The Mississippi Valley Traveler Podcast

Dean Klinkenberg
  • 5.0 (7)
  • PLACES & TRAVEL
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY
The Mississippi Valley Traveler Podcast Podcast

The Mississippi River has cut a deep path through the heart of America for thousands of years, but how well do we really know the river beyond Huck Finn and headline-grabbing floods? In this podcast, Dean Klinkenberg wades into stories about the characters and places from the big river’s past and present.

  1. Explorers, Egos, and the Search for the Elusive Mississippi River Headwaters

    SEP 11

    Explorers, Egos, and the Search for the Elusive Mississippi River Headwaters

    Send us a textToday, we all know—assume—that the Mississippi River begins at Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota. How did we figure this out? Why does it matter? In this episode, I dig into the history of how European and American explorers searched the swamps and forests of Minnesota trying to figure out exactly where the Mississippi River springs to life, as well as what motivated their searches. Henry Schoolcraft is usually credited as the person who figured it out, but he had a lot of help,...

    36 min
  2. Winged Wonders: Unraveling the Mysteries of Dragonflies and Damselflies

    AUG 28

    Winged Wonders: Unraveling the Mysteries of Dragonflies and Damselflies

    Send us a textAmy Janik has a passion for winged creatures, which is how her professional career shifted from birds to insects in the order Odonata—dragonflies and damselflies. In this episode, we go deep into their world. After Amy describes how she got interested in dragonflies and damselflies, she offers a few tips about how to tell them apart, describes the species native to the Midwest near the Mississippi River, what they like to eat, and their life cycles. Based on her experiences in t...

    43 min
  3. When Change is Possible: General John A. Logan’s Journey from Defending Slavery to Advocating for Equal Rights

    JUL 31

    When Change is Possible: General John A. Logan’s Journey from Defending Slavery to Advocating for Equal Rights

    Send us a textJohn A. Logan grew up in a well-to-do household in Murphysboro, Illinois, in the years before the Civil War. He had political ambitions early, maybe even from the moment he took his first breath, but the trajectory of his career took some remarkable turns. In this episode, I talk with Betsy Brown and Laura Varner from the General John A. Logan Museum in Murphysboro about his remarkable life and what lessons we might take from it. We talk about the early years of his political ca...

    1h 6m
  4. Iron and Immigrants: The Mesabi Range Story with Aaron Brown

    JUL 17

    Iron and Immigrants: The Mesabi Range Story with Aaron Brown

    Send us a textAaron Brown is a writer, teacher, and lifelong resident of the Mesabi Iron Range, an area that has produced an enormous share of the iron ore that built America and won two world wars. In this episode, we take a look at the Iron Ranges of Minnesota with Aaron Brown as our guide. Aaron describes the geography of mining in Minnesota, the initial boom that drew thousands of immigrants to the area to work the mines, the experience of working in a mine, and how the continuous boom an...

    1h 16m
  5. Outdoor Enthusiasm: Will Collins' Irrepressible Spirit for Adventure

    JUL 3

    Outdoor Enthusiasm: Will Collins' Irrepressible Spirit for Adventure

    Send us a textSome people have the outdoors in their blood. Will Collins is one of them. From the time he attended his first summer camp as a child, he felt drawn to the outdoors. In this episode, I talk with Will about his path from childhood summer camps in Wisconsin to multi-week expeditions in remote areas. In 2017, he paddled source-to-sea on the Mississippi River. I ask him how he planned for the trip, about the generosity of people he met along the way and the daily rhythms of a long-d...

    1h 5m
  6. Mississippi River Monsters

    JUN 19

    Mississippi River Monsters

    Send us a textDid a 70-foot-long river behemoth really lurk in the river’s channel in the 1870s? Are there monsters in the river’s depths that have eluded us so far? In this episode, we delve deep into the Mississippi’s murky waters and mystical swamps to uncover stories about the terrifying creatures that we have imagined prowl the river. We also take a deep dive into a much smaller—and deadlier—monster along the river. The mosquito. We dig into stories about the swarms of mosquitoes th...

    46 min
  7. Boyce Upholt on the Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi River

    JUN 5

    Boyce Upholt on the Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi River

    Send us a textVery few people today have any memory of a relatively free-flowing Mississippi River. The scale and persistence of river engineering is staggering, and for many of us, the engineered Mississippi is the only Mississippi we have known. That’s one reason journalist Boyce Upholt’s new book is so important. In The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi, Boyce details our century-plus history of tinkering with the natural Mississippi to remake it into a river that sui...

    1h 10m
  8. A Refuge for All: 100 Years of Conservation and Recreation at the Upper Mississippi Refuge

    MAY 22

    A Refuge for All: 100 Years of Conservation and Recreation at the Upper Mississippi Refuge

    Send us a textThis year marks a major milestone, not just along the Mississippi but for conservation efforts across the United States. In June, the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge will celebrate its 100th anniversary. In this episode, I talk with Sabrina Chandler, Refuge Manager and Hallie Shulz, Visitor Services Manager about the past, present and future of the refuge. We talk about the early years, about the tasks the early managers faced to establish the refuge. We also...

    1h 9m
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About

The Mississippi River has cut a deep path through the heart of America for thousands of years, but how well do we really know the river beyond Huck Finn and headline-grabbing floods? In this podcast, Dean Klinkenberg wades into stories about the characters and places from the big river’s past and present.

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