular, exists in almost inexhaustible quantities in thirteen of the fifteen counties in the Osage Valley, but the banks are especially rich in Miller, Camden, Morgan, and Benton counties. Thousands of tons are found on the surface in the form of large bowlders, and wherever the banks have been opened the developments are most satisfactory. (See report of the Chief of Engineers for 1875, pages 494 and 495.)

Commercial statistics for year ending June 30, 1889.

SHIPMENTS DOWN THE RIVER.

SHIPMENTS UP THE RIVER.

 List of steam-power boats engaged in commerce on Osage River 

during the year ending June 30, 1889.

N. B.—-These measurements are hull measurements, and do not include in length the stern-wheel, or in breadth the guards.

   The effect on the navigation of the river of constructing the lock and dam would be to give an uninterrupted channel of 3.5 feet for the whole year, except when the river may be closed by ice, from its mouth to Dixon’s Shoal a distance of 20 miles. With three such locks and dams navigation could be carried, with the same depth, to Tuscumbia, a distance of 60 miles from the mouth. This method would cost about $11,000 per mile.

   For rafting ties or logs at low water, when the rafts could not be run over the dams, other methods than those now employed would be necessary; logs and ties it would be necessary to transport on barges, as is done on the Missouri, and as many of the ties which now come down are transferred from rafts to barges at Osage City, this would be no in- convenience except to change the point of transfer.

   The depth of 3.5 feet given by this method for navigation in the Osage is more than is at present afforded by the Missouri at low water, to which it Is tributary; but as it is probable that this depth will be obtained in the Missouri at some future time, it is proper that this depth should be taken as a standard. In any event there is an outlet for the commerce of the Osage at Osage City, where the Missouri Pacific Railway crosses the river.

   There are transmitted herewith two charts of the survey, with the report of Mr. C. D. Lamb, assistant engineer, under whose immediate direction the survey was made; also a copy of a communication from a citizens’ committee, of which Judge H. Clay Ewing, of Jefferson City, Mo., was chairman.

   Commercial statistics, estimates, and other valuable information were also furnished by Mr. J. W. Beaman, assistant in charge of the improvement of Osage River.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A.    M. MILLER,

Major, Corps of Engineers

Brig. Gen. THOMAS L. CASEY,

Chief of Engineers, U. S. A

_________________________________________

REPORT OP MR. C. D. LAMB, ASSISTANT ENGINEER.

St. Louis, Mo., December 11, 1889.

   MAJOR: I have the honor to submit the following report on the survey of the Osage River from its mouth to a point 5 miles above the first shoal, with the cost of constructing a lock and dam within the limits of the survey and their effect upon the navigation of the river.

   The survey was begun November 2 at Brennecke’s, the first shoal above the mouth, the quarter-boats being found at that locality. A base line was first measured and the adjustments of the plane-table and reading of the stadia rods tested. The survey was then extended in both directions from the base, being completed to Rice s Island, 5 miles above the shoal, November 12, and to the month of the river on the 23d.

Permanent triangulation points were put in at Rice’s Island, Brennecke’s Shoal, and Osage City. 

   A line of levels was run from Rice’s Island to the mouth, where it was connected with the levels of the Missouri River Commission, in which the 0 is the plane of the St. Louis City directrix.

   The elevations above that plane of points within the limits of the survey were found as follows:

Locality.

   The elevation of the low-water surface was found by subtracting the reading of the nearest gauge from heights taken during the November rise. For points above Shipley’s Shoals these elevations are probably too great, for as the gauge at Rice’s Island was overturned by drift, the gauge used was that at Brennecke’s Shoal, and the reading subtracted was too small, inasmuch as the river raised 12 feet at Tuscumbia and but 6 feet at its mouth.

   The elevation of standard low water at the mouth, computed from the levels and gauge readings at Osage City, was 104.85. From the records of the Missouri River Commission the elevation of standard low water at Jefferson City is found to be 112.97, and at Hermann, 44.7 miles below, 73.81. The fall of the Missouri River at low water is therefore 0.876 feet per mile, and the elevation of low water at the mouth of the Osage, 9.2 miles below, would be 104.91.

   A lock and dam to improve the navigation on the lower part of the river should be located just below Brennecke’s Shoal. If built with a lift of 8.5 feet it would secure a 3.5-foot channel to Dixon’s Shoal, 20 miles above, and as the fall of the river be¬ tween Tuscumbia and the mouth is but 25.5 feet, three such dams would extend slack water navigation to that place, 60 miles from the Missouri River.

   Three lines of borings were taken near the location of the proposed dam to determine the character of the bottom. These borings were taken 50 feet apart with iron rods driven down by a sledge or wooden maul. The bottom of the river is composed of clay, beginning at a depth of 15 feet below the zero stage in the deeper portions, overlaid with a mixture of mud and gravel having an average thickness of about 9 feet at section No. 1, and 7 feet at No. 3. This layer is in strata of varying thickness and density. The gravel in some places is hardened into thin crusts so firm that several blows of the sledge were required to drive the rods through them, the material between these crusts being very loose and permeable. The underlying clay is soft and mixed with thin layers of fine sand and mud near its top, but lower down it becomes very hard and continues so for at least 7 feet, which was as far as the rods could be driven.

   The river decreases in width from 1,000 feet, between high-water marks at section No. 1, to 675 feet at a point 5,000 feet below, but as the depth of the water increases from 4.6 to 14 feet at low water, between the same points, the cost of a dam would be about the same built anywhere on this part of the river. The water is too shoal for its location near section No. 1, but No. 2 seems favorably situated, for, while a small amount of dredging would be required to make a low-water channel below the lock if placed on the north side of the river, the bed is sufficiently wide at that place to give a spill-way of over 700 feet outside the lock, avoiding undue contraction during high stages.

   The largest boats now running up the river are the Benton and Helena, of St. Louis, which have made an aggregate of eight trips during the past season, going as far up as Linn Creek, 109 miles above the mouth, bringing out wheat, lumber, and barytes.

   These boats are about 220 feet long over all, with 34-foot beam, and a lock to accommodate them should have a chamber at least 250 feet long and 50 feet wide, corresponding to a length between miter-sills of about 275 feet, or 350 feet over all. It is proposed to construct the lock-walls 15 feet thick at the bottom and 5 feet at the top, 25 feet high from 7 feet below low water to 18 feet above that plane, built of quarry-laced stone on outside with filling of concrete. The foundation to be of piles, grillage timbers, and concrete, which also forms floor of lock-chamber.

   The dam is to be of riprap stone, 60 feet wide at base, on a brush foundation covering a row of heavy sheet-piles driven across the river. A pier to be built above the outside wall of the lock extending 350 feet up-stream, and tie bank to be protected above and below the dam.

   The following is an estimate of the cost of the work:

LOCK.

Coffer-dam and excavation…………………………$17,000   

Foundation....................................................................35,000

Walls of masonry on outside, 30 Inches thick:

3,700 yards…………………………..$55,000     

Concrete filling, 4,300 yards………….21,000 

Special atone, coping, etc., 300 yards.... 9,000

                                                                                      86,000

Gates and wickets of usual pattern..................................8,000  

Machinery for operating same.........................................2,000

                                                                                                                $148,000

DAM.

Piling and stringers to hold sheet piles...............................4,500

Sheet piles—1,600 sticks, 6 by 6 inches...........................12,000

                                                                                                       16,500

Mattress, 800 feet……………………………………………..…..8,000   

Stone, 15,000 yards riprap...............................................................9,000

                                                                                                                    33,500

PIER.

Piling for holding mattress, etc.........................................................3,500 

Mattress, 350 feet 3 feet thick...........................................................1,500

Stone, 9,000 yards riprap...................................................................5,000

                                                                                                                     10,000

SHORE PROTECTION.

Mattress, 1,000 feet long by 100 feet wide.........................................6,000

Stone, 4,000 yards riprap.....................................................................2,500

                                                                                                                        8,500

Land…………………………………………………………………….500

Keeper’s house………………………………………………………..1,500

Engineering and contingencies, 10 per cent........................................20,000

Total cost.............................................................................222,000

   The highest water marks known on the Osage are those made by the high water of February, 1882. These were found at Brennecke’s Shoal to be 20.3 feet above low-water, but the banks show that the river seldom goes above a 13-foot stage. The cross-section of the river at low water on the proposed site of the dam has an area of about 3,500 square feet, which would give 5 feet of water in a channel 700 feet wide, having the same velocity as at present, and of uniform depth.

   That depth would give a height of 11 feet on the crest of a dam 700 feet long, built to an 8.5-foot stage, since the rise above a dam is about 55 per cent, of the rise below it. A rise in the river of 13 feet would, therefore, raise the surface just above the dam to an 18-foot stage. The amount of tillage land overflowed by such a stage is very small, but stages between 19 and 24 feet would overflow about 250 acres. The high stages of the Osage, produced by head waters, however, generally occur early in the spring, and the result is but little loss to the farmers along the banks. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

C. D. Lamb

Assistant Engineer

Maj. A. M. Miller,

Corps of Engineers, U. S. A

__________________________________

 COMMUNICATION from CITIZENS’ COMMITTEE.

JEFFERSON CITY, MO., October 29, 1889.

   We beg the privilege of presenting for your consideration some facts and thoughts concerning the improvement of the navigation of the Osage River.

   It has been said that if the Osage River should be improved, ingress and egress at its entrance into the Missouri River was such as to render the improvement comparatively useless. In answer to that objection I wish to present the views of some old Osage River steam-boat men, ex-Governor J. W. McClurg and Captains Robey and Stewart. Here are their letters to me:

“H. CLAY EWING, Esq.:

   “Dear Sir: In answer to your inquiry we would state that we have been engaged in steam-boating on the Osage River for about fifteen years. We have been owners of steam-boats, licensed pilots, etc., and as such have been almost exclusively employed in steam-boating on that river for the time stated, and from the knowledge thus obtained we say that upon an average of nine months in the year it is practicable for steam-boats plying on the Osage and Missouri to pass in and out of the mouth of the Osage. We have known seasons when such was the case during the whole year; but if this were otherwise, the Missouri Pacific Railroad crossing at the mouth, all traffic could then be carried on.

“C. S. Robey,”

“Alex. Stewart.”

Governor McClurg writes:

“H. Clay Ewing:”

   Dear Sir: Your favor received, and I indorsed the letters of Captains Robey and Stewart as true. I wish to refer to the inestimable value of the improvement by locks and dams. There is no doubt about that being the best way to improve it. It would cause thousands and tens of thousands of acres of productive lands to be cultivated that are otherwise profitless.

   “It would be difficult to overestimate the amount of grain, meat, lumber, iron, lead, and other merchandise that would be produced in the Osage Valley with such improvement. “ Respectfully,

“J. W. McClurg”

   It has been said that the commerce is not now sufficient to justify the expenditure. Such statement refutes itself; but, if true, it is no argument against the work. There can not be trade and commerce unless there is transportation. The transportation facilities fill up the country and create the commerce.

   The Erie Canal was projected into a wilderness.

   Suppose railways had not been constructed into Kansas and the Great West until the commerce of the country had justified the expenditure. It would have been a howling wilderness and dreary desert to-day. The transportation came first; and it must come first for the development of any country. The country can not settle until it has transportation. The construction of the railways made it possible for development.

   These railways were virtually constructed by the Government. They were built out of the public lands which belonged to the people. But it was the only way the Great West could ever have been developed. We now ask similar aid for this great enterprise to open up this beautiful and rich country, which is as full of resources as an egg is of meat.

   Major Ernst, in his report of 1881, says:

   “The amount of commerce now existing, as shown by statistics, is no measure of what this stream will one day be called upon to carry.”

   Again: “The valley of the Osage possesses great store of iron, coal, lead, zinc, marble, and other useful mineral.”

   Again: “The slackwater navigation of this stream is, I think, only a question of time.”

   In 1875 Mr. W. M. Gordon, assistant United States engineer, in his report, said: “The Osage Valley derives its chief importance from the richness of its vast mineral deposits.”

   Professor Pompelly, in his geological report of 1873, spoke in very high terms of its mineral resources, though hardly one-tenth of the real value of its mineral deposits was known at that time. Rich banks of iron and valuable veins of lead and coal are found almost every day. All this vast wealth is now unavailable for want of transportation, and it seems to be the province of a paternal Government to assist in bringing these great necessaries of life—iron and coal—into market, whereby the whole country would be benefited. The principal minerals are iron, coal, lead, zinc, burrstone, marble, grit, and kaolin. Kaolin is found in Cole, Camden, Miller j and Morgan counties. Grit has been quarried for a long time in Vernon County and has recently been found in St. Clair, near the Osage River. Zinc is found in St. Clair. Cannel coal abounds in Morgan and Benton. Lead is found in paying quantities in many localities in every county; in Morgan alone more than 3,000,000 pounds was mined during last year. Iron ores, principally limonite, red hematite, and blue specular, exist in almost inexhaustible quantities in thirteen of the fifteen counties of the Osage Valley. Thousands of tons are found on the surface in the form of large bowlders and wherever the hanks have been opened the developments have been most satisfactory.

   The following statement will approximate the facts:

Counties in the Osage Valley.

   Suppose there is now in cultivation one-sixth of the whole, or, in round numbers, 800,000 acres. The average value of agricultural products, we will say, is $15 per acre, which would make the total agricultural production now amount to $12,000,000. This does not include timber, minerals, or live-stock, which even now must surpass agricultural products at least 50 per cent., which would make those interests amount to $24,000,000, thus making at present an aggregate proximate product of the counties through which the Osage flows of about $30,000,000.

   Of course this whole traffic, nor half of it, would be transported by water, even if the Osage was improved, yet at least one-third of it would; and these productions, by means of water transportation being provided, would very soon double and treble, especially along the river. But, above all, with this improvement the development of the vast mineral and timber resources would very soon quadruple agricultural productions.

   The Osage is so crooked as to forever preclude the hope of railways along its banks, and the traffic by water is an aid instead of a detriment to railway transportation.

   My theory, therefore, is (approved by Senator Vest and Mr. Bland, and doubtless by our senior Senator and other Representatives) to build one lock and dam at the first shoal (Shipley's), and that that will so demonstrate the feasibility of the plan and show up to such great advantage that other appropriations will come, one by one, to build additional dams until the whole shall be completed.

   But even if the one should only now be constructed, it alone would be a paying in¬ vestment, as it would open up a continuous water-way for at least 40 miles. We want a start, and are confident others will follow until the Osage Valley will be the garden spot of the West.

H. Clay Ewing,

Chairman Committee.

Maj. A. M. Miller,

United States Engineer in charge of River Improvement.

 1890 Chief’s Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers to the Secretary of War for the Year 1890: Appendixes to the Report of the Chief of Engineers. Part 3, pp. 1995-2003. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C. https://books.google.com/books?id=7xdJAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false.