Business and Industry
 How will our waterways look fifty, one hundred, or 200 years from now?

When paddling down our major rivers I gain a wondrous perspective of America’s history.

From canoes carrying furs, to lumber milling on major tributaries, to steel barges bearing the grain of multinational corporations, these advancements may best describe the evolution of business and industry along our major riverways.

After the exploitation of its natural resources, it was the invention of railroads that began to take a toll on our river cities booming economies. Our rivers’ meandering curves took too long to navigate, when compared to straightforward railway routes followed by a much quicker interstate highway system. Business and industry quickly tired of our rivers’ unpredictability, often manifested by occasional sediment blockage or low waters during times of drought.

When I look over the river’s bank above, I am awestruck by the sight of towering grain silos, financial institutions, luxury condominiums, and smokestacks of our power industry, all serving as a backdrop for the diesel powered tugs pushing their commodity laden barges along these watery routes made possible by the engineering marvel of our U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

While seeing this, I reflect on a time not long ago. A time when a young Indian boy might stand alongside his mother looking over this same river teeming with fish, and a nearly infinite supply of fresh water needed for cooking, drinking and the gathering of edible plants. How they must have marveled at the adjacent valley’s vast forest, abundant with game.

I wonder; what will this same river valley look like fifty, one hundred, or 200 years from now?