Page 46 - DesMoinesRiver

TRAVELING THE RIVER IN THE 21ST CENTURY

In our modern era, you can fly over vast expanses of the United States without
ever seeing them, or, you can flash past in an automobile unaware of the people
and stories that helped create the communities around you. A trip down the Des
Moines River offers an opportunity to take a closer look at the river and the land,
and to learn about how they have shaped the story of Iowa. The river helped cre-
ate the landscape that we see today, carving deep into ancient sediments and stone
in some places, and laying down thick layers of sand and silt in others. Its forests
and wetlands have provided people with a wealth of plants and animal resources
for thousands of years. Coal, limestone, clay, and other mineral resources from its
banks were the raw materials that helped build the developing state, and the river
itself powered the mills and moved people and products. People depended on the
river’s largess and feared the disaster that could be brought by flood, drought, or
shipwreck.

The river has changed dramatically in the last three centuries. Before Iowa became a
state, the river valley was heavily wooded, and low wetland areas created a wealth of
microhabitats for plants and animals. The uplands supported a grassland biome. As
the land was plowed, wetlands drained for farming, and trees were cut for lumber
and fuel, runoff and erosion increased, banks slumped, and the river channel filled
with sand and silt.

Although steamboats no longer ply the waters of the Des Moines River, canoes and
kayaks can. Those who choose to travel the river can glimpse into the past. They
can view the rocks that tell of ancient seas millions of years ago and look for erratics
carried in by glaciers from places far to the north. They can glimpse evidence of the
lives of the first people in the archaeological sites and burial mounds that mark the
passage of their lives. Modern explorers can visit the historic villages that were some
of the earliest Euro-American settlements in the Iowa Territory. Many architectural
treasures have been preserved in these towns bringing the past into the present.
These properties reflect trends in agriculture and industry and tell personal stories
of the people who came to live here. Some are associated with important historic
individuals and events from earliest land claims through the Civil War.

Canoes on the Des Moines River, 2013.
Photographed by John Wenck.

46 A River of Unrivaled Advantages—Life Along the Lower Des Moines River