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Does the Mississipi/Missouri River and its tributaries have a sort of water borne equivalent to RVing, trailer park camping, general vagabondish, nomadic wandering lifestyle sub culture?
Since the creation of our interstate, and likely before, there is a subculture of people traveling from place to place in an RV/Trailer, and just seeing and experiencing different places. Its mostly retirees, or homeless people that do this. There are even YTers doing this. Nikki Delventhal lives out of her Prius as she drives around the country. Most recently there is that murder case of the couple from Long Island as they travel the country in a van.
The Mississippi/Missouri, and its tributaries are just a water highway. You can actually take it to even more places than a road system because you can sail into the ocean to other continents. Does America's river system have the equivalent? Meaning people living on their boats and just sailing upstream to various cities for what I guess is a permanent vacation.
What is the ferry system like? Is it busy, or just too slow to be feasible? The Mississippi/Missouri, and its tributaries can bring you to a lot of places in the interior. Starting at Nawleans, you can go to Memphis, STL, Quad Cities, Chicago, and Minneapolis. Heading east, you get Nashville, Indianapolis, Louisville, Cincy, Columbus, PBurg. Heading West, you have KC, Omaha, OKC, Wichita, Denver, Billings MT, Bakken formation.
The only downside is likely the speed of travel. What is the speed limit on these rivers? Or are most of the tributaries unnavigable? Besides visiting the US interior, they can sail into Gulf of Mexico and anywhere in the world. Seems like a better deal than living out of a camper van. Boats are usually more spacious.
The Mississippi north of St. Louis is controlled by locks and dams so one would have to be willing to work their way up and down that portion in stages rather than free range drifting like Huck Finn. A small boat can go up the Missouri River quite some distance before hitting a dam. The Ohio would have various obstacles. The Tennessee River has hydroelectric dams. The Osage has a dam for Lake of the Ozarks. The Illinois also has locks and dams heading up to Chicago. The lower part of the Mississippi and Missouri would be clear but still have hazards. Those are big and powerful rivers with wing dikes and a lot of barge traffic so not recommended for casual boaters who might not know the river. In places it is quite industrial.
I lived in river towns in Missouri and very few locals ventured out or considered the big rivers as recreational opportunities. Of course we had the Ozark rivers for floating and fishing in our backyard.
There's a sub culture of boaters in Florida. No one even thinks about it. Most of them have really nice boats. However I did run into a cat blow boater in Staniel Cay https://stanielcay.com/ one year. He was a bar beggar, if you know what I mean. Harmless guy, great sailor, fun to be around, had little or no money. Knew every bar game in the world and would win all the time. Kept him in cold beer.
The most I've heard about are loopers who try to sail down the Mississippi and then loop around the US and re-enter the Mississippi via the Great Lakes. From what it sounds like, there aren't that many marinas on the southern part of the Mississippi, so they generally cut through the Tenn-Tom to reach the Gulf. It'd probably take a serious implementation of "America's Marine Highway" to incentivize more fueling stations to sustain a bigger river culture. And that would require a reworking of the 100+ year old Jones Act to get off the ground.
The Mississippi north of St. Louis is controlled by locks and dams so one would have to be willing to work their way up and down that portion in stages rather than free range drifting like Huck Finn. A small boat can go up the Missouri River quite some distance before hitting a dam. The Ohio would have various obstacles. The Tennessee River has hydroelectric dams. The Osage has a dam for Lake of the Ozarks. The Illinois also has locks and dams heading up to Chicago. The lower part of the Mississippi and Missouri would be clear but still have hazards. Those are big and powerful rivers with wing dikes and a lot of barge traffic so not recommended for casual boaters who might not know the river. In places it is quite industrial.
I lived in river towns in Missouri and very few locals ventured out or considered the big rivers as recreational opportunities. Of course we had the Ozark rivers for floating and fishing in our backyard.
Ok so its all barricaded up. But there must have been a time when the rivers where used like highways. How else all those major cities develop along the banks. Was it around the time they completed the railroads, the rivers got boarded up?
Ok so its all barricaded up. But there must have been a time when the rivers where used like highways. How else all those major cities develop along the banks. Was it around the time they completed the railroads, the rivers got boarded up?
If the dams are built for navigation purposes there will be locks that boats can pass through, like the Panama Canal. When I lived along the lower Missouri River the Corps of Engineers tried to keep a nine foot channel open for navigation. A small boat can pass with no problem but barges and tow boats might plow through the muck in places. The Mississippi upstream from the confluence with the Missouri River needs the dams and locks to impound enough water year round for navigation.
In the 1800s and much of the 1900s there were boats going all through the larger tributaries. Towns grew up along rivers due, in part, because of river transportation. The railroads often followed the relatively flat river valleys to those same towns and the routine river traffic diminished. River travel by steamboat was hazardous due to changing channels, new sand bars and islands, and snags that would rip open the hull and sink the boat in minutes. The steam engine might blow up or set fire to the wooden ship. The railroad seemed safer for passenger travel. Riverboats and barges continued for cargo.
I grew up near the Mississippi River and there is plenty of commercial river traffic. When I first moved near the Missouri River in the 1970s there was less but still you would see it every day and sometimes hear a boat horn. Now it is rare to see a tow boat with barges. I can't recall when I last saw one. There are a few work boats and dredges on the river.
If you ever get to Kansas City you might enjoy the Steamboat Arabia Museum.
What is the ferry system like? Is it busy, or just too slow to be feasible? The Mississippi/Missouri, and its tributaries can bring you to a lot of places in the interior. Starting at Nawleans, you can go to Memphis, STL, Quad Cities, Chicago, and Minneapolis. Heading east, you get Nashville, Indianapolis, Louisville, Cincy, Columbus, PBurg. Heading West, you have KC, Omaha, OKC, Wichita, Denver, Billings MT, Bakken formation.
Ferry system? I'm not sure if you're under the impression that we don't have modern infrastructure in the interior of the country, but we do in fact cross rivers on bridges.
Ferry system? I'm not sure if you're under the impression that we don't have modern infrastructure in the interior of the country, but we do in fact cross rivers on bridges.
I dont mean ferries to get across river, but to go upstream and downstream from city to city.
I dont mean ferries to get across river, but to go upstream and downstream from city to city.
Ferries are not used for that, they are just used to Cary people across water at the shortest part, not up and down water ways. What you are thinking of are river cruises which exist on the Mississippi and it’s tributaries, the longest being from New Orleans up to St. Paul taking 22 days and 21 nights.
There's a sub culture of boaters in Florida. No one even thinks about it. Most of them have really nice boats. However I did run into a cat blow boater in Staniel Cay https://stanielcay.com/ one year. He was a bar beggar, if you know what I mean. Harmless guy, great sailor, fun to be around, had little or no money. Knew every bar game in the world and would win all the time. Kept him in cold beer.
They also have access to the intracoastal waterway that extends from Boston down to Brownsville Texas.
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