Enigmatic Stream

Past and Present

Enigmatic Stream: Industrial Landscapes of the Lower Mississippi River is a series of contemporary photographs by Richard Sexton showing the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and Violet, Louisiana (just downriver from New Orleans). These images document a region transformed by heavy industry in the last century. Here, between and along the banks of the river, themes converge: innovation and decay, the manmade and the natural, the conspicuous and the mysterious.

Complementing Sexton’s photographs are artifacts that bear on various histories of the Father of Waters, offering some context for this 21st-century project. These appear in a section at the end of the exhibition, following the flow of Sexton's contemporary photographs. These items trace the Mississippi's changes over the course of days, decades, and centuries, while paradoxically attesting to the constancy of the waterway.

“The human exploitation of a capricious river has precipitated an extraordinary industrial infrastructure, which has formed an equally extraordinary contrast with the rural landscape around it,” Sexton says. “I have tried to portray it deliberately, purposefully, eloquently, and, above all else, honestly.”

The Navigator was a guide to the Monongahela, Allegheny, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers published in 12 editions by Zadok Cramer of Pittsburgh from 1801 until 1824.

Used by travelers and boatmen alike, this copy exhibits detailed annotations of the stretch of the Mississippi between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Some of these notes can be seen in the pages reproduced here.

Airline Motors Inn placemat
1989; printed in color
gift of Mrs. and Mr. John H. Lawrence

This placemat, commemorating the 50th anniversary of a LaPlace restaurant, displays and celebrates the density of industrial activity along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

This “ribbon map” offered vessels traveling the Mississippi River between Port Hudson and New Orleans detailed information on river distances, parish lines, and property owners whose lands abutted the river.

In contrast to the information on the Airline Motors Inn placemat, this map demonstrates that the riparian land at this time—the mid-19th century—was not used for heavy industry but for agriculture, by individual owners.

Canoe used to descend the Allegheny and Mississippi Rivers from Pennsylvania to New Orleans
ca. 1938; wood, canvas
gift of Irma Marie Stiegler

American Indians had been using the Mississippi River as a central transportation and trade route for thousands of years before Europeans arrived in North America and began using it for similar purposes. But wanderlust, not commerce, motivated two college students, Albert J. Ivancic and Donald Rycroft, who in the summer of 1938 used this canoe to travel the Allegheny, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers from Pennsylvania to New Orleans. The two men—both originally from Buffalo, New York—departed from Corydon, north of Pittsburgh on the Allegheny. Covering more than 1,200 miles in about five weeks, the trek included winding river routes through the Old Northwest and down the mighty central artery to the Crescent City. The young men stopped to prepare meals along its banks—often eating catfish caught fresh from the river—and took turns paddling and sleeping in the canoe.

When Ivancic and Rycroft got to Baton Rouge, they met up with Ted Sprague and his pet spitz dog, who were on their own epic descent of the river on a small sailboat. The three men (and the dog) finished the final stretch of the journey together. Sprague’s captain’s log makes note of some the challenges met on their final days: huge wakes cast off by a large sternwheeler, torrential downpours, and boat leaks. On August 18, 1938, they reached the Industrial Canal in New Orleans, where Ivancic sold the canoe to Rene Stiegler, superintendent of the docks, for $7.

Lower Mississippi River Early Stream Channels at Approximate Half-Century Intervals
1939; color lithograph
by the US Army Corps of Engineers, publisher
gift of Col. and Mrs. L. B. Wilby

This map is one of 12 sheets detailing historical courses of the Mississippi River between Cairo, Illinois (where it is joined by the Ohio River), and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Previous courses of the main channel are represented by different colors and come from older maps published since the mid-18th century. The Mississippi as we know it dates back millennia to the last ice age, and its particular course has changed significantly over that life.

Survey of the Mississippi River, chart No. 72
lithograph
by United States Coast Survey, creator of original survey; Julius Bien & Co., lithographer
from Detail Charts of the Lower Mississippi River from Mouth of the Ohio River to Head of Passes, La. (St. Louis: Mississippi River Commission, 1894)

The Mississippi River Commission published this detailed survey of the river and its banks in sections, beginning in 1879 and concluding in 1894. In addition to listing depths in the river’s channel, the displayed chart shades the land along each bank to differentiate the various crops grown and the type of natural terrain in uncultivated areas.

Even the layout of buildings on some plantations can be seen, as well as railroads that served as the terrestrial commercial network for these enterprises.