appendix e historical and cultural resources

Feasibility Report with Integrated Environmental Assessment

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Appendix E

Historical and Cultural Resources


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UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER RESTORATION SYSTEM FEASABILITY REPORT

WITH INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT

HARLOW ISLAND HABITAT REHABILIATION AND ENHANCEMENT PROJECT

MIDDLE MISSISSIPPI RIVER MILES 140.5 THROUGH 144.0

JEFFERSON COUNTY, MISSOURI

APPENDIX E

HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL RESOURCES


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 GENERAL CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL SETTING ...................................................... 1

2 SPECIFIC PROJECT AREA HISTORY ................................................................................ 1

2.1 Geomorphological History ....................................................................................... 1

2.2 Prehistoric Land Use ............................................................................................... 5

2.3 Historic Land Use .................................................................................................... 5

3 SHIPWRECK INVENTORY ................................................................................................. 7

4 POTENTIAL EFFECT ON CULTURAL RESOURCES ........................................................ 7

5 CONSULTATIONS .............................................................................................................. 8

6 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................... 8

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. 1880 MRC Chart Showing Project Boundary .................................................................. 2

Figure 2. 1908 Board of Examination and Survey of Mississippi Map (Charts 4 and 5) Showing Project Boundary ............................................................................................................................ 2

Figure 3. 1925 Aerial Photograph Showing Project Boundary ....................................................... 3

Figure 4. 1935 Aerial Photo Showing Project Boundary ................................................................ 3



Figure 7. 1844 Plat Map Showing Project Boundary ...................................................................... 6

Figure 8. 1876 Plat Map Showing Project Boundary ...................................................................... 6

Figure 9. Rush Tower, circa 1990 ....................................................................................................7


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USACE | Historical and Cultural Appendix E E-1

1 GENERAL CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL SETTING

Documentation of the Mississippi River Valley prehistoric and historical sequence is extensive and only a brief outline is presented here. Prehistoric human occupation of the area is generally broken into four inclusive periods: Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian. Each period is characterized by differing degrees of social complexity and by changes in subsistence technologies and pursuits. The Paleo-Indian period represents the first populating of North America. The earliest evidence for the occupation of the mid-continental United States appears as fluted points made around 13,500 to 12,700 years ago (Morrow 2014; Fiedel 1999). Paleo-Indians are generally characterized as smaller groups of hunters and gatherers following migrating herds of large game. The period lasted until the end of the Wisconsin glaciation around 8000 B.P. when the stabilizing climate promoted the different ecological adaptations of the Archaic period. While hunting and gathering continued, people began to cultivate native plants. Larger communities formed as increasingly sedentary culture developed. The subsequent Woodland culture (1000 B.C. to 900 A.D.) is characterized by the widespread use of pottery, ever increasing reliance on agriculture, and development of long-distance trade. The socioeconomic traits generally ascribed to the following Mississippian period (900 to 1400 A.D.) include intensive agricultural adaptations, the appearance of large fortified towns, construction of pyramidal mounds, increased interregional trade, and a highly stratified sociopolitical organization. The most elaborate and famous expression of the culture is the extensive settlement of Cahokia Mounds located on the American Bottom near modern Collinsville, Illinois.

The historical period begins with European exploration of the Middle Mississippi and the voyage of Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet down the river in 1673. A trading establishment and mission were built at “Grand Village of the Illinois” in 1675. Kaskaskia was established in 1703, Sainte Genevieve around 1750, and St Louis in 1764. For much of the 18th and 19th centuries, commerce on the river was driven by the fur trade, and there was some limited traffic in salt and lead. Along with increasing development of the region, the introduction of steamboats in the early 19th century greatly expanded both the volume of trade in general commodities and transportation for people. The number of vessels engaged increased yearly along with their size and the number of round trips each took (Haites and Mak 1971).

2 SPECIFIC PROJECT AREA HISTORY

2.1 Geomorphological History

Harlow Island is a relatively recent landform. The 1880 Mississippi River Commission (MRC) chart shows its current location was then occupied by the Mississippi River, sandbanks, and the small Perry Towhead (Figure 1). During the last quarter of the 19th century, however, sediment rapidly accreted to form the island. By 1908 it covered over 1000 acres and was separated from the Missouri by only a narrow chute (Figure 2). This landform stayed relatively unchanged though the first half of the 20th century (e.g., Figure 3 and Figure 4). Sometime prior to 1965 a dike (i.e., a hurdle) was built from the bankline to an emergent towhead about halfway down its length (Figure 5). Additional dikes were subsequently constructed and sediment accreted in the dike field. A new side channel developed between the circa 1965 island and the accreted land (Figure 6).


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Figure 1. 1890 MRC Chart Showing Project Boundary

Figure 2. 1908 Board of Examination and Survey of Mississippi Map (Charts 4 and 5) Showing Project Boundary


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Figure 3. 1925 Aerial Photograph Showing Project Boundary

Figure 4. 1935 Aerial Photo Showing Project Boundary


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2.2 Prehistoric Land Use

There is no known prehistoric occupation on Harlow Island. Given its relatively recent formation it is implausible that any prehistoric sites are located anywhere in the project area. Notably, while the Perry towhead visible on the 1880 MRC chart grew into becoming Harlow Island, its original location was largely lost to the river by the 1920s before essentially reappearing once more in the 1930s. No archaeological surveys have been conducted within the project area.

2.3 Historic Land Use

The earliest (1844) plat for the project area records no island (Figure 7). A subsequent 1876 plat map of Jefferson County provides more details, but still shows no island at the location (Figure 8). A plat a number of lots are shown within the southern extent of the project boundary below the bluffs, but this is likely a cartographical error given the landscape configuration on the much better surveyed MRC chart. As on the MRC chart, however, “Ben. F. England” is identified as the major landowner in the immediate vicinity of the project area. England was born on the Plattin Creek, Jefferson County, Illinois, in March of 1843. At seventeen he began operating a farm that he sold after several years at a good profit. In the late 1860s, after first unsuccessfully looking for appropriate land in Arkansas, England acquired 1700 acres in the vicinity of Rush Tower (Goodspeed 1888:886). He built a dwelling, store, warehouse, and grain depot in the hamlet. He also served as its postmaster for a number of years.

Rush Tower, located where Muddy Creek debouches from the Missouri bluffs directly on the western boarder of the project area (see Figure 8), was an important river landing during the 19th century. The second post office of Jefferson County was opened there on May 23, 1813, by Andrew Fight (Thomas 1909:206). “Rush” was reportedly the name of an island in the Mississippi adjacent to the landing (perhaps an alternative name for the MRC map’s Perry towhead) and “Tower” refers to the shot towers built at the site. The towers, used for the manufacture of musket balls, were located along the river bluffs to the north of the hamlet. Their remains, however, were not located during a 1993 reconnaissance survey (Harl and Naglich 1993:193-97).

The hamlet was used as a primary shipping point for lead. Some 86,709,600 pounds were shipped from Selma, Rush Tower, and Pattin Rock (Crystal City) between 1824 and 1854 (Goodspeed 1888:368-69). The area was also known for its fine farms and it was claimed that more wheat was shipped from Rush Tower than from any other landing on the Missouri side of the river between St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve (Brink 1876:18). In 1875 over 30,000 bushels of wheat were shipped from Ben England’s grain depot alone (Goodspeed:887).

With the opening of the St, Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway in the 1880s (later St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad River Division), Rush Tower lost its prominence as a river landing. Indeed from then on, the rapid development of Harlow Island precluded it being used as one. The hamlet, however, had a renewed lease on life as a railroad depot (Figure 9). The post office closed in 1957 and the site was abandoned.

The 1908 Board of Examination map shows the newly formed Harlow Island as unoccupied and vegetated by willows. The portion of the project area to the south west of the island’s chute was under cultivation. No structures are indicated anywhere. By 1925, however, portions of the island itself were farmed (Figure 3). By the 1980s the majority of the island was being farmed (Figure 6). The land was acquired by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service in 1996 and taken out of cultivation.


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Figure 7. 1844 Plat Map Showing Project Boundary

Figure 8. 1876 Plat Map Showing Project Boundary


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Figure 9. Rush Tower, circa 1990

3 SHIPWRECK INVENTORY

Between July and December of 1988, when the Mississippi River was at a particularly low level, the St. Louis District Corps of Engineers conducted aerial surveys of exposed wrecks between Saverton, Missouri, and the mouth of the Ohio River. Thirty four (34) historic wrecks were documented at that time (Norris 2003). Since then, the Corps database has been updated when new wrecks are reported or when research provides new information on wreck location. A separate database of modern (i.e., metal) wrecked or abandoned vessels (including barges), which may pose a risk to navigation is also maintained by the Corps. The combined total of mapped locations is ninety (90). The nearest known historic wreck to the project areas is five and a half miles away. The side channel to be partially excavated as a backwater developed during the middle of the 20th century and so is very unlikely to be the location of any unknown watercraft.

4 POTENTIAL EFFECT ON CULTURAL RESOURCES

Most of the project features are located on new land that has accredited since the 1890s. Part of the proposed deflection berm is positioned on what was mapped in 1879 as low, mid-river, sandbars. The one named island on the MRC map, Perry Towhead, had largely been washed away by 1908. The area of proposed excavation for a backwater is a side channel which formed in the mid-20th century.

Given the recent formation of the landform, the documented geomorphological history of the area, and the lack of any survey evidence for extant wrecks, it is our opinion that the proposed undertaking will have no significant effect on cultural resources.


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5 CONSULTATIONS

On 25 August 2015 a tribal consultation letter outlining the project was sent to the 28 federally recognized tribes affiliated with the St. Louis District. Five tribes responded with no objections being raised. On 27 January 2017, a letter was sent to the Missouri State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO), initiating consultation under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended (NHPA). In a letter dated 10 February 2017, SHPO replied concurrent with the Corps’ “no historic properties affected” determination.

6 REFERENCES

Brink, M. &. (1876). An Illustrated Historical Atlas Map Jeffereson County, MO. Philadelphia.

Fiedel, S. J. (1999). Older Than we Thought: Implications of Corrected Dates for Paleoindians. American Antiquity, 64(1):95-115.

Goodspeed Publishing Company. (1888). History of Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Crawford and Gasconade Counties Missouri. Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Company.

Haites, E. F., & Mak, J. (1971). Steamboating on the Mississippi, 1810-1860: A Purely Competative Industry. The Business History Review, 45(1):52-78.

Harl, J., & Naglich, D. (1993). Cultural Resources Review and Reconnaissance Survey Along the Western Portion of the Central Mississippi River Valley, St. Louis and Jeffereson Counties, Missouri. Report No. 174, Archaeological Survey, Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, St. Louis.

Morrow, J. E. (2014). Early Paleoindian Mobility and Watercraft: An Assessment from the Mississippi River Valley. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, 39(2):103-129.

Norris, T. (2003). Historic Shipwrecks on the Middle Mississippi and Lower Illinois Rivers. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis.

appendix e historical and cultural resources

Documents