The Mississippi River has been flowing through the North American continent for hundreds of thousands of years, periodically overflowing its banks and changing its course at will and creating one of the largest and most unique waterway corridors in the world in the process. That people have attempted, much less temporarily conquered, the mighty river is one of the most impressive feats in all of human engineering. Thousands of miles of levees, dams, spillways, diversion canals, and other structures have been placed along the rivers’ course over the centuries in an effort to keep the ever-changing stream in its current channel. That man’s mastery of the river is indeed temporary was graphically revealed in a near-calamitous incident in 1973 which almost resulted in the river radically changing its course and leaving New Orleans high and dry. Capturing the story of that little-known event and placing it in the context of the ongoing fight to control the Mississippi is James F. Barnett, Jr. with Beyond Control: The Mississippi River’s New Channel to the Gulf of Mexico.
Barnett’s book, which I listened to recently to in audiobook form, takes on an inherently scientific topic and attempts to tell it in story form. Despite his best efforts there are many dull sections where phrases such as “cubic feet of water,” “hydrology,” and a range of other technical terms fill the pages. All this is context and prelude to how and why the Mississippi nearly did what it has been doing for thousands of years and almost certainly will do again despite our best efforts during a period of high water in 1973—change its course. The story of the river’s persistent attempts to take a more direct route to the Gulf of Mexico is the event around which the entire book is based, and Barnett tells it in clear and understandable fashion.
The saga centers on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Control Complex at Old River, which, in a nutshell, prevents the river from diverting itself into the Atchafalaya Basin. As Barnett explains in remarkably clear language, such an occurrence is a natural part of the river’s life cycle, as the silted-in main channel eventually overflows into a lower, steeper channel over time. These changes have happened hundreds of times over the centuries, leaving behind the tangle of oxbows that define the lower Mississippi Valley. But humans have been attempting to intervene in this natural process ever since New Orleans became one of America’s primary commercial hubs. Its port, and the settlements and farms along the river’s course above it, have only become more vital to the U.S. economy over the years, and engineers have been fighting a war with the Mississippi for determination of its course for well over a century. They managed to tame the worst of the effects of the river’s periodic floods, and thus far have successfully shackled the river to its early twentieth century course along its lower reaches.
All that nearly went out the window when the river scoured a hole beneath the main structure at the Control Complex and engineers were forced to helplessly watch to see if the river made the fateful change in course. It was an hour-by-hour drama with enormous financial stakes for the lower river region and the nation at large. Few realize just how close to disaster the region came, and how tenuous remains our control of the river today. Barnett’s book is revelatory for those with an interest in the lower Mississippi River region and a story well told given the circumstances. It is difficult if not impossible, to make such a technical story engrossing as a traditional historical narrative. The book is important, but will no doubt have a rather narrow appeal to historians due to the semi-scientific nature of the subject.
JMB
The Historians Manifesto 
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