Rollin’ on the river

We’ve hauled some barges in our day
filled with lumber, coal and hay,
And we know every inch of the way
from Albany to Buffalo
        -- William S. Allen, circa 1880

Long before the invention of the wheel, man discovered a means of transportation that remains unmatched, in certain regards, to this day.

I take you back to a time not long after fire became an important part of daily life. Along with food, water, and shelter, fire was one of the critical elements for survival back in the day.

Our hero, let’s call him Oog, is one of those classic pre-historic types whose village is located alongside a river. One of Oog’s jobs for the good of the village is to gather wood and to tend to the all-important community fire.

Well, Oog has learned that bigger logs burn longer and ensure that the fire won’t go out if left untended for a few hours. So, he males it his practice to gather several large chunks of timber each day.

Oog has also learned that dragging wood downhill is a lot easier than hauling it up. Fortunately, the river is in a valley (duh!), so the lumber tends to reside uphill.

In the process of transporting fuel, Oog might well have invented the wheel. Had he been able to find unbent lengths of wood, he could have rolled them downhill and one thing might have led to the other; but that’s another story for another caveman.

Anyway, one day Oog spotted a nice chunk of pine along the bank of the river. He put two and two together and realized that this prize had arrived on his front porch by simply drifting downstream. He began watching for such gifts from the water gods and became adept at snagging floaters.

The qualities of water make transporting heavy objects much more manageable. For one thing, the water supports all of the weight of any buoyant cargo or container – this virtually eliminates the impact of gravity.

And water offers very little resistance. “Dragging” objects through water requires far less energy than sliding them overland. And when the destination is downstream, no energy is needed at all – thanks to gravity, it’s a free ride.

Meanwhile, back in Oog’s village: The supply of driftwood was not adequate to meet the village’s needs. So, one sunny morning, Oog wandered upstream and pushed a nice chunk of fallen timber down the bank and into the river.

It first plunged beneath the surface, but quickly bobbed back into sight and then, wonderfully, began moving toward Oog’s village – requiring no effort at all on Oog’s part.

That historic piece of future firewood became the first bit of cargo ever transported deliberately from point A to point B via a waterway. Oog instantly became the world’s first shipping magnate.

Inevitably, Oog – or one of his descendants – must have hopped aboard one of the logs and taken a ride home. This was the first cruise line and Oog or Oog II was the first river pilot.

For hundreds of years before settlers came to America, natives used rivers and streams to transport people and cargo. The abundance of natural waterways created countless navigable trails all over the east and Midwest. Fewer, but no less significant waterways existed in the far west and other regions.

This concept, floating objects downstream, no doubt occurs to most people when they’re children. Toss something into a stream and it will travel. It’s fun to watch and provides free entertainment for days on end.

But those of us who grew up in locales where rivers and streams are scarce may be a little dense when it comes to grasping these ideas.

I do remember floating miniature watercraft down the gutter when a neighbor’s lawn sprinklers were left on too long and a quarter-inch of water flowed a few hundred feet to the storm drain. But water adventures of greater magnitude were the stuff of fiction – in stories about Tom Sawyer or Mike Fink.

Walking alongside a canal in eastern Illinois this week, I finally got a sense of the important impacts waterways have had – not only on this continent and in modern times, but going back through ancient history (remember the Roman aqueducts?) and into pre-history.

Like fire, water has a hypnotic effect on people; and, in addition to being essential for life, it’s a powerful tool.

I can outrun, outshoot, throw down, drag out and lick any man in the country.
        -- Mike Fink, Keelboat Pilot

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