St. Louis Removed to the Country

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Much apprehension, it is said, is now and has long been felt in St. Louis, that the action of the waters of the Missouri, where they enter the Mississippi above that city, will eventually wear away the Illinois shore to such an extent as to force a new channel for the great father of waters, and thus leave St. Louis some five or six miles out in the country. The present flood, as usual, is tearing away the bank, having washed off a mile and a half of thi telegraph line near Alton, with all the land on which the poles were planted. The editor of the ''Alton Courier" says; " As much abrasion of the Illinois shore for the next ten years, or even five years, as has been occurring for a few years past, and the lakes and the lowlands above spoken of, will be reached. The Gillham farm is now nearly all swept away, and the old dwelling house, which has already been moved once or twice, will soon have to be removed further back or torn down. Where we rode along in our conveyance, on the public road near this place, some three years ago, is now 150 feet out in the stream of the sweeping Mississippi.”

Scientific American Magazine Vol 8 Issue 41This article was published with the title “St. Louis Removed to the Country” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 8 No. 41 (), p. 328
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican06251853-328d

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