Snapshots of the Mississippi
![Mississippi River](https://i0.wp.com/edgeeffects.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/CoverImage.jpg?resize=720%2C340&ssl=1)
[Dear Edge Effects readers: today marks the beginning of our summer schedule. Until the end of August, we’ll be publishing once a week, on Tuesdays.]
Last week, faculty and graduate students from the UW-Madison Center for Culture, History, and Environment and the Rachel Carson Center in Munich embarked on a six-day trip down the Mississippi River. Beginning in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin and making it all the way to St. Louis, Missouri, the group pursued multiple ways of thinking about a river, ranging from geomorphology and political economies to food, native histories, literature, and music.
Several members of the Edge Effects editorial board—Daniel Grant, Elizabeth Hennessy, Nathan Jandl, Eric Nost, and Rebecca Summer—were part of the trip; here we share a small selection of our photographs documenting the experience. Stay tuned for upcoming pieces from other participants that further explore the mighty Mississippi!
![Trip organizer Prof. Gregg Mitman introduces the workshop at Dr. Curt Meine’s home in Sauk City, Wisconsin, among the Driftless hills. Photo by Nathan Jandl. Trip organizer Prof. Gregg Mitman introduces the workshop at Dr. Curt Meine’s home in Sauk City, Wisconsin, among the Driftless hills. Photo by Nathan Jandl.](https://edgeeffects.net/wp-content/uploads/cache/2016/05/DSCF3320/2890802615.jpg)
![From bluffs overlooking the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers at Wyalusing State Park, CHE community associate Eric Carson (associate professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences in UW-Extension, and a Quaternary geologist with the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey) taught the group about fluvial geomorphology and introduced a major theme of the week: how in merging water and geology shape the changing flows of history. Photo by Elizabeth Hennessy. From bluffs overlooking the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers at Wyalusing State Park, CHE community associate Eric Carson (associate professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences in UW-Extension, and a Quaternary geologist with the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey) taught the group about fluvial geomorphology and introduced a major theme of the week: how in merging water and geology shape the changing flows of history. Photo by Elizabeth Hennessy.](https://edgeeffects.net/wp-content/uploads/cache/2016/05/Hennessy_confluence/3109472131.jpg)
![A local ornithologist teaches the group about migration patterns and bird songs in the Upper Mississippi Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Nathan Jandl. A local ornithologist teaches the group about migration patterns and bird songs in the Upper Mississippi Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Nathan Jandl.](https://edgeeffects.net/wp-content/uploads/cache/2016/05/DSCF3343/1178821610.jpg)
![The group walks the bridge over the Galena River in Illinois, formerly the site of major trade and shipping. Photo by Nathan Jandl. Galena bridge](https://edgeeffects.net/wp-content/uploads/cache/2016/05/DSCF3369/1217251608.jpg)
![Downtown Galena, Illinois is nestled against steep bluffs, making for unique architectural spaces. Photo by Eric Nost. terrace](https://edgeeffects.net/wp-content/uploads/cache/2016/05/photo-3-1/2655324027.jpg)
![Levitation and levity at Bellerive Park in the Carondelet neighborhood of St. Louis. Photo by Nathan Jandl. Levitation and levity at Bellerive Park in the Carondelet neighborhood of St. Louis. Photo by Nathan Jandl.](https://edgeeffects.net/wp-content/uploads/cache/2016/05/DSCF3372/3383785538.jpg)
![Besa Schweitzer—community organizer, horticulturist, and ecologist at the Missouri Botanical Garden—discusses the River des Peres from a dry streambed in the Lemay neighborhood of St. Louis. Photo by Nathan Jandl. Besa Schweitzer—community organizer, horticulturist, and ecologist at the Missouri Botanical Garden—discusses the River des Peres from a dry streambed in the Lemay neighborhood of St. Louis. Photo by Nathan Jandl.](https://edgeeffects.net/wp-content/uploads/cache/2016/05/DSCF3376/186523261.jpg)
![Looking across the river from St. Louis to the Illinois shoreline at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Meachum" target="_blank">Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing</a>. As the group learned, the river was both boundary and horizon for slaves seeking to escape to the free state of Illinois. Photo by Nathan Jandl.](https://edgeeffects.net/wp-content/uploads/cache/2016/05/IMG_2362/1604502506.jpg)
![The Cotton Belt Freight Depot in St. Louis, formerly used used to unload cotton arriving from the South. It now features a mural called "Migrate." Photo by Eric Nost. depot](https://edgeeffects.net/wp-content/uploads/cache/2016/05/photo-1/223414469.jpg)
![A fraternity and other residences were built on top of this indigenous Mississippian platform mound in St. Louis. Photo by Eric Nost. mound](https://edgeeffects.net/wp-content/uploads/cache/2016/05/photo-4/146523409.jpg)
![An in-progress archaeological dig of the <a href="http://cahokiamounds.org/" target="_blank">Cahokia Mounds</a> in Collinsville, Illinois, led by Washington University in St. Louis archaeologist John Kelly and a team of researchers from Bologna, Italy. Photo by Daniel Grant.](https://edgeeffects.net/wp-content/uploads/cache/2016/05/IMG_4080/1458511136.jpg)
Featured Image: In McGregor, Iowa, getting ready to embark on a boat ride along the Mississippi River through the Upper Mississippi Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Rebecca Summer.
Daniel Grant is a PhD student in the Department of Geography. His dissertation is a history of homelands threatened by environmental change in California. He has also studied environmental disasters as pivotal moments of prophetic storytelling which illuminated how people configured the faults of the past and envisioned future redemption. He also writes literary nonfiction. Website. Contact.
Elizabeth Hennessy serves as the faculty advising editor for Edge Effects and is Assistant Professor of World Environmental History in the Nelson Institute and History Department. A geographer by training, she is currently writing a book entitled On the Backs of Tortoises: The Past and Future of Evolution in the Galápagos Islands. Website. Contact.
Nathan Jandl serves as Managing Editor for Edge Effects and is a Ph.D. candidate in the English department, where he recently completed a dissertation entitled “Counter-Love: The Social Dimensions of Environmental Attachment in Twentieth-Century American Literature.” He also writes narrative nonfiction and takes photographs, both of which can be accessed via his Website. Contact.
Eric Nost is a Ph.D. student in Geography at UW-Madison. His research describes how technology—from interactive webmaps to sediment diversions and environmental modelling tools—shapes how regulators, non-profit conservationist groups, and the private sector design and evaluate ecological restoration and climate adaptation projects. He is currently looking at efforts to plan coastal restoration in Louisiana following decades of land loss. Contact.
Rebecca Summer is a PhD student in the Department of Geography. She is broadly interested in changes to the urban built environment and the implications for city dwellers. Her dissertation is about the history of alleys as public space in American cities and the role they play in urban development, social life, and neighborhood change. She has also researched the relationship between historic preservation and gentrification. Website. Contact.