Another historical consideration along the southern Mississippi would have been the prevalence of mosquito born diseases like malaria, Yellow Fever, etc. People didn't really understand why they were more likely to get sick in those areas but did understand that it was unhealthy land.

@JesusFriedChrist

5 ай бұрын

“Yellow Fever” is an outdated term. We say “Asian American Fever” now.

@kam2894

5 ай бұрын

@@JesusFriedChrist lmao

@ReubyD118

5 ай бұрын

@@JesusFriedChrist Racist comment be racist... it's called that cuz you go jaundice and turn yellow...

@sterlingpratt5802

5 ай бұрын

Yeah. MS Delta native here. You couldn’t even really settle the Delta until the 20th century, and none of the towns really got going until after the Civil War. Today, the whole area is a massive feat of engineering with dams, levees, and artificial banks to try and contain the flow.

@jKLa

5 ай бұрын

According to this video, Memphis, Tennessee with a metro population oround 1.3 miillion and close to 600,000 in the city itself, and New Orleans with a 1.2 million metro are NOT a major US cities...

I saw this topic and said, to myself since nobody else is here, 'Easy, flooding."

@GothBatty

5 ай бұрын

It’s not that bad there’s no basements you build according to the land.

@ElicBehexan

5 ай бұрын

@@GothBatty well, we don't normally have basements where I'm from, but it isn't because of flooding... it is because it costs too much to excavate through the limestone that is between 6 inches to 3 feet below the ground level in most of town. Not by the river, but until they finally succeeded in taming it, flooding was a bit of a problem. Oh, and for most of the 7 years between 2 and 9 I lived in a house where there had only been a couple of inches until they came in and put down 4 inches of top soil.

@paulleavitt9550

5 ай бұрын

I’m no expert on this topic but I immediately thought the area surrounding the Mississippi River is largely a flood plain

@chrisp308

5 ай бұрын

It's because of the new Madrid earthquakes

@324bear

5 ай бұрын

@@ElicBehexan I would like a little more detail... I don't need your address, just the state... In my mind limestone is more of a northern area... But I'm not a geologist and I didn't stay in a Holiday Inn last night 🤣😂

Americans compared it to the Nile because it's a long river that supports an entire country. That's why it has cities named Memphis and Cairo.

@ghost21501

5 ай бұрын

You just blew my mind. I never put 2 and 2 together.

@I_Like_Remote_83

5 ай бұрын

my brain Right now 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

@UseByDate-Expired

5 ай бұрын

Southern Illinois is known as Little Egypt

@dakf660

5 ай бұрын

Never knew that

@andrewburcham4826

5 ай бұрын

That’s not entirely accurate. Southern Illinois is called “Little Egypt,” because the joining of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers closely resembles the Nile delta. The names of the cities, then grew from that.

As someone who lives near Memphis I don't have to even watch to tell you its flooding. The river goes above its flood plain down here almost every single year, sometimes more than once. Its the levee system and flood control reservoirs of tributaries the corp of engineers maintains that keeps it from being a major disaster every year. That said in 2011 it came just a couple of feet from over topping those levees. I was there at ground zero for work and it was some pretty wild scenes. I uploaded a video of it on here.

@perfectallycromulent

5 ай бұрын

the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers have worse flooding than the MIssissippi, and there are still hundreds of millions of people living along them.

@lamontjohnson5810

5 ай бұрын

Yeah I don't live anywhere near the Mississippi and not even in a state that borders it, but even I knew that it was due to flooding (and the unpredictable shifting of the river channel).

@areguapiri

5 ай бұрын

Rising waters is not a "disaster". It's a natural, regular occurrence.

@henrydemonfreid1985

5 ай бұрын

@@areguapiri thank you. it's humans who are the disaster!

@UserName-ts3sp

5 ай бұрын

@@areguapirii mean it can lead to serious damages and death, so yeah flooding can absolutely be a disaster.

I work on a towboat. We regularly travel the lower Mississippi River. This man is correct about the population. Basically nothing but trees, trees, and more trees.

@ericolens3

5 ай бұрын

you forgot to mention the trees.

@tinyfrog919

5 ай бұрын

@@ericolens3 😂

@jamesalexander5623

5 ай бұрын

Tree-mendous Comment!

@areguapiri

5 ай бұрын

Factories, factories, and factories. Dams, dams, and dams.

@GetThemLyrics

5 ай бұрын

There are no Dams on the Lower. But there are a few docks that we stop at to load and unload product.@@areguapiri

The city of Winnipeg is built at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. The area was a meeting place for Native populations for thousands of years, but they never built a permanent city there. When European explorers showed up, they asked what the forty foot high wooden pole that had been erected there meant. The Indians told them that marked the height of spring flooding in bad years, and that was the reason that there was no permanent Native settlement there. Did European settlers listen? No. That is the reason that there is a flood diversion ditch east of the city that required more earthmoving than the Panama canal.

@ytgytgy

5 ай бұрын

Totally same in Fargo, also dead in the middle of the red river floodplain. Way to go colonizers!

@tomthx5804

5 ай бұрын

Why the hell should they listen to savages who were living in the stone age?. Obviously people settled the Winnipeg area quite successfully. They knew how to control rivers. What a goof you are.

@blobblorg6541

5 ай бұрын

I think it actually moved less cubic meters of earth than the Panama Canal, but more than the Suez Canal. This was the second largest earthmoving project in modern human history.

@noahstevens1886

5 ай бұрын

​@@blobblorg6541 I appreciate that you qualified modern history. Ancient people did all kinds of stuff.

@virginiaoflaherty2983

5 ай бұрын

White men, bless their hearts.

Little known fact, the widest navigable part of the Mississippi River is Lake Pepin at two miles wide.

@dennislodermeier1741

5 ай бұрын

thanks, Cliffy

@user-dc1dr9kr8x

5 ай бұрын

​@@dennislodermeier1741who are 3 people who have never been in my mother's kitchen

@capps2015

8 күн бұрын

Its a mile wide plus from Cairo down.

I grew up in Memphis. I'm telling you, the Lower Mississippi area is one of the most deprived areas of the country. But aside from the poverty and infamous crime that results from said poverty, it also gets really hot in the summer thanks to the humidity being near a large river carrying most of the rainfall in North America in the South. And the mosquitos are terrible are a result. Ugh. But Memphis isn't so far south so it also gets really cold and breezy in the wintertime thanks to the flat landscape which is also made worse by the humidity. Wet cold is worse than dry cold. Oh, and the spring time, it's tornado season because it's smack dab in middle America, aka Tornado Alley. It's just not a pleasant place to live. I have a lot of good memories growing up there, but I have to admit it. it's a challenging place to live. No wonder the blues found a home there. Memphis was at least blessed with a bluff (hence its nickname the "Bluff City") that shielded it from flooding unlike other cities on the Lower Mississippi like Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Great video though. Also, just a note, Cairo, Illinois isn't pronounced like the city in Egypt, it is "CAY-ro." ;-) Cairo, IL is an interesting town historically being at the intersection of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers but a very sad place as well. It's virtually a ghost town now but declined over the decreasing importance of river transportation vs. the railroad and highways plus racial tensions and strife.

@JTA1961

5 ай бұрын

Excellent statement regarding the blues

@James-bs8bd

5 ай бұрын

Facts. Let them know

@GeraldM_inNC

5 ай бұрын

The Confederates didn't take the Union's attempt to conquer Vicksburg seriously. They assumed the Union army would not be able to deal with the heat, humidity and malaria.

@UnicornDreamsPastelSkies

5 ай бұрын

Dry cold may seem better, until one realizes how much their skin suffers if they don't stay on top of moisturizing their skin and humidifying the air. The Rocky Mountains suffer the greatest from this phenoma thanks to this plus high elevation.

@manifeststation5354

5 ай бұрын

No one is suffering in Colorado compared to Mississippi be foreal 😂

The advantage Minneapolis and St Paul and surrounding suburbs have is that, while they do have issues with regular flooding, the vast majority of their population and businesses exist high atop bluffs over the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. Those bluffs were carved out by massive flooding at the end of the last ice age.

@lewis7315

5 ай бұрын

No Ice Age, Just Noah's flood :)>

@ilikespaghetti4458

5 ай бұрын

​@@lewis7315 ...

@MrSatoshi-xn2dn

5 ай бұрын

@@lewis7315 melt water pulse 1B

@ivywoodxrecords

5 ай бұрын

That, is overly simplistic, and really only South-West Minneapolis and St. Paul proper can say that is true. Ok maybe Burnsville parts of Bloomington and definitely Edina and alright there are southern suburbs over by St Paul that yes are on high ground. But most of the west suburbs are on a rolling plain, the north suburbs the same and east toward White Bear Lake/Oakdale are the same. Maybe 25% - 35% of the area is as you say the rest is glaciated or at least north of the river and to the west.

@ivywoodxrecords

5 ай бұрын

For example, Maple Grove. Minnetonka. Anoka. Not until you get down towards Shakopee on that side do you hit any real elevation changes that you could call bluffs, and really the features you are talking about are in and around south St Paul and as I said Eagan/Edina/Ft Snelling

You'd think Cairo, Illinois would be pronounced Kai-roh like you did, but the locals actually pronounce it Kay-roh.

@deafleppard1812

5 ай бұрын

Same with Cairo New York

@deafleppard1812

5 ай бұрын

We also have Milan New York. We pronounce it as “my lan” with the A sounding like an A in Anne.

@matthewclark5879

5 ай бұрын

Geoff rarely does homework on a local scale

@JTA1961

5 ай бұрын

Syruptishisly

@TheLemon333

5 ай бұрын

Mark Twain's hometown

Just a note: Cairo, Illinois is actually pronounced like "Cay-roh." I always got it wrong too (pronouncing it like Cairo, Egypt) until a local told me how they pronounced it in the region.

@GenericUsername1388

4 ай бұрын

Here in South Africa we have a town called Alabama (It was named after CSS Alabama, a War Vessel from the US) but it's pronounced totally different to the state. My friend, a local from there told me it's pronounced "Ala-baah-ma" 😂

The Mississippi is hard to tame, she takes what she wants. I recall seeing at least a few then boomtown getting devastated by flooding, with Cairo being one of the best known examples of that

@missourimongoose8858

5 ай бұрын

I didn't know that but I drove through Cairo a few weeks ago and man it looks like 2 out of 3 buildings there are abandoned

@nothat0therguy992

5 ай бұрын

@@missourimongoose8858 Sad thing is Flooding was just the start of Cairo's problems, it's truly one of the most unlucky cities in America. Between Flooding, the reduction of shipping by water, getting bypassed by the highway system, de-industrialization, white flight and general isolation Cairo has faced problem after problem creating such a bleak outlook for the town

I grew up in Minneapolis and live in St Paul today. Essentially right on the Ole Miss near downtown. I love everything the river brings and how our metro area makes use of it.

"No major US cities" except Memphis and New Orleans.

@RamblingOmarr

3 ай бұрын

And St. Louis, And Minneapolis

You completely left out a half a million people living in the Quad Cities. The Quad Cities straddles the river; half in Iowa and half in Illinois. The Cities have survived majored flooding since the beginning. It would have been worth mentioning how they handle development and flood management.

@andrewolson1157

5 ай бұрын

I also thought it would have been interesting to note that Illinois original state capital, Kaskaskia, is now fully on the wrong side of the river. Would have fit well into the segment on political borders at the end.

@lamontjohnson5810

5 ай бұрын

I thought I was the only one that felt like some medium-sized cities were missing on the northern portion of the river. Just couldn't put my finger on it. But you did. LOL

@irelandishsac13

5 ай бұрын

Don't forget about the Government Bridge that connects Rock Island Arsenal to Illinois and Iowa.

@UseByDate-Expired

5 ай бұрын

@@andrewolson1157 part of Kentucky can only be reached through Missouri, and other parts shift between Kentucky and IL

@mostlyguesses8385

5 ай бұрын

Hmm

Growing up in Harahan, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans, I could hit the River with a rock. It was an incredible place to be a kid. Watching the ships go by, etc.

I moved away from New Orleans because of the crime. The river and flooding had nothing to do with it. Never had water in any house I ever lived in (over 60 years) and I mostly lived in Gretna which is close to the river. There was a time when New Orleans was the most populated city in the south and I'm pretty sure the river was still there.

My first thought was aren't St.Lous, Memphis and New Orleans fairly large cities? Maybe he means just south of Memphis

@jonnyfendi2003

5 ай бұрын

Yes and high crime rates.

@glennrishton5679

5 ай бұрын

Technically the river is divided into two areas The Upper Mississippi begins at Cairo IL going to the headwaters at Lake Itasca in Minnesota. The Lower River begins at Cairo and down river to the Head of the Passes just below Venice LA. Then there is the Southwest Pass some 21.8 miles to the Gulf which is transited by ships and vessels with a deeper draft. So after my long answer St Louis is part of the northers area.

Could you do a video on the New Madrid earthquake zone? I’ve read it affected the Mississippi river’s course. You do such great videos that it would be interesting to get your take on that topic!

In 1803 the Louisiana Purchase there were 1000 people living in the former Spanish village of New Madrid, Missouri. Not only floods, but 1000 earthquakes up to 8.0M between 1811-1812. 220 years later the population has only doubled.

Have you ever heard of the Jones Act? It was kinda the reason we don’t do cabotage in the US which hurts specifically the southern Mississippi River valley and the Ohio River valley.

I think it’d be cool to see a video on why the Phoenix metro has grown to be so much larger than Tucson or Las Vegas

@highway2heaven91

5 ай бұрын

Why did it grow larger? That’s a good question.

@perfectallycromulent

5 ай бұрын

only one of those cities is the capital of a state that's easy to move to from LA.

@really...8359

5 ай бұрын

vegas for a long time was only hospitality - which doesn’t pay the greatest. and also until recently people didn’t associate vegas with raising a family, they associated it with crime and casinos - not until about the 90s did people start hearing of summerlin, henderson, and spring valley as “great suburbs” tucson is a college town, and has the same vibe as a place like jackson mississippi- it’s the west coast version of a southern city. it’s hot, not much to do. phoenix - financial/tech hub, hub for several airlines, it pitched itself to snowbirds the same can be said about why most texas cities are booming but el paso hasn’t moved an inch. . .

@PhatRobsOils

5 ай бұрын

LOL Houston is out of control....@@julm7744

@lamontjohnson5810

5 ай бұрын

​@@julm7744 San Antonio isn't growing much? What? That's news to me and I live in Texas. As with most other major cities in the US since the pandemic, San Antonio proper's growth has slowed down a bit. But, it hasn't declined like some major cities have during this period. And---even with the slow down in growth, San Antonio still ranked third in overall growth betwen July 2021 and July 2022 according to the latest US Census. Only Forth Worth, TX and Phoenix, AZ, respectively, had larger numerical growth during that year. In addition, with San Antonio and Austin's metro areas merging due to their close proximity, together, they are expected to grow from 5.2 million in 2023 to 8.3 million by 2050. The growth in these two areas (and throughout the rest of the Texas Triangle) is already a major headache for the state in terms of housing and transportation infrastructure. By the way, I'm not sure where you're getting your facts about Texas cities, but a lot of major to medium-sized cities in Texs have been booming since the mid 20th century and not just Austin and Dallas, but also includes Fort Worth, Houston, Lubbock, El Paso (yes, El Paso AND Lubbock), Brownsville, Killeen, Bryan-College Station, Tyler, Laredo, Midland, etc. Of course, being as large of a state as Texas is, not all major to medium cities have seen explosive growth. That or either they have slowed down (or declined) over the past couple of decades. Such as cities like Corpus Christi, Beaumont, Waco, Wichita Falls, Amarillo, etc.

Northern areas also have access to the port of Chicago which was developed for its connection between the Mississippi drainage area and the New York region. The southern area is also depopulated due to the land being very unstable. A lot of that area is swampland with nothing to handle large structures very well without intense development.

I live in Natchez, Mississippi. The oldest settlement on the Mississippi river. Pretty cool small town. More of a retirement town now. Use to be a very rich town. Now not so much. Will never understand how anyone lived here before the invention of air conditioning. Don't really have to worry about flooding seeing how the majority of the town sits on a 200 ft bluff.

Much of this has to do with slave vs free states. The south focused on cotton and other agricultural crops while the north industrialized. That’s why the south is still behind when it comes to education, infrastructure, and will be for the foreseeable future.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the New Madrid fault.

@jonathanbowers8964

5 ай бұрын

The New Madrid Fault is kind of the "one hit wonder" of the geology world because it had a single massive earthquake in the 1810s (before much of the region was intensively colonized) and nothing of note since. While it will likely have another earthquake sometime in the future, it isn't enough to deter human settlement. Japan and Chile both have larger and more frequent earthquakes (with Japan and Chile being the Taylor Swift and Beyonce of the Earthquake world respectfully) and are more densely populated than the New Madrid fault region. The real reason that area is sparsely settled can be taken from its local name "The Bottoms" as in the frequent floods that ravage that part of the Mississippi River System.

@ericpierce3660

5 ай бұрын

@@jonathanbowers8964 Respectively. Damn autocorrect.

@Country_Bumpkin649

5 ай бұрын

@@jonathanbowers8964I was from a village about 10 miles north of new Madrid that don’t exist no more due to high river and blowing the levee. If you want to rebuild and live out there than insurance will only cover you if u build on stilts. You’re very correct

That was really interesting Geoff. I never really considered that there are so few major population centers along the Mississippi compared to other rivers

I’m from Louisiana in an area along the river, it’s industrial use keeps people away, a lot of chemical and oil refineries, the stretch from Baton Rouge and past New Orleans is called “cancer ally”

@glennrishton5679

5 ай бұрын

I've caught some really nice catfish around the Grain elevators but sure as hell not going to eat them, no telling what the chemical plants may have added to the water.

@dalegoff219

5 ай бұрын

Yep. I'm in one of those plants daily, across the river from BR. They're an economic boon for the region, but at what cost?

I forgot Minneapolis metro had almost 4 million people. Proud to be the leading city on the Mississippi

@JTA1961

5 ай бұрын

You can keep your winters

@paulleavitt9550

5 ай бұрын

Also the setting for The Mary Tyler Moore show

@nickpavia9021

4 ай бұрын

They are really stretching the definition of what is considered part of the "metro" when they say it has a population of 4 million

@louieharperspring

4 ай бұрын

literally, the main city has 800k.@@nickpavia9021

@Compucles

4 ай бұрын

@@nickpavia9021 That's not too far off. The Minneapoilis-St. Paul MSA has about 3.7 million people, while the St. Louis MSA has about 2.8 million.

Ouch. I grew up in Vicksburg. On the river in Mississippi. But yeah, it was only 33,000 people when I lived there, and just over 20,000 now.

@jamesalexander5623

5 ай бұрын

Vicksburg now is just a Civil War Museum! .... But a Beautiful One!

Im from Mississippi, the ms delta (or the ms-yazoo alluvial plain). The delta is the poorest region of the poorest state. Lots of antebellum mansions there were built on mounds bc of the flooding. And the few ppl that can afford a home much less to build one there, build theirs on hills and mounds too. better than getting out sandbags every year. When i was lil we lived not 400 yrds away from the yazoo. We moved down river closer to Jackson so my dad could get a better job. But overall in Mississippi and along the ms river theres no economic opportunities, schools suck, nothing to do (paradise if u love to hunt & fish), mosquitos, humid climate, its the bible belt & conservative (if those r personally a problem), theres tornadoes, flooding and/or hurricanes.

1:33 With parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan

I'm from New Orleans and have lived here all my life. I really want my city to be this great, huge population center, but I think our heyday is behind us-- especially after Katrina.

@voiceofreason2674

5 ай бұрын

Our best days are not behind us, with our port were basically operating at baseline right now.

@dalegoff219

5 ай бұрын

With Landry coming in, I'm worried any changes for the "better" are gonna be at the expense of the residents. Landry's cronyism is gonna make Edwin Edwards look like an amateur.

@roberthussey595

Ай бұрын

@@dalegoff219 - I call Jeff Landry - PeeWee Herman… Electing the former Attorney General is going to be seen as the worst move the voters of LA have ever made

My wife and I were guests at the Lewis and Clark reenactment 20 years ago near St Louis. The couple we knew in nearby Illinois, the husband's Father was a member of the reenactment on one of the Keel boat replicas like in the original expedition. We also visited the museum nearby.😊

You should do an in-depth video about the old river control structure along the Mississippi which keeps the river from diverting to the Atchafalaya river. If it wasn’t for human intervention the Mississippi would literally change course. The book “The Control of Nature” goes in depth about this topic along with more ways humans try to control the Mississippi River

@glennrishton5679

5 ай бұрын

That is a great book. John McPhee writes some very fascinating books on a variety of subjects. Imagine an entire book on oranges or birch bark canoes.

@dalegoff219

5 ай бұрын

And that actually diverts about 25% of the Mississippi's flow into the Atchafalaya River and Basin. Without the ORCS being in place, New Orleans would STILL be devastated from Katrina. The Basin bridge is probably one of my favorite stretches of roadI've driven.

Great video! Another factor might be the construction of railroads (and later highways) that reduce the necessity of being on a major river for trade. Chicago is probably the best example of a railroad-era metropolis in the US, and notably right on the doorstep of the Mississippi basin without actually being on the river. I wonder if you could argue that Houston does something similar for the lower Mississippi basin?

The land next to a river is called the floodplain. The name should probably suggest that one should not build a city there.

@Odin029

5 ай бұрын

New Orleans sits at what was the most ideal portage location between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain so it had to be where it is, and Memphis is called Bluff City for a reason. It's literally built on the bluffs along the riverbank. Even with the elevation Memphis is sometimes at risk of flooding.

I grew up on the Mississippi camping and swimming and fishing and boating. It really was a blessing. And particularly the Minnesota Wisconsin border. Shout out to all my Midwestern folks: you really are friendly and beautiful

@Abhishek-iu5ju

4 ай бұрын

Rechel

This is not surprising at all. Most major rivers have only a few major cities on them. The reasons are manifold: 1. Major rivers tend to have large lowlands that are poorly suited for major cities. 2. Major rivers tend to have periodic catastrophic floods that cost lives and fortunes. 3. Major rivers have numerous access points, allowing commerce to be spread out along its length rather than concentrated. 4. Major rivers tend to have few of any falls that would provide natural concentration points for commerce. 5. Major rivers tend to have navigable tributaries that allow for commercial traffic to push deeper into the continent before disembarking. These factors usually mean that a major river will have a city located near the mouth that serves as an ocean port and a city located near the navigable head that serves as a land port, with few cities in between. Cities will instead be located on the navigable tributaries, especially near their falls, navigable heads, or other points of commercial concentration. Viewed this way, the Lower Mississippi is actually noteworthy for having such large cities like Baton Rouge and Memphis, rather than a lack of cities.

Great video as usual ! Thanx a lot ! May God bless you always !

Great video, learned something tonight, thanks

I'm from Northeast Arkansas, part of the Delta. Besides all the obvious farming exports we have, we're a small town county, that produces more steel than Pittsburgh. We've got Nucor, US Steel, and Tenaris. And they all use the river to ship.

@777macdude

5 ай бұрын

blytheville, Osceola???

@dalegoff219

5 ай бұрын

I did a job once at a NUCOR in the Arkansas portion of the ArkLaTex, in the middle of winter. 20° outside, and about 120° inside. 🤣

The current and former residents of Valmeyer, IL, can answer THAT question. As can anyone who lived along the Mississippi River in 1993.

@fxrivrgirl

5 ай бұрын

Flood of 93 water flooded pictures of the river level just below electric lines 8-9 miles inland across from Warsaw IL on east side of Mississippi on the Missouri side. Wayland MO sl elevated from that long flood plain. It wiped small towns completely off the maps on the Illinois side....

@flamingvans1135

5 ай бұрын

@@fxrivrgirl It was a mindblower to see the new post-1993 town of Valmeyer, moved to a bluff above the river, while the few remaining riverside Valmeyer buildings sit abandoned. There hasn't been a series of rains like that since then, but with weather, there's always a chance.

I seem to always find myself on your page. Thanks for all the great info!

Great video Geoff. Awesome maps and graphics.

Nice Information!!!

I luv your channel. Well presented, educational, enjoyable and accessible to all age groups. Thanks.

I still remember the floods of 93(?), drove through St Louis, months after the worst of it, & the water was still up to the 2nd stories of the factories along the river. Kinda blew my mind as a young adult.

Nice job as always

Fun fact because of NYC more people live on the Hudson

Interesting. Thank you 👍

9:19 *FOODING*

I'm from a small town in Eastern Arkansas that is directly on the banks of the mighty Mississippi. I have very fond memories growing up near Ole man River.

Please consider doing a video on what the United States would look like if state lines were decided by watersheds

@breadjesus8289

5 ай бұрын

Yes

@alissaharris8035

5 ай бұрын

As they should be ! You cannot control water.

My old college roommate was from Washington County Mississippi which is north of Vicksburg. I remember him telling me it's humid as hell and the region is full of poverty.

Maybe just a coincidence but a lot of major cities along the Mississippi are some of the most violent cities in the US. St. Louis, Memphis, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, usually make it to the lists of top 10 cities with highest crime rate not to mention smaller cities like East St. Louis and Cairo. The only exception sort of is Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Great info.

Respect for the dedication you put in with Aftereffects

The graphics of the tributaries and state boundaries were impeccable 👌🏾👏🏾

I really enjoyed this video.

You are a very good speaker.

It's "I" - tasca. Not "E" - tasca. Edit: also surprised you didn't mention the Quad Cities as "major cities" in the northern half of the Mississippi.

@tyrepair

5 ай бұрын

It almost sounded like he said “It”-aska. I could see how someone might make that mistake if they didn’t know.

You keep saying that there are “No major cities” off the southern shores of the Mississippi, but then you refer to St. Louis as a major city. St. Louis has 293,000 residents, while New Orleans (on the shores of the southern Mississippi) has 377,000 residents and Memphis has 630,000 residents. That’s very inconsistent.

So, Memphis, Tennessee which is along the Southern half of the Mississippi river population, roughly 600,000 and with a metro of around 1.3 million, is not a major US city to you... Really???

Fun fact I only know cause this video made me curious. South America has 5 of the 10 largest rivers (when measured by volume). On top of that that the Amazon puts out 5times more water than the second largest river and 80 times more water than the Nile, which is the only river comparable in length to the Amazon.

I remember like 3 yrs ago 2 boys (16 & 21 yrs old) went duck hunting or scouting near Vicksburg. They didnt come home, bodies were never found. 1 of them took their lab with them, poor puppy disappeared too. they used their other lab that didnt go hunting to search for them. I think they found their boat and some life jackets washed up. Was a big deal in central ms. I remember it bc my brother and dad duck hunt, we've had labs all my life, and the boys were mine and my brothers age. This was in December and it was unusually consistently cold that year. That following February we got that wild ice storm (the one that almost took out texas). I think they stopped looking for the boys at Christmas. They most likely drowned and it coulda been prevented had they worn lifejackets. And the water that day was below freezing. They definitely fell out, got exhausted and drowned trying to swim to the boat or bank. Labs r made for the water, cold water too and it most likely had a vest on to keep it warm. The dog probably couldnt make it either. Should respect the rivers, ESPECIALLY the Mississippi. It is a monster. Its fast and huge. Never catch me not wearing a life jacket on the Mississippi in a damn john boat. edit: i just did some reading about it, the boat hit rocks and they found boots. Its a death sentence to jump in deep water with boot or waiters on. I think 1 of them fell out and the other took his boots off before jumping out to help

@glennrishton5679

5 ай бұрын

I was reading a notice some years ago from the Coast Guard an interesting fact. The majority of men who go out in their boats fishing/hunting and never returning their bodies are found and their zippers are down. The stood up in their boat to urinate and fell overboard.

@Ad-qt8lx

5 ай бұрын

@@glennrishton5679 yea that makes sense.

The St. Louis metro areas last large flooding was actually from the Missouri River, less than 5 river miles from its confluence. The COE has levied the Mississippi river north of St. Louis to minimize flooding. But once you get south of St. Louis the flood plain widens dramatically.

the new logo is so simple and so beautiful

Grew up in St Louis and lived in Mpls for 18 years. The River has been a part of my life since I was born. The recent droughts were disheartening.

“Smarter everyday” with Geoff!!

I believe you missed the Minnesota River which flows into the Mississippi at Fort Snelling. The Minnesota River connects with the Red River which was a trade route to Hudson Bay.

Hey Geoff awesome video, for Cairo Illinois though, a lot of the reason it is so spare was white flight in the 60's as it was not a big city then it was certainly a much larger city, and it was growing.

South Carolina and Georgia is separated by water as well. The longest stretch, which is the Savanah River. And there are parts in which is the same as you was saying about the state on the other side (esculades).I all ways wonder why 🤔. But it makes sense now that you explained it for the Mississippi River

Ha I live 6 miles from Bellevue IA on the illinois side but it's so rural here I have to drive over 40 miles to get to Bellevue to access the closest bridge to me.

During spring when snowmelt or Midwest flooding makes its way down the river to the Gulf, I have seen the river at the TOP of the levee. Here in Baton Rouge

Memphis? Baton Rouge? New Orleans? I get these are not like Dallas-levels of 'major' but they're still along the river down south.

Nice. Piece, As a little fun -fact is that broadcast station call signs or station signs begin with a letter W for stations located on the east side of the Mississippi River , Fior example WABC RADIO AND TELEVISION NM OVER THERE IN NEW YORK CITY , Or KFI RADIO IN LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA , WGN television in Chicago, Illinois , This was done so that the federal communications commission could easily determine where any given broadcast station was located

@UserName-ts3sp

5 ай бұрын

and then of course you have the oddballs like KDKA in pittsburgh

@Lee-jh6cr

4 ай бұрын

I live on the river and these designations are evident here. I've always wondered why W and K?

@interwebtubes

4 ай бұрын

Gotcha, Please remember to keep your hands clean and washed up at all times so that you can protect your health, Stay safe buddy and thanks for your feedback

@UserName-ts3sp

4 ай бұрын

@@Lee-jh6cr i looked it up. the US was given certain letters for radio communications. W, K, N and A. N and A are used for military, so you see W and K for radio and tv

@Lee-jh6cr

4 ай бұрын

Thanx for checking! It was late and I was too tired. Where I live we have several radio stations - W on the east side of the river & K on the west. And now to check what is done N of Itasca, , ,

Interesting!

Do the rest of the megapolis series.....please

to reduce the risk of flooding, buid terps. use the ground next to the terp, to make a channel, for drainage, and transport. and voila after some time there will be a city. areas where it was in the past difficult to build a city, can be now a solution, for 1. overpopulation, and 2. the utility to manage new resources. like building on raised houses, and use the ground level only for transportation.

While the northern/central stretch of the Mississippi River is more inhabited than the southern, the only really big metro areas even there are St. Louis and Minneapolis/St. Paul. The biggest metro areas in between - the Quad Cities (Davenport/Rock Island/Moline/Bettendorf) and Dubuque - are much smaller, and are a good deal smaller than New Orleans, Memphis, or even Baton Rouge.

The region was unavailable to American settlement prior to the Louisiana Purchase. And after the Purchase most settlement went west. So there were never really any movement of peoples up the river that way from New Orleans, they were all streaming west first towards St. Louis and then further west towards Oregon and California. They went across land, and most movement coming from the northeast, came across land routes over the Appalachians, through the Cumberland Gap, and into the Midwest. Not on ships to New Orleans and then up the river. That was the difference. And lets face it Middle America has never really been a draw for large scale migration, really ever. Besides Chicago and rust belt cities, maybe the Northwest Territories of Minnesota Wisconsin, and of course farm land all across the grain belt but the Mississippi floodplain, was mostly a highway, and people didnt really stop off too many places to see the sights. Those were wild places in wild times, and people kept moving. West. Not north south. Thats America.

Let’s oversimplify this…it’s a floodplain, the bottoms, bottom land, etc…

Can you do a episode on the Carbiou Region of BC Canada.

@pleasegodkillme

5 ай бұрын

The Athabasca-Mackenzie watershed area could support a vast population. Even in the cold.

Great video, Geoff. One small correction. The town at the confluence of the hit and Mississippi is pronounced CARE-o.

I feel compelled to point out that Itasca is pronounced "ai-tasca" like "ai" similar to "eye".

Since when are Memphis and New Orleans not major cities?

@mister.sinister18

5 ай бұрын

Since always

@highlymedicated2438

5 ай бұрын

​​@@mister.sinister18 But they are a major city. Even if they're only considered a major city in the state

@mister.sinister18

5 ай бұрын

@highlymedicated2438 Maybe in the past they were major cities but not anymore

@forgottenplaces9780

5 ай бұрын

@@mister.sinister18 anything over 100k is a major city imo, memphis is over 600k and new orleans is 376k, even Baton Rouge is over 200k per us census, this guy just ignores that to fit his narrative

Good Haircut Jeff!

I grew up in Davenport, Iowa ❤❤ Beautiful floods ‘65 , ‘79 , 93 lol😊

8:05 Content actually begins here

Also… a video about Cavelier and his geological “discoveries” would be cool

Geoff, your hair looks great in this video!

I never realized Memphis wasn't a major city.

Since the river goes from north to south, and more tributary rivers and groundwater contribute to the river the further south you go, the river to the north is smaller and more tame, while to the south, the river is bigger and has more water and therefore more flooding.

3:25 You could have mentioned that it is connected to the Great Lakes and was a major contributor to the growth of Chicago and the Midwest.

@Compucles

4 ай бұрын

Although, it's only connected due to a canal.

At (9:17) “Less prone to FOODING.”

Of course few people want to live in a flood zone, rich farm land is too important to cover up with concrete and asphalt. Build on the high ground on river bluffs makes sense.

Love the content. Is it possible to add metric measurements such as kilometres along side miles ?😅

@WilliBond0007

5 ай бұрын

We don't use those on our planet. I'm joking, it's a 3/5 ratio and somewhat easy to reckon.

Mr. G, Can you do one about the north east of US, NH, Maine, etc.

The southern Mississippi is scary the flooding is insane