How the US Accidentally Split its Longest River in Two...

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• The Atchafalaya Basin ...
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[@ThatIsInterestingTII]

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[@AllAmericanGuyExpert]

Very weak narration, i.e. script-reading, bores me

[@joshdavis5215]

Your pronunciation of Louisiana words was on point 👌

[@JAldrich73]

When I was a teenager at a summer camp in Minnesota, we built a rope bridge across a creek. I asked what creek this was, and the counselor said it is the Mississippi River!

[@steakfilly5199]

Up by itasca it gets real small. At some points it’s like 10 feet across. I go up there around once a year, they have beautiful trails and the headwaters are great

[@scythelord]

@@randallgeorge8482 You are aware that the Missouri River isn't in Minnesota right?

[@charliegoodnight7560]

@@guitarman_3693 the Arkansas confluence is decent. The Ohio and Missouri confluences make the Ark river look like a creek

[@JamesBond-so1of]

​@@steakfilly5199 I grew up and live within 25 miles of the Mississippi headwaters and it's not much of a river up here where it starts that's for sure you can walk across it and it's not going to be up to your knees all the way across it at the headwaters

[@canisius04]

Auch der Rhein, die Elbe und die Wolga beginnen jeweils als kleiner Bach ...😄⛲

[@vernalc2449]

Living in a city located on the Atchafalaya River, I find this video very informative. For decades we have known that the Mississippi River would naturally search for the path of least resistance on its journey to the Gulf of Mexico. That would be the Atchafalaya. This would wreck Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and the dozens of communities further downstream, not to mention completely re-defining Louisiana. If I remember correctly, at one time the Atchafalaya was one of, if not the deepest river in North America with a very fast current. The spillways and controls to prevent the Mississippi River from diverting its course have been Herculean and done for some very good human reasons. They have also slowed the Atchafalaya down enough to allow rapid sediment build up to the point that you could ALMOST walk across it where I live with sandbars regularly popping up and it must be dredged regularly. Sandbars are pretty regular further downstream and demonstrate the growing delta forming at Atchafalaya Bay. To paraphrase Jeff Goldbloom in the Jurassic Park movies, "Nature always finds a way." When those structures that are keeping the Mississippi River flowing in the direction where it is now flowing=towards Baton Rouge and New Orleans-eventually give out---and one day they will--you have to applaud man's ability to TEMPORARILY keep Mother Nature from doing what she wants to do.

[@joel6221]

I grew up in Morgan City, near the Atchafalaya and was always told that it is not IF the Mississippi River overtakes the Atchafalaya, but WHEN. Also, KUDOS on your pronunciation of Atchafalaya.

[@jtd8719]

Probably won't take much longer (relatively speaking) now that storms seem to be gaining strength on average on a more noticeable time scale.

[@niotek]

i came to the comments to remark on the pronunciation of Atchafalaya.

[@bonesrhodes3762]

---- yep: I was impressed that he could pronounce it and not get the normal "At - chah - fah - lay - ah ". I owned the Honda/Yamaha dealership in Morgan City from 1980 to 1993 - two blocks from the river.

[@joel6221]

@@bonesrhodes3762 i know the place!

[@1Outis1]

Without the army corps of engineers, the Mississippi would have flown into the Atchafalaya back in the late 1970's, or so I've read in a few articles.

[@kcazllerraf]

The situation the US finds itself in with the Atchafalaya really invites comparison to the Yellow River in China. The Yellow River has a habit of dramatically changing course every couple hundred years due to its high sediment load, and when that happened it usually caused enough chaos for those who depended on it for irrigation and trade to topple dynasties. The scale of the shift in the river's course is really hard to overstate, in several shifts the mouth of the river moved 200 miles. That's like if the Hudson River suddenly switched to emptying out in Boston instead of New York, or if the Colorado rerouted to empty directly through Los Angeles. While the Mississippi wouldn't move quite as far or plow through quite as many population centers, it would absolutely cripple the ports in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, which handle a massive fraction of the food and goods produced in the central third of the country.

[@kenneth9874]

Why would you assume that the Mississippi would go dry at baton rouge and new orleans?

[@kcazllerraf]

@@kenneth9874 without the massive amount of fresh water flowing through the main channel, river level will fall dramatically and the navigation channel will silt up. Also, the river is the source of fresh water for New Orleans, with that gone anywhere along the river up to Baton Rouge will lose their fresh water supply in just days due to salt water back flow. Long term they could pipe water in from upstream but it would be devastating in the short term.

[@charliegoodnight7560]

@@kenneth9874 ahhh because the only reason those two cities have the river is because of DAMNS and Locks. Old river lock before Baton Rouge is the only reason the Mississippi River isn’t going on it’s NATURAL (and ever changing flow) way through the Atchafalaya and red river. Its not rocket science

[@charliegoodnight7560]

@@kcazllerraf why? The whole river is controlled by dams. There are over 20 of them controlling everything. The pool before lock 10 might be 8’ higher than directly after the lock. Every inch from Minnesota to the gulf is controlled by over 20 locks for the Army core of Engineers.

[@harpintn]

They can build a new port. New Orleans is a cesspool that needs to be filled in.

[@dennisenright7725]

It might have been Shreves other project, the removal of the great logjam in northwest Louisiana,that really causes this. By enabling the Red river to flow much faster it made the Atchafalaya faster and more able to erode a deeper channel.

[@Oldman808]

The Atchafalaya is an ancient river. Its now filled-in original channel underneath the river is incredibly deep. Whatever Captain Shreve did is now irrelevant because at Simmsport, Louisiana the Corp of Engineers totally controls how many gallons of water per minute goes into the Atchafalaya River. The crying shame is the disgraceful political pressure that prevent water from flowing out of the Morganza Spillway.

[@charliegoodnight7560]

I have canoed every inch of the Mississippi, Atchafalaya and Missouri rivers. The Atchafalaya is hands-down, one of the oldest places I’ve ever been in my life.

[@royreynolds108]

@@Oldman808 The Old River structures and Morganza Spillway are two totally different projects. Morganza Spillway was built to relieve flood flows from the Mississippi R to the Gulf of Mexico to protect the surrounding land along the lower Mississippi from floods like what happened in 1927. Morganza has been used just twice. Bonne Carrie Spillway was built to short-circuit Mississippi R flood water to the Gulf by way of Lake Ponchatrain relieving the levees around New Orleans. Bonne Carrie has been used numerous times and the Mississippi R end is between Reserve and Norco. The largest population center along the Atchafalaya R is Morgan City on the south end. There are only 4 highway bridges at Simmsport (LA1), Krotz Springs (US190-2 spans), Henderson (I10), and Morgan City (US90), and 4 railroad bridges at Simmsport, Melville, Krotz Springs, and Morgan City.

[@mikerhodes3563]

Right now the Mississippi way above flood stage at the Red River landing gauge-which is where the old and auxiliary Mississippi flood control structures are -the spring snow melt up north hasn’t even started-flood warnings are being sounded -efforts to raise the main levees has been going on for the past three years above these structures-they are now about 6 ft higher-if we have another heavy rain event in Louisiana At the same time then there gonna be trouble-the core doesn’t have a good record knowing when to release water from the Morganza and Bonnie carrier spill ways-they always wait too late-It’s gonna be a nervous spring-Led Zeppelin’s ‘’When the levee breaks’’ comes to mind

[@Oldman808]

@@mikerhodes3563 the problem is the political power of those who live below the Morganza Spillway. The don’t want their land flooded. They say their cows will drown - being too lazy to move the cows.

[@dennisenright7725]

I was having difficulty understanding how straightening the Mississippi river made it more likely to divert but your video makes it much easier to comprehend.

[@greezebonobo]

"Let's just take New Orleans and Push it somewhere else" - Patrick Star

[@Azurethewolf168]

And so they did

[@lourias]

It needs to be moved, anyway!

[@jakurdadov6375]

That sounds like an idea a cartoon character would have.

[@ianbelletti6241]

We did have a hurricane try to remove it from the map.

[@louisinese]

@@ianbelletti6241 can confirm didn’t work

[@Urugami45]

At 6:29 you show a photo of the current delta, and it shocked me greatly. I grew up hunting and fishing around Lake Salvador and Barataria Bay, and remember that there was MUCH more grassland there south of the river (up in the photo). While you can easily see the sediment blooms from diversion projects, you can tell that it will take some time to restore the delta. We really need several more projects to get as much sediment as we can during periods of high water. PS: I forgot the obligatory "I can see my house in that picture 😊"

[@mmandrewa2397]

The reason that Louisiana is losing land is NOT because of rising sea levels. Sea levels are rising but it's on the scale of centimeters -millimeters- per lifetime. It's not something you can see. Louisiana is losing land because we no longer allow the Mississippi to flood. Without the renewal of sediment that the yearly floods used to bring most of the delta is sinking.

[@christopherboland8789]

Stop making too much sense I can hear them sharpening the pitchforks

[@marcovonkeman9449]

Sea level rising used to be centimeters, not millimeters per lifetime, and it's going even faster now. The lack of new sediment is of course an element in the sinking of the land, but the rising of the sea level cannot be taken out of the equation.

[@stanhry]

It is also the fact creating channels and canals for the purpose of shipping usually is to the detriment of floodplains. Future people will be saying the same about what they are doing now. For not getting ready for the river’s course change.

[@jacobleblanc7894]

@@marcovonkeman9449 no dude, it is 100 percent erosion, sea levels do not rise enough to have a noticeable effect. it looses like a football field a day or something it’s not due to oceans rising.

[@sideshowbob]

Sea levels have risen 0.7' (8") between the 1929 NGVD & the 1988 NAVD (both surveyed over the decade prior to issuance). Sea levels have risen almost as much since the 1988 datum was published. These are the NOAA's Survey Datum, which are used to establish benchmarks that all location surveys are sourced from. I'm a degreed & licensed civil engineer who worked for a Gov't agency for 3+ decades & worked w/FEMA & NOAA on coastal storm surge modeling, amongst other fields. Example: Our models pointed to a Superstorm Sandy-esque storm in our models for the NJ/Long Island coast in the mid 1990's (the intensity of a hurricane coupled w/the long duration of a Nor'Easter), but we said "Nahhhh, that can't happen, the ocean's not warm enough in that area". FEMA agreed. After Sandy, they quickly revised all their mapping. You can choose to not believe Reality, but Reality is still gonna Reality.

[@gosnooky]

Interesting... around 7:30, the Red, Atchafalaya and Mississippi kind of forming kind of that 4-way 500 years ago. The same thing can be seen today at another major river's delta - the Mekong. At the city of Phnom Penh which is kind of considered to be the northern-most point of the Mekong delta, the smaller Tonle Sap river meets the Mekong, which then branches and forms the smaller Bassac river which does the exact same thing as the Atchafalaya. Southeastern Cambodia and southern Vietnam have much the same geography as southern Louisiana - very flat and low lying. Sensing a pattern here!

[@troybaxter]

I believe that it is partially this geography as to why a lot of Southeast Asians immigrate to the gulf, particularly the Texas and Louisiana coasts.

[@charliegoodnight7560]

The Mississippi constantly changes. In the past few thousand years it has moved many many miles

[@historyfan-cg3zp]

Also because the geography and climate are almost exactly the same the gulf coasts sub-tropical compared to the tropical south Asian climate they are very similar but not quite the same

[@theknightswhosay]

There is a Vietnamese population in New Orleans that seems quite at home. They’re also catholic and like French bread.

[@BS-vx8dg]

I would hesitate to compare the Tonlé Sap to the situation with the Mississippi and the Atchafalaya. While there is some similarity insofar as the rivers' respective flows are not consistent, in the case of the Tonlé Sap (which is actually the lake, not the river that creates it) the variability is quite seasonal, much more regularly than with the Mississippi. And in the case of the Tonlé Sap you have a situation where the waters actually *reverse* seasonally, with water flowing upstream from the Mekong during the summer (rainy) monsoon, and then reverse and flow in a more natural direction (to the sea, via the Mekong) during the dry season. Not really at all like the situation here with the two rivers we're speaking of.

[@chrisvickers7928]

I heard a quite a bit of this story when I was a geophysicist with Shell Canada. I was on a course in clastic sedimentary geology from the legendary Rufus J Leblanc who had been the head of the Mississippi River Commission in the 1940s. I looked him up just now and see he made it to 89 years old. Thanks Rufus for making geology so interesting and leading us scrambling over the rock outcrops when you were in your late 60s.

[@lancepounds788]

Thanks Carter for discussing my home state! I learned this stuff in Louisiana history class in middle school. Part of my family grew up on an oxbow lake called False River, near Baton Rouge.

[@DieselWeazel]

I didn’t know about the canal. Interesting to think that the Red River didn’t flow into the Mississippi 200 years ago.

[@thermostance1815]

I am also a Louisianan and I love the Mississippi River. The topic of human development along the Mississippi is very interesting to me.

[@brandongannon5677]

False river is awesome

[@DieselWeazel]

Look up Watson Break. It’s just south of Monroe.

[@jeremiahpangburn2240]

@@brandongannon5677 hell yeah I’m from there!

[@richarda996]

In 1973 the flooding almost succeeded in going down the Atchafayla river thru Morgan City.

[@royreynolds108]

That flood was the first time the Morganza Spillway was opened and used after it was built.

[@tom4ivo]

Eventually, the Mississippi will be going down that route and bypassing New Orleans, which will doom most of the city. Without the river sediment to renew the delta, the delta will melt away, and storms will reach the original coast. The Port of New Orleans is the country's largest freshwater sea port, which makes it very important for shipping, but as a saltwater port, not so much. Saltwater will cause marine fouling of ships, and shipworms will eat the wood pilings, and its use will drop a lot. The smart thing would be to build a new port and channel at the mouth of the Atchafayla and try to build the area up with a better foundation than swamp muck into which everything eventually sinks. Would probably be better than trying to build everything after the main river starts flowing through the new route.

[@brian954]

I dream of eventually kayaking all of those tributaries. Such a beautiful river with so many different and enthralling ecosystems along it's path.

[@whodatphoenix9659]

Somebody finally talks about the Atchafalaya basin. Prolly one of the best fishing spots in Louisiana if you have a boat

[@royreynolds108]

The very best and largest crawfish come from the Atchafalaya basin.

[@Swampgurl777]

I’m out here in Butte LaRose and I absolutely love it here ❤

[@steveelliott6461]

Seems that some future planning for the area would include Port Atchafalaya and the necessary support infrastructure.

[@jakeski3142]

The book Flood Tide by Clive Cussler is centered on this very idea. Some Chinese businessman builds up a huge, empty, port on the Atchafalaya and no one can figure out why. Then he tries to ram a ship packed with explosives into the dam or levee to divert the Mississippi into the Atchafalaya to make himself rich as the owner of the best new port in the US

[@1PITIFULDUDE]

Atchafalaya is simply part of the delta. Mother nature does not care where man draws lines and boundaries. She's gonna do her thing, and we don't have a chance in heck of stopping her.

[@deberafaulkner537]

Amen

[@jensholm5759]

Most likey. I dont get the guessing. We have had LIDAR some 20-30 years and good PC animations

[@bjmaxwell5148]

Well now you may need to do a video about The Great Raft. It’s my understanding that after Shreve had the Raft broken up the Red River was no longer navigable above by steamboat as far north as it was prior to the breaking. People seem to have a hard time understanding just how large an area it covered.

[@MenwithHill]

I don't think people even consider that that could ever exist. A giant patch of logs that laid rotting in a river for centuries.

[@BS-vx8dg]

I endorse this! Great idea for a video, bjmaxwell!

[@billwilson-es5yn]

There were two rafts. The longest was in the southern end blocking passage to NW Louisiana. Opening it up allowed riverboats to cross Caddo Lake to reach Jefferson, Texas. It became a large wealthy city exporting cotton. In the 1870's the ACoE had the raft north of Shreveport removed which lowered the level of Caddo Lake, preventing further steamboat traffic to prosperous Jefferson. A railroad tycoon named Jay Gould tried to get the city to give him land for a railroad yard and workshops before the raft was removed. The city fathers told him no so he placed a curse on them before setting those up further west in a dusty hamlet of adobe hovels called Dallas.

[@frequentlycynical642]

@@billwilson-es5yn Caddo is the only natural lake in Texas! As you note, it was really just a giant log raft for most of our recent history. But I have note that Dallas is a long way from SE Texas/Louisiana.

[@leemorgan4037]

The guy who made this did a pretty good job short to the point,well spoken & mostly accurate

[@coltonfreeze8062]

I didn’t see any comments on it, but I would be interested to see what the history of that stretch of river called “The Great Raft” that was 165 miles long and the trapping and removing of beavers have in correlation. I can’t even imagine how many must have been disappeared to have a 165 mile long blockage not maintained by massive populations of beavers to maintain the water and sediment deposits.

[@royreynolds108]

" The Great Raft" was a conglomeration of logs and other stuff that had floated down the Red River and choaked the main part of the river between about Natchitoches to Alexandria. Smaller steamboats could and did make their way upstream by following the edge of the backed-up water to where the upstream end of the jamb was and across into Texas to Jefferson (1843) through Caddo Lake which had been formed in 1803 from a flood of the Red R. When the "Raft" was removed in 1873, the water levels dropped so navigation could not occur to Jefferson except in short periods of high rain. A low-sill dam was built over the Big Cypress Bayou in LA that now backs up Caddo Lake to what it was in 1873 but no navigation was provided. The Red R is navigable up to Shreveport by barges. Beavers are still a problem in this whole region but have no effect on the river system.

[@GhostScout42]

@@royreynolds108 you flat lander like beavers a lot less than mountain folk. after watching this video i get why now

[@interstellarsurfer]

Logging has traditionally been done with the aid of river transportation.

[@Oldman808]

If nature were allowed to take its course, the Mississippi River would already flow down the Atchafalaya or more likely where the Morganza Spillway is now dammed up.

[@marcosv.ribeiro1073]

Was the Atchafalaya thing cause by the boat guy?

[@Oldman808]

@@marcosv.ribeiro1073 Sorry, I didn’t understand your comment.

[@gonefishing11]

The formation of the Salton Sea in California is another interesting story

[@frequentlycynical642]

Yes, another "Oops!" although Shreve's was intentional and had no idea of the consequences beyond his vision.

[@danielsprouls9458]

I have heard that the Mississippi River changes it's lower course through the delta area every thousand years or so. The delta will extend itself until it builds up too high and during a flood overflow into a shorter channel into the gulf. The Corp of engineers has been resisting this for decades. They divert silt and rip rap banks. One day New Orleans will be just a minor city on a back bayou.

[@jensholm5759]

Thats right. If You want to keep it as it is, who should use the water to make ther land less try and keep the land there.

[@Mockingbird_Taloa]

With all the talk of river length, I kept waiting for it to be mentioned Hvcha Falaya (Anglicized as Atchafalaya) is Chahta for "long river." Seems kinda funny given how short the 'Chafalaya is now, but that is probably the old name for the Red River itself (It's now considered the 8th longest river in the US at ~1360mi, but that does not include the 137 miles of the 'Chafalaya that it used to. If you included the 'Chafalaya as a part of the Red River, it would bump it to 1500mi and push it to 5th longest in the US!) In some ways I feel like the best course of action is to let the Mississippi take its new course down the Achafalaya and turn the old Mississippi channel into a canal. What's wrecked the old Mississippi Delta is the channelization of the main discharge path of the Mississippi anyway--it may be best to divert a percentage to a highly maintained shipping canal but let most of the river flow naturally and go about doing the quiet work of delta building. Things are going to have to change because of subsidence and rising sea levels at some point anyway, may as well try and work with the river where we can. I think the cost of doing nothing/trying to preserve the status quo of a bygone era is going to far outweigh the cost of planning/building/modifying a new shipping canal and developing new port facilities if the old ones are going to end up sinking anyway.

[@MenwithHill]

God I love rivers. They're well and truly alive, it's kind of beautiful.

[@michaelgarrity6090]

I've read that some geographers have said that the lower Mississippi is actually an extension of the Ohio and that the Allegheny River is actually the northern reaches of the Ohio. They also hold that what we call the Upper Mississippi is actually just another upper fork of the Ohio or another river altogether.

[@Michael-sb8jf]

There is a few reasons why this is probably the case. been awhile since I read up on them but lets say the reason the Mississippi continues north instead towards the Appalachians because at one time the Mississippi was the western Border between US/England and the French so England wanting more land said no the river GOES NORTH. of course this is a way over simplification

[@ramblinman4197]

If you've ever been to the point south of Cairo where the rivers come together, unless the Mississippi is flooding upstream, the Ohio sure looks wider. I don't know if it was the early Europeans that made the decision as to which river it was an extension of, or if they were just going by what the natives called them. The current day Mississippi may also be older. Once upon a time, there was a river that ran north and parallel to the modem day Ohio, and tributaries such as the Kentucky, Licking, and Scioto emptied into this older river (i.e. those tributaries predate the Ohio). If I remember right, an ice age filled in that old river and, when the glaciers retreated, the waters from the tributaries started following a more southern route, forming today's Ohio River. This is, I don't know how far west this phenomenon persisted, i.e. if the modern Ohio along the Kentucky-Illinois border is as "young" as it is along the Kentucky-Ohio border, or if the Ohio farther west follows the same course as its extinct predecessor.

[@ladymacbethofmtensk896]

I have not seen this story very often during the Internet Age. A few mentions here and there, and that was it. Meanwhile, the newest mention of the Old River and the damage it can do to the lower Mississippi and the cities of Baton Rouge and New Orleans I have come across was from a Time-Life book from the late Eighties. Too many people make a fuss about Climate Change threatening the region while never bothering to learn anything about the geography, let alone the Old River in particular.

[@nozrep]

precisely! a fuss! a stupid fuss! Yes and meanwhile in places like Miami and Houston “they” have been trying to propagandize about “sea level rise” whilst denying or covering up the very, very real and documented fact, for almost a hundred years, about geological subsidence where, the ground literally is sinking more and more each year because of population increase sand ground water pumping, NOT because of sea level rise, even if it did contribute a very minimal amount. Very sad indeed, I do hope leveller heads re-realize the truth before the floods take over for good!

[@susanaltman5134]

What Mr Shreve did and Global Warming can both be problems. Rising oceans will not help New Orleans or Baton Rouge.

[@jrvcinci]

This is a very good assessment of the two river systems. Thanks for posting it.

[@pablovivant9089]

One quibble, not with the main topic here but with the river upstream. You describe the straightening of the river as a natural process, but much of it between Cairo, Illinois, and Louisiana has actually been from cuts made by the Army Corps of Engineers.

[@BS-vx8dg]

Good point, pablo v, but I believe that is also true (albeit less so) on portions of the Mississippi north of St. Louis.

[@ramblinman4197]

This is true re: the Army Corps straightening places in the river. I learned about this in science class years ago. It was done to make shipping easier, but also had the consequence of causing the river to flow faster, which only makes the issue covered in this video (and the erosion rate along the straightened section of the river) worse. IIRC this topic came up in the science class when we were discussing the growing marine "dead zone" where the Mississippi empties into the Gulf.

[@frequentlycynical642]

@@ramblinman4197 The Corp straightened many rivers all over America to reduce flooding. Of course, all that new water eventually went downstream to areas that couldn't handle it. Another classic case of man thinking he can change Ma Nature.

[@TroyBierkortte]

After all this, you miss that the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers join at a point where the Ohio River is larger, that the Ohio River actually starts in northern Pennsylvania, where it is now called the Allegheny River, and that the St. Croix River is actually larger than the Mississippi river where they meet, except for the artificial constriction of the St. Croix at that point. By naming conventions, which are all violated by the naming of the Mississippi River, the MR ends at St. Paul Minnesota. The St. Croix River flows south from there until it flows into the Ohio River, which actually flows from Northern PA to Western NY, back south through PA, and all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. So, by breaking all the rules, we have one of the smallest rivers in the USA (the Mississippi) being considered the largest, the largest one (Ohio) being cut into three pieces and named Allegheny, Ohio, and Mississippi, and the St.Croix River essentially being ignored despite being a very long river.

[@doelbaughman1924]

Interesting!

[@barbaraseville4139]

John McPhee’s book, “In Suspect Terrain”, tells this story and several others of like kind. He’s a fabulous writer on the natural world, and the message is always “Don’t mess with Mother Nature, she’ll always have the last word”.

[@tarnishedknight730]

Trying to get Mother Nature to change her ways is like parking your car in front of an oncoming freight train in order to stop it... It's NOT going to end well.

[@ColumbiaB]

"In Suspect Terrain" is (like anything John McPhee writes) a fine, absorbing work, but I think you're confusing it for his "The Control of Nature" (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1989), which includes the essay, “Atchafalaya,” first published as a feature article in the 23 Feb. 1987 issue of The New Yorker. "In Suspect Terrain" was published in 1983, well before McPhee researched and wrote his piece on attempts to control the lower Mississippi.

[@theastuteangler]

Loved this one, well done.

[@vike50brian]

This was great, highly informative! Thank you

[@bry10101]

This is slightly off topic but as some one that lives next to the Arkansas river in Colorado and used to live next to the south plat I can tell you there are times where both rivers completely dry out before ever meeting the Mississippi. Upstream management is just as important as downstream.

[@jakeski3142]

I got to fish the Arkansas in Salida a while back. Love it there. But I live in Little Rock

[@bry10101]

@@jakeski3142 it's gold waters for sure.

[@OliveDasi]

This was so interesting! (no pun intended). I'm finishing up my double major in GIS and Geography with a Geospatial Intelligence focus and I had absolutely no idea about this. It just shows how much knowledge you might think you have in a topic or how much training you have, there is always stuff you can learn and grow with. I can't wait for the next one!

[@WhirledPublishing]

I'm decades ahead of you and a Doctoral Scholar who does research in dozens of languages - I'll need another 1,000 years to learn all there is to know.

[@ErikPortland]

GIS and Geography are different majors? I would figure GIS as a concentration within Geography.

[@brushnit9212]

@@ErikPortland Many places are making it a separate field with more focus on comp sci aspects that aren't found in geography. Im am going for a major in Comp Sci and minor in GIS right now.

[@eyetrollin710]

​​@@ErikPortland been in the industry 20 years, similar education except for back then GIS wasn't a primary focus, GIS is hardware and software, geography is a science. I've met plenty of GIS technicians who have no idea about Earth processes, what I find heartbreaking is when they tell me they just don't care either they only did this to earn a living and I think that's sad because this is so incredibly interesting, but they don't care about the planet, the processes, the vast wealth of information contained in every formation and every stone,, any of that they just want to be monkeys on a typewriter.

[@eric2500]

Lake Itasca is where I was able to stand on both sides of the Mississippi!

[@A1ben]

Good video, I think the Army Corps of Engineer’s efforts to reroute the rivers had just as much if not more to do with the current situation than Captain Shreve did though.

[@charliegoodnight7560]

As I am on this river everyday for decades and have canoed its entire length. Before Baton Rouge, the real Mississippi, a.k.a. the Atchafalaya river is the natural way she wants to flow. Mankind’s Locks and damns make sure New Orleans even has a river near it. Naturally it would be a small series of oxbow lakes. Mississippi, Atchafalaya and red river is the true course.

[@enriqueviolasii2151]

First time watching your channel and I’ll gotta say is…. That was pretty informative and interesting! Thanks you

[@VanillaMacaron551]

Non-American here; never been to any of these places, but find these forces of nature fascinating. One question: did the 1812 New Madrid earthquake affect the relationships between the different rivers in this area you are talking about?

[@carlmally6292]

Probably not in that area. The epicenter of the New Madrid quake is roughly 500 miles away.

[@claytondennis8034]

It did indeed change the course of the river around the area. It also created a huge lake called Reelfoot in Tennessee. "The History Guy" has a great video on the 1812 earthquake.

[@carlmally6292]

@@claytondennis8034 Reelfoot Lake is close to New Madrid. The Atchafalaya and areas talked about in most of this video are still 500 miles south. I doubt there was much significant impact in Louisiana.

[@rustyjohnston3180]

Per historical articles that I have read, the 1812 quake caused the formation of Caddo Lake in West Louisiana/East Texas. It also caused the formation of what is now Lake Bistineau, where I live. Lake Bistineau is supplied from water from Dorcheat Bayou and it flows into Loggy Bayou. Loggy Bayou was so backed up due to the Red River log jam, that the Red River was on the verge of completely changing course into Loggy Bayou/Dorcheat Bayou. The clearing of the log jam on the Red River kept this from happening. In 1935 a dam was built, forming a permanent Lake Bistineau.

[@gonwyte8534]

The quake was felt as far away as quebec, Canada and caused church bells to ring in Boston, Mass.

[@archiveseeker]

I read about this situation in a book about floods. I was hoping to find a video about it, and the timing was impeccable!

[@AldanFerrox]

Would be interesting to know what caused the Great Raft of the Red River. A hurricane maybe?

[@WhirledPublishing]

A hurricane ... or a huge downpour that flooded the region ... or uplift from magma which diverted the river ... or a landslide that blocked the river flow which forced the river waters to go around ... or property owners could have blocked the river ... a large tree could have fallen across the river which resulted in debris clogging the water flow which then diverted ... Army Corps of Engineers may have diverted the waters ... The possibilities go on and on ...

[@AldanFerrox]

@@WhirledPublishing I don't think that any property owners or the ACoE was involved here, because the raft original formed in the 12th century.

[@WhirledPublishing]

@@AldanFerrox Whoever is telling you those lies is a complete idiot - please be careful who you trust with information.

[@ladymacbethofmtensk896]

It is not like the Indians to clear river embarrments, so really, the Great Raft formed rather like many a hoarder house; trees and other vegetation died and piled up in the river and just stayed there. That is how the Embarass River in eastern Illinois got its name. And let us not forget the French colonial city of Kaskaskia on the opposite side of the state, which shows just how destructive a change in the Mississippi's course can be.

[@caneyebus]

​@@WhirledPublishing a hurricane wouldn't be strong enough by the time it got up that far north. And while the terrain in that area isn't flat like it is in the southern part of the state, there is no way a landslide would be able to cause that.

[@jeremiahallyn4603]

Haha, that was funny when you mentioned Carter Lake and said great name btw 😂 also glad you mentioned the Kentucky Bend. I'm from KY and never been to that part of the state, but always found that area really interesting 🙌

[@Khyranleander]

Oh, definitely new stuff! Knew there were issues with Big Muddy's meanderings, but just normal oxbows & shifts in or near the Delta Region -- not such a major redirection so far upstream! Thanks for the head's up.

[@brandywineblogger1411]

This is an EXCELLENT KZbin. About 20 years ago, I stood on part of the Old River Control System, with friends from New Iberia, LA. From our viewpoint, we could see both the Mississippi as well as the Atchafalaya - a horrifyingly short distance . One day there WILL be a massive flood on the Mississippi and the engineered Old River Control System WILL fail. God help the people near Morgan City as well as the citizens of now high and dry Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The numbers of deaths will be epic and the economic effects on the lower Mississippi will be incalculable.

[@blackhawk7r221]

Nearly happened already. Flooding scoured a massive 200 foot breach under the concrete structure. Forgot the year.

[@Sapioso]

The Atchafalaya bridge runs over the river, and when the water rises it gives me chills. I wanna go back home to Cali 😭

[@scooterg166]

I live on the Atchafayla River. We’ve been hearing we are going to be under water in less than 25 years.

[@ryanvandy1615]

The background music on your videos is so relaxing

[@andrewbrown6522]

Very neat. I love mountain and river historys.

[@MADHIKER777]

Excellent lecture!

[@mikeober9773]

The Atchafalaya is really the northernmost point of the Mississippi River delta. This can be seen if you look closely at aerial view maps of the rivers.

[@justingriffiths6957]

I learned about this about 20 years ago, a few months before Hurricane Katrina. I have thought over the years, would it make sense to make a plan to get ready for the day Old River structure to release more than 30%. Maybe with the structure in place we can create a plan to gradually move the infrastructure. It seems more sensible than waiting for the day when the structure fails and the ports lose water in a shorter amount of time.

[@BrianEthridge-wk6hz]

I hope you are well paid for what you do you are very good at this. This video was excellent but not everybody is going to say that because they just don't appreciate the work you put into it. I really loved it and just wanted to say thank you!!

[@nightrunner1456]

Great video! great map!

[@jaggg.3821]

Quick question are people certain Mississippi did this and not the Madrid Earthquake in 1811 & 1812, they were such massive size Quakes that it literally caused "The Mississippi River" to Flow backwards and it wound up re-shaping a few States that border Missouri, Missouri sits atop The Madrid Faultline for an Earthquake too cause the longest River too flow backward's that's far bigger than the 1906 Earthquake that's got to be 2004 Boxing Day in Indonesia/Sumatra/Thailand and the other East Asian Island's surrounding India and Indonesia?

[@Michael-sb8jf]

The Mississippi River basin has been mapped/studied since its rediscover by European explorers since the 1680's. The river was already a major trade route well before the earthquake

[@tips4truckers252]

Amazing video watched the whole thing

[@richd6362]

Great video. I was not aware of the Atchafalaya River.

[@DragonsinGenesisPodcast]

The Atchafalaya Basin is awesome. I’ve paddled through the river and surrounding swamp on several occasions. The swamp is the largest in North America, 20 miles wide and over 100 long. Easy to get lost in that area.

[@royreynolds108]

@@DragonsinGenesisPodcast Most of the old-growth Cypress have been cut.

[@robbieevans6536]

Totally cool..Cant believe I hadn't heard of this before!

[@bork2211]

Great video ❤️

[@gonefishing11]

@0:26, I didn't know that the Mississippi River drained that much of the U.S. The big Lake Powell and Mead reservoirs are extremely low. I bet, the West wishes that some of those far north and west Mississippi tributaries would feed the Colorado instead.

[@joker-0723]

Hands off.

[@onesob13]

They'd have to flow uphill

[@jonmillgate9056]

Just look up The Colorado River Project. Much of the Colorado River has already been diverted into the South Platt River.

[@ladymacbethofmtensk896]

Blame the Cali celebrities who constantly yell about Climate Change as they waste all that water in their gardens!

[@robrussell5329]

What a simpleton.

[@edgarsnake2857]

Outstanding video. And news to me. Thanks.

[@chipworrell6025]

You are aware that having an alternate path to the sea is a major option for keeping New Orleans safe during the upper midwest floods? That and the alternate path thru Pontchartrain.,

[@crtreasures1136]

Good informative video. There’s a dried up river bed located near Sunset Louisiana that I’m told is where the Atchalafaya River use to run hundred of year ago. Nature changes and we will adapt and change with it.

[@blackhawk7r221]

Yea, you can see what looks like a shallow valley when you’re on the Lake Martin Highway north of Lafayette. Ancient riverbed.

[@ethanlamoureux5306]

11:14 The Mississippi River delta is currently sinking, but not beneath rising seas, because the sea is rising at a pretty much constant 1-2 mm per year, and that ain’t much! The delta is actually subsiding, with the land dropping much faster than any change in sea level.

[@eric2500]

We are supposed to have snow in my latitude but all winter we had RAIN. Meaning there was no slow absorption of water as the snow melted. Flood alerts with no break. So yes, floods and overwhelmed dams in the southernmost parts of the continent are no surprise, and maybe letting the water spread all over a huge swampy area is a good thing.

[@nbkawtgnobody]

It can't be done with any practicability or humanity so no!

[@johndodson8464]

Very good video. Your fall line vid was best. But this was very good.

[@23ofSeptember]

Its interesting that the mighty Miss actually starts in Canada!

[@moizesbrando]

John McFee's Control of Nature is an excellent read

[@bridgetteparker7719]

As another former Louisianian (Avoyelles) who grew up in the shadow of this, it's always exciting to see this important information given attention.

[@tommenc3091]

Hey bro please continue the us explained series I really enjoy it and I think its actually very important for human knowledge thanks so much king

[@particles343]

I grew up in Terrebonne, thanks for bringing this to light. We not only have to deal with coastal erosion due to the levee system and hurricanes, we have to deal with a looming catastrophe from the rivers up stream. Eventually nature will win. One way or the other.

[@eric2500]

"If it keeps on rainin, the levee's gonna break." folk tune, covered awesomely by Led Zeppelin.

[@markcummings1319]

Nice clip!

[@samwill7259]

We keep trying to make nature do what we want, instead of just living with it And nature always smacks us right across the face for the attempt.

[@653j521]

TVA did wipe out malaria in a great swath of the country. We shouldn't have tried and just left it alone? No dams, no canals, no reservoirs, no harbours, etc, living piled together in a few spots until we sickened and died as a species, not living but dying with it?

[@carelgoodheir692]

The Netherlands? Mind you, they are very aware indeed how nature can smack us right across the face and put an immense effort into dealing with that.

[@davidhein4300]

Hey Carter, I heard you mention sea level rise in this video. Maybe you can do a video showing how the US coastline has changed over the past 25 years due to sea level rise. Sounds like a great geography video to me! Thanks for all the time and effort you spend making your videos, I enjoy watching them and learning something new each time.

[@sparkypdx]

I’d like to hear about the sea level changes too. NOHA has very accurate records for the last 130 years. Some places it goes up and some go down because land masses rise and fall at the same time

[@thomaswayneward]

Where has the sea level changed?

[@davidhein4300]

@@thomaswayneward I have no idea. I’ve lived on the California coast for 45 years and have never noticed anything. We’ve been promised for 25 years that the sea levels will rise. Carter mentioned it in this video and I think he does a great job with both research and delivery so I thought maybe he could explain it to us.

[@davidhein4300]

@@sparkypdx what is NOHA? Tried to look it up, but couldn’t find it. And how can it go both up and down if sea levels are rising?

[@sparkypdx]

David, sorry I misspelled it. NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Has gone by many names and different agencies. Starting in 1807, bigger yet in 1870 and officially named NOAA in 1965. Don’t quote me. Sea levels of major cities around the world is just one thing they do

[@j.h.lawrence7752]

The river system changes its route completely every 20,000 yrs. or so. The Atchafalaya and the Mississippi have changed places since time in memorial. The Army core has tried to stop it, but its inevitable.

[@beebester4106]

Awesome subject!

[@BS-vx8dg]

Listening to the stuff about the bends in the river causing changes in its course, I am reminded of the fact that the first capital of the State of Illinois, the village of Kaskaskia, had its connection to the rest of Illinois broken off by such a river change. Today the town that once had 7000 people has a population of 21, and to get to anyplace else in Illinois, they need to travel through over 10 miles of Missouri to get to the nearest bridge to cross the Mississippi.

[@furriesinouterspaceUnited]

Amazing content

[@shara1979]

All tv/radio stations to the east of the Mississippi,etart with "W", & all west of it, start with "K". For example, WTIC, WNBC.... in the east, and KACL, KMAS.... in the west.

[@jamy8575]

So? what is K? should not that be E?

[@AliciaGuitar]

​@@jamy8575if you want to be backwards

[@chrism3784]

I guess if this was to happen, the mississippi below that line would start drying up and everyone would have to move to the other river flow and rebuild ports and cities along that. Life would go on

[@jakurdadov6375]

How long do you suppose a 3X increase in flow in the Atchafalaya would take to establish a stable channel and build up its banks enough for people to even begin to consider your "plan?"

[@timsmith2525]

@@jakurdadov6375 I didn't hear a "plan"; I heard a reasonable explanation of how humans adapt to changes in their environment. Too many people assume that everything must remain the way it was on the day they were born, or it's a catastrophe.

[@jakurdadov6375]

@@timsmith2525 I agree. It's not much of a plan.

[@timsmith2525]

@@jakurdadov6375 Are you mocking me by pretending not to understand what I said? Stuff happens; people adapt; most plans make things worse.

[@jakurdadov6375]

@@timsmith2525 I get paid for planning. So, more plans are always better for me.

[@dbaker3751]

It is interesting that a tributary of the Mississippi River is longer than the Mississippi, the Missouri River. I understand that the combined lengths of the Mississippi-Missouri system is the 3rd or 4th longest on Earth.

[@twostop6895]

the Missouri is one of major rivers that drain into the Mississippi, every state in the midewest largest river drains into the Mississippi, Iowa has the Des Moines River that drains inot it, Illionois has the Illinois River, and you have the Ohio River, the Ohio has the most volume that drains into the Mississippi but the Missouri is the longest in North America

[@ulfricstormcloak5080]

I recommend reading the book “The Control of Nature”. Has a great section on the Atchafalaya

[@mikaelsza]

Shrive: Why Mississipi doesn't goes through here? 🤔 Ms. Nature: I liked your idea!! Louisiana: Oh, no!! 😱

[@marting5130]

i live in the top left bit of the photo of baton rouge late in the video. i find the river terrifying, particularly when the level is above my house behind the levee

[@atheisticgreyblob3284]

I love the videos, one critique though. When you're describing things/movement on 2D static maps, maybe try adding visible markers or lines to show what you're talking about? You did this with arrows but I think animated lines/circles would do better.

[@jcgamer892]

Jefferson, Madison, & Gallatin are the three rivers that combine to form the Missouri River North by Northeast of a town called Three Forks, Montana. Which by the way, the map you used at 0:52 is missing the Gallatin River.

[@sarahcoleman3125]

I grew up calling it the "At'cha-falaya" (like "right back at-cha!") Hearing him say "Uh-shaff-falaya" is making my brain itch. 😂

[@HarryWHill-GA]

About all it would take is a heavy winter snow pack combined with a fast, rainy melt to take out the Old River Control Structure. Once the ORCS is gone you'll be scraping Morgan City off the Yucatan Peninsula, 'cause that's where it's going to be.

[@kenneth9874]

The "control structure" should be a spillover leveee instead of the money pit that it is

[@HarryWHill-GA]

@@kenneth9874 Can't argue with that.

[@royreynolds108]

@@HarryWHill-GA Just out of curiosity, have you guys kept up with the cost of repairs to the Oroville Dam in California, over $1 Billion? They almost lost that dam. Add damage to the Lake Powell Dam diversion tunnel.

[@daholyspirit2783]

Waiting for the next states explained. 💯🙌🏾

[@AnnieVanAuken]

1:40 The G in CONTIGUOUS is hard, like in BIG RIG et. al. 6:30 Accents on the river's name: AT-chuh-fuh-LIE-yuh (all syllables are pronounced)

[@colinbaxter1022]

Great stuff.

[@ThatIsInterestingTII]

Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Roxadus460]

If you want to be more accurate the Red River of the South starts at Confluence of the Prairie Dog Town Fork and Buck Creek, Harmon County, Oklahoma. It mostly runs through Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana and has nothing to do with New Mexico or the panhandle of Texas

[@skybluskyblueify]

What's the volume of logs and debris that Shreve took out?

[@JeffUmstead]

It is amazing to look at a map of the US and look through all of the towns and cities that tributaries of the greater Mississippi River system flows by. I wonder how many of us are connected by it.

[@frequentlycynical642]

The Mississippi River system is one of the unappreciated great economic engines of the USA. Without the cheap transportation it gives into our vast interior, the alternatives would be rail and truck. Russia can't move wheat out of its interior, but Ukraine has the Black Sea right on its coast.

[@jonathanpinson8675]

You should research "Carter's lake" a large man made lake located within three counties in Northwest Georgia, you will find it to be fascinating, lots of history and material for you to discuss, several towns are under that lake.

[@sonnybattaglia4760]

A place named ITASCA mentioned!!!! Woohoo, let’s go!!!

[@tedsmith6137]

So, Shreve was the real Superman, who "changed the course of mighty rivers".

[@theknightswhosay]

You should have mentioned the Morganza spillway. The volume of water is controlled to an extent.