 Your Hosts:
The Mississippi is well worth reading about. It is not a commonplace river, but on the contrary is in all ways remarkable.
--Mark Twain
Hello, I'm Joe Angert, Isaac is my son. I'm a teacher by profession; I teach art (photography) and computer programming at St. Louis Community College. Isaac and I live with Isaac's mom, Clare (my wife), and our beagle, Spot, on the south side of St. Louis in an ethnic Italian neighborhood known as "The Hill."
This Project:
This project came about slowly over the years. Since 1994 I've been photographing the Mississippi and The Great River Road. One day Isaac and I were talking with Isaac's grandfather about the lock and dam works on the upper Mississippi and I suggested we visit them -- all 27 of them. Clare thought it was a great idea for a father-son project and so off we went. Well, locks and dams turned into bridges, and bridges turned into ferries, and we've been having so much fun traveling and learning about the Mighty Mississippi that we may never stop. This WWW site is a way for us to share our discoveries and enthusiasm.
As this project has taken shape we've established some parameters. Our focus is the Mississippi River and the people who live and work along it. To this end we are only including towns and cities that have some physical access to the river. Because of this criterion we are leaving out many places that have or have had an important relationship with the river. An example would be Clarksdale MS which is on The Great River Road, but is nonetheless many miles from the actual Mississippi. To include such places would more than double the size of this project. Every rule however has it's exceptions and so does ours. If we feel a place is important enough or interesting enough we will include it. Examples would be Cahokia Mounds and Bald Knob Cross, both in Illinois. We have also chosen to treat major metropolitan areas as inclusive. For example we will not list Gretna LA as separate from New Orleans.
The Great River Road:
 The Mississippi River passes through the States of Minnesota and Louisiana. It also forms part of the border of those two states and eight others, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi. In 1938 the above ten states and the Canadian province of Ontario formed The Mississippi River Parkway Commission and thus gave birth to The Great River Road, at least on paper. (The steamboat wheel logo that you see here was designed and adopted by the Commission). The Federal Highway Act of 1954 brought federal government recognition and funds to the project.
 The specific route of The Great River Road compromises between following the river and other criteria such as good highway and expeditious progress. Frequently other roads run closer to the river and, in every case Isaac and I have sought them out. This makes for a much longer but more interesting trip. For example there is a small blacktop road (Tony Toehead Road) in the uppermost northwest corner of Tennessee that runs along the levee. This road will take you into the New Madrid loop where the road turns to gravel and runs along the top of the levee. After a short stay in Kentucky you discover yourself back in Tennessee still on top of the levee and with the river on your left all along. If you try to really follow the Mississippi on the nearest possible roads, you'll often find yourself as twisted and turned around as the river itself. In many cases you'll end up on top of the levee which can make for some pretty rough driving. Isaac and I have driven hundreds of miles on the levees and loved every minute of it. Some of the best drives on the river involve the levees and detours away from The Great River Road. (For various reasons access to certain sections of the levees is restricted. We have always respected these restrictions and suggest you do the same.)
Here are some of our favorite drives that depart from The Great River Road:
- Driving south from Warsaw Illinois to Canton Missouri, drive down Main Street to the Warsaw waterfront. Turn left at the waterfront onto Water Street, then, just past town, turn right onto Levee Road. This will take you out onto the flood plain. If you want some real fun, look for one of the small bridges to your right that cross over the diversion channel. Cross the bridge and you'll enter a maze of small, sometimes gravel roads. You'll have to find your way through the flood plain--when you meet county road 2650 you should see a sign (turn right) for the Canton Ferry which is the oldest continually operating ferry on the river.
- Driving south from Greenville Mississippi to Lake Providence Louisiana, cross the river on U.S. 82 out of Greenville and take the first possible left. This small blacktop road will end in a few miles with no place to go except back where you came from or up onto the levee. Follow the levee to the Arkansas/Louisiana state line. At this point the levee will be blocked. Turn around and go back a few hundred yards to the first exit off the levee which will take you out onto U.S. 65. Turn left and follow 65 to Lake Providence.
- Driving north from Hickman Kentucky to Cairo Illinois, drive out the southwest end of Hickman on business 94 and turn toward the river on state road 1354 following the signs for the ferry. The Dorena/Hickman Ferry is the best ferry ride on the river, however, the real reason for this route is to avoid driving anywhere near the paper mill south of Wickliffe Kentucky--it smells bad enough to make you puke. Take state road 77 to Dorena and turn left onto state road 102. Be sure to stop at Big Oak Tree State Park; the walk into the cypress swamp is priceless. Just outside East Prairie, turn right onto state road 80 and follow it back to 77. (The diversion onto 102 was so that you could visit the state park.) Turn left onto 77 and follow it to Wyatt where you turn right onto state road 60 and cross the bridge into Cairo.
Joe's impressions of the river:
I've lived all my life along one of the world's greatest river systems. I was born on the banks of the Allegheny river and grew up along the Ohio. When I finished college I moved to St. Louis where I've lived now for 20 odd years. The rivers have always been an important part of my life. I learned to swim in the Allegheny and as a boy I played in the Ohio. Now as an adult I have traveled along the Mississippi, the Ohio, the Allegheny, the Monongahela, the Missouri, the Wabash, the Kaskaskia, the Illinois, the Kankakee, the Wisconsin, the Platte, the Arkansas, and a few others. They are the life sustaining resource of our nation. From as far east as the Appalachian mountains and from as far west as the Idaho Rockies, these rivers come together to become The Mighty Mississippi -- The Father of Waters.
 Just like the seasons, the Mississippi changes throughout the year. It's water level rises and falls and with this change comes noticeable variations in color and current. In the same way that the seasons help us regulate our lives, the level and appearance of the Mississippi cues us into the rhythmic cycles of the year. In Summer the river level drops and the water begins to clear. In Autumn the water clears enough for the river to show blue and the current slows to a lazy pace. In late Winter the river begins to swell again and the current swirls up eddies in the river. In Spring the river runs muddy and floods. Here in St. Louis the water typically rises to cover the riverfront and L. K. Sullivan Blvd. in front of the Arch.
The Mississippi river is a landmark. It's this aspect of the river that I find most striking and most exciting. Not in the sense that I can use it to find my way home or tell from it's current which direction is south. The Mississippi is a great landmark; you can see it from space. It is one of the most recognizable features of the North American continent. When I stand on the bank of the Mississippi river I really feel like I'm standing in a special place. I want to shout out to the rest of the billions of people spread across the globe, "Yo! everybody, I'm standing on the bank of the Mississippi and you all know where that is -- well that's where I am!"
The Mississippi is also an historical landmark. Knowing that well over two hundred years ago Pere Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet arrived at the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers is one thing; standing at the very place and looking out over the two rivers is entirely another matter. It only takes a slight nudge of the imagination to see Marquette, Joliet and their native guides in canoes paddling along the shore line. The people of the past become very real when you can stand where they stood and feel the river knowing they felt it as well. The Mississippi river is a place holder in time. It flows through time and it makes time itself fluid by proximity. The Mississippi can even make fiction come alive. Scanning the bluffs just south of Hannibal I'm sure I can make out that scar in the rocks above the bushes that hide the entrance to the cave where a young gang of would be robbers swore their blood oath of loyalty. They're there now; Tom, Huck, Ben, Joe and the other boys -- as timeless as the great river that keeps their stories.
Isaac's impressions of the river:
The Mississippi is a river unlike any other in this world. Although it is chained, dammed and diked throughout its entire length, the river has it's own ideas, and when it wants to make a cut off, flood, or build up sand somewhere, no one can stop it. The Mississippi is so loaded with silt that the steamboats of the past would get clogged up with it and burst their boilers. Boats still run aground on sandbars, and a river thirsty for more silt erodes its banks, such as in Hickman Kentucky which has lately been falling into the the river.
Old Man River is the flesh and blood, the very sustenance of a mighty nation. The Mississippi's water level rises regularly every Spring. Sometimes it rises with a catastrophic effect which is felt throughout the world. Navigation becomes impossible and the flow of grain from the midwest runs dry. Everything in the way will never be seen again, millions of dollars go floating down the river, but the fertile flood plain is renewed by the muddy waters.
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