missouri river
Exploration of new worlds is a journey that always has the potential to end in loss of life, and even disaster. The Corps of Discovery, also known as the Lewis and Clark expedition, was no different. The expedition was proceeding as planned, except for the fact that Sergeant Charles Floyd was feeling ill. The expedition left Saint Louis the previous May, enroute up the Missouri River with a party of 35 men, called the Corps of Discovery. Floyd was a native of Kentucky who had enlisted in the US military a few years earlier. When he heard that there was a call for volunteers to join the ambitious expedition across the continent to the Pacific, Floyd was one of the first men to apply. Floyd was the perfect choice for the program. He was young, vigorous, and better educated than most of the soldiers. The two co-captains not only selected him to join the mission, but they also promoted him to sergeant.
Unfortunately, Floyd’s perfect attributes could not keep him from becoming ill. As a result, his part in the great voyage of the Corps of Discovery was short-lived. In their journal, Lewis and Clark reported in July that Floyd 
“has been very sick for several days. Then it appeared that he was getting better…for a time anyway. On August 15, he was “seized with a complaint somewhat like a violent chorlick [colic]… [and] he was sick all night.” The two captains were very concerned, and did what they could for Floyd, but they were far from what little medical help might have been available in 1804. Nevertheless, Floyd continued to grow weaker.
By August 19, 1804, Floyd’s illness was growing very severe during, and Clark sat up with the suffering man almost the entire night. Unfortunately, other than being with Floyd at the end, there was nothing that could be done. Floyd died in the early afternoon of August 19th, reportedly “with a good deal of composure.” The members of the expedition buried Floyd’s body on a high bluff overlooking a river that flowed into the Missouri. At the site, they placed a red-cedar post with his name, title, and date of death over the grave. Lewis read the funeral service, and the two captains concluded the ceremony by naming the nearby stream Floyds River and the hill Floyds Bluff in honor of their young comrade.
Lewis and Clark always regretted that they possessed such limited wilderness medical skills, because they were unable to cure the young soldier. Still, even if Floyd had been in Philadelphia, it is unlikely that the best doctors of the day would have been able to save him. From the journal telling of the symptoms, it is likely that Floyd 
was suffering from acute appendicitis. His condition grew worse and worse, and when his appendix ruptured, he died quickly of peritonitis. Without modern antibiotic, and without the knowledge we have today of proper surgical procedures, there was simply no hope. Amazingly, Floyd’s was the only death the Corps of Discovery suffered in more than two years of dangerous wilderness travel. On their return journey from the Pacific in 1806, after a successful expedition, Lewis and Clark stopped at Sergeant Floyd’s grave to pay their respects.
When a river is as wide as the Mississippi, and traveling through so many states, often through flat land, the potential for flooding always exists. I know that many people who live along the Mighty Mississippi, would never consider living anywhere else. They love that old river, and having been there myself, I can certainly understand why. The river views are beautiful. Still, the yearly potential for flooding is something that might put many people off, when it comes to living on the shores of that river. Of course, people can get flood insurance, and indeed, most banks would require it for properties along that river, but the possessions lost in floods, not to mention the time it takes to rebuild the homes, and especially the lives lost in floods, make living on the shores of the Mississippi something that I would probably not decide to do.
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States, 
with 27,000 square miles inundated up to a depth of 30 feet. To try to prevent future floods, the federal government built the world’s longest system of levees and floodways. Of the more than 630,000 people affected by the flood, 94% lived in the states of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, most in the Mississippi Delta. By August 1927, the flood subsided. Hundreds of thousands of people had been made homeless and displaced…properties, livestock and crops were destroyed. Some people left the area, because they did not have the money, or the stomach for living in an area where their homes could so easily be wiped out. Still, the draw of the beautiful Mississippi kept many people there, determined to rebuild their lives. Of course, the flood didn’t only affect the people living along the Mississippi. Lost crops affected many people in the United States. It was a disaster of epic proportions.
Then came the floods of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers in 1993, also known as the Great Flood of 1993. This is one that many of us alive today remember, mostly because we were old enough to remember, but also because the television and newspapers were filled with the stories of destruction. The flood was among the most costly and devastating to ever occur in the United States, with $15 billion in damages. The damage area 
was more than 745 miles in length and 435 miles in width, totaling about 320,000 square miles. Within this zone, the flooded area totaled around 30,000 square miles and was the worst such US disaster since the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, as far as duration, area flooded, persons displaced, crop and property damage, and number of record river levels. In some ways, the 1993 flood even surpassed the 1927 flood, which was, at the time, the largest flood ever recorded on the Mississippi River. The effects were felt by people all over the United States because of crops lost, the rise in the cost of building materials, and of course, insurance rates as a result of increased building material prices. Floods are nearly impossible to prevent, and for some people they are considered a risk they are willing to take, but for me, I think I’ll stick to places where the chance of a flood hitting my home is almost nil. On October 7, 1993, the Great Flood of 1993 came to an end as the Mississippi River finally started to recede, 103 days after the flooding began.
