Ol' Man River - A Journey Along the Mighty Mississippi | Part 1 | Free Documentary Nature

[Music] 1541 [Music] the new world the great civilizations of the aztec and incas in central and south america had fallen to the conquistadors [Music] but most of the north american continent was still largely uncharted two years earlier a spanish general called hernando de soto had landed on the shores of florida and marched a small army into the interior in search of gold and slaves [Music] for day after day month after month his exhausted soldiers struggled through a stifling wilderness and found no treasure just a land teeming in strange unfamiliar creatures then one day in the spring of 1541 they came across what looked like an impossible barrier [Music] a mighty river that blocked their westward trek the river in this place was a mile and a half in breath so that a man standing still could scarcely be discerned from the opposite shore [Music] de soto called this river rio de santo river of the holy spirit the indians called it the mississippi father of waters and now it is also affectionately called old man river [Music] [Applause] [Music] today it is a busy waterway carrying vast quantities of cargo through the heart of north america a great highway of commerce and on its banks where de soto found nothing but wilderness great cities have grown up new orleans memphis saint louis the waters of the mississippi have been a vital element in forging modern america the mississippi proper flows for well over 2 000 miles north to south down the center of the continent the missouri river is even longer two and a half thousand miles from its source to its junction with the mississippi at san luis and many other great rivers drain into old man river from east and west the red the ohio the tennessee the arkansas the wisconsin but the mighty mississippi has humble beginnings in a tranquil lake in northern minnesota [Music] from here it flows south as an unremarkable stream slowly growing in strength as other rivers join it gathers water from a vast range of different landscapes from nearly half of the entire area of the u.s water that drains off the far western badlands that rains down on the great plains and cascades over the eastern slopes of the rocky mountains to the east the mississippi claims water falling on the rounded ridges and valleys of the ancient appalachians draining through ancient forests and tumbling in accountable streams towards old man river all these waters meet in the great river the gathering of waters is another meaning of the indian name mississippi [Music] and as it grows in size it creates vast swamps submerged forests that shelter spectacular wildlife its character changes along the whole of its vast length until it finally merges with the sea in a maze of channels [Music] the varied landscapes of the river have given birth to an equally varied range of cultures [Music] in the south the fertile soils of the delta region grew cotton on vast plantations that depended on backbreaking work by black slaves for its early profits but this hard life gave birth to one enduring aspect of mississippi culture the blues [Music] i'm a hard-working working man [Music] from morning till late i can't get it out of my head until i get old oh i'm gonna pick gonna pick that white gold and i'm gonna stay till [Music] as the river became a commercial highway it began its most famous era the age of steamboats this is the most familiar image of old man river though in fact the steamboat era lasted only a few decades [Music] hastily built steamboats were heat tied with cotton bales often with disastrous [Music] results the river itself didn't help it was a dangerous place full of sunken logs and hidden sand banks all capable of wrecking a flimsy steamboat the river was littered with wrecks but each boat only had to make a couple of heavily laden journeys to turn a profit steamboat pilots had to know the river's dangers and all its varied moods intimately and the most famous steamboat pilot of all left a legacy of writing that evokes this great river like no other mark twain [Music] it is not a common place river but on the contrary is in all ways remarkable considering the missouri its main branch it is the longest river in the world 4 300 miles it seems safe to say it is also the crookedest river in the world since in one part of its journey it uses up 1300 miles to cover the same ground that the crow would fly over in 675. it discharges three times as much water as this in lawrence 25 times as much as the rhine and 338 times as much as the thames [Music] the mississippi's journey ends where ours begins in a vast delta region of mud banks and channels a place where land and sea merge from here the river route leads north into the heart of the continent as it has done for centuries today a channel carved through the delta carries ships from the gulf of mexico to a great metropolis straddling old man river new orleans [Music] new orleans was founded in 1718 by the french as a trading post and a fort to protect the river highway and the vast numbers of furs they found along its two and a half thousand mile valley [Music] and turning back the clock to this era reveals a very different world from this modern metropolis [Music] the first french explorers to reach the delta did so only around 40 years before new orleans was born in 1682 an explorer called lasalle had floated down river from new france modern canada and now stood on a small island in the mississippi delta [Music] his party of men erected a wooden cross and in a simple ceremony claimed the whole of the mississippi valley and the land to the west for france a territory he named louisiana after the french king louis xiv [Music] and with that the explorers set off back up river now paddling through part of the french empire the land they passed through was rich in wildlife as they traveled back in late spring they passed through noisy colonies of herons and egrets roseate spoonbills added a splash of colour [Music] and at this time of year vast nesting colonies of brown pelicans would have been a common sight [Music] adult birds harvest the rich waters for fish and ferry them back to noisy rookeries [Music] here they feed their reptilian chicks by regurgitating partially digested fish into their pouches [Applause] nesting in low bushes makes landing a tricky business for these large birds particularly since nests are often closely packed together [Music] the male's job is to collect sticks and twigs for nest building [Music] but back at the colony he must hand over his finds to his mate it is the female that actually builds the nest and the reward for his hard work males mate as frequently as they can since that way they are as sure as they can be that they are the fathers of the chicks they will help rare mud carried down by the river builds low islands along the coast and in lasalle's day these would have witnessed one of nature's most ancient spectacles on the highest tides of each month in summer tens of thousands of horseshoe crabs crawl from the sea to lay their eggs on the beach sites like this were much commoner in lasalle's day their horseshoe crabs still haul up in spectacular numbers on a few beaches horseshoe crabs are not really crabs at all they are more closely related to spiders and scorpions and creatures looking almost identical to these have been found in rocks more than 400 million years old so these primeval scenes must have been repeated each year from a time long before the mississippi even existed on the beach the crabs eggs are safe from ocean predators and when horseshoe crabs first started doing this there wasn't much danger on land but times have changed now shore birds carefully time their migrations to arrive on these islands and beaches when a feast of crab eggs is available and in late spring the beaches are invaded by tens of thousands of them [Music] these semi-palmated sandpipers have traveled all the way from south america and they still have a long way to go to breeding grounds in the high arctic at this halfway point their fuel reserves are low but horseshoe crab eggs are very nutritious and the birds can double their weight in just a few days of feeding [Music] the sandpipers are joined by noisy flocks of laughing gulls gulf residents that also take advantage of this high energy food source and when the flocks of shorebirds are refueled and ready to move on the mississippi river will guide them north [Music] the great river serves as a migration corridor for many kinds of birds they've been using the river as a superhighway through the centre of the continent long before the french thought of it as they explored the lower delta lasalle and his companions kept detailed notes of what they found though they seem not to have noticed one of the largest creatures that still occasionally visits the delta from much further south [Music] manatees are more at home in the west indies and southern florida but they swim as far as the northern gulf coast one recently even made it up river as far as memphis but in lasalle's day that would have been much more abundant and would likely have been regular visitors to the delta region [Music] manatees seem to live their life in slow motion they are entirely vegetarian and munch their way through 40 kilos of leafy food each day [Music] leading such a slow life in warm water their skins are soon covered by a thick growth of algae but lying still in a quiet pool soon draws hundreds of fish that help keep their skins clean [Music] calves grow quickly on rich supply of milk from their mothers [Music] once they've learned to find the teat tucked away under the mother's armpit [Music] although lasalle never saw these huge creatures spanish explorers further south reported large numbers so it's perfectly possible that the french canoes sailed over the backs of these gentle giants without ever noticing them [Music] when he claimed all this territory for france lasalle knew it was not uninhabited he'd met many large groups of indians in his journey down river but he also knew that the indians would be vital allies if his countrymen were to exploit the fur trade along the mississippi to its full potential it was the indians who knew how to catch these animals [Music] [Music] but the first contact was always a risky time one moment of panic on either side could be fatal [Music] so lasalle made great efforts to establish friendly relations with the indians by trading european goods for indian furs no indian nation had ever worked iron so metal trade items like knives were highly valued [Music] and at first the french and indians got on very well lasalle was taken back to the main village of the natchez indians to meet the chief called the great sun just like his own sun king louis xiv [Music] here he learned what he could from these people of the lands bordering the great river the natchez haunted the rich forests along the floodplain and he saw ingenious ways of fishing the waters of the river and its swamps instead of metal they used bones and shells to make harpoons they could even make very effective fish filleting knives from sharpened stones [Applause] and they knew the river very well [Music] long before the days of steamboats or giant barges they used the river as a trade highway to obtain goods from other tribes that they couldn't make locally before european commerce came to america goods were already being traded like this right across the continent [Music] but the mississippi is not an easy river to get to know it is continually changing course a fact that fascinated mark twain during his days as a steamboat pilot [Music] nearly the whole of that thirteen hundred miles of old mississippi river which lasalle floated down in his canoes 200 years ago is good solid dry ground now the river lies to the right of it in places and to the left of it in other places [Music] the river has always changed course like this cutting off oxbow lakes as it finds a new course making life difficult for a steamboat pilot [Music] a willful river like this might have been fine for indians trading canoes but it wouldn't do for the vast cargos of modern commerce something would have to be done in 1907 congress set the army corps of engineers the task of maintaining a six-foot navigation channel along the river by dredging the bed and building dams but even before this was complete the plan was revised to create a nine-foot channel to keep pace with expanding trade along the river the river was also lined with concrete to prevent it scouring a new course one of the largest river engineering projects ever undertaken and all this work didn't just benefit river traffic without control like this the river burst through its banks to create a major flood on average once every three years raised banks and concrete lining protected the floodplain and allowed cotton to become a major crop on the rich floodplain soils and therefore to give the lower mississippi much of its recent character and culture at the same time dams were built along the upper mississippi to create water deep enough for ever larger cargoes elaborate locks built into the dams allowed barges to ascend the river in a series of easy steps but thousands of miles of levees soon began to change the character of old man river [Music] but it was the river's frequent wanderings that created the distinctive nature of old man river endless bayous and swamps where it's possible to step away from the modern world and appreciate a very different river as mark twain did on his many trips along the river he loved [Music] one cannot see too many summer sunrises on the mississippi they are enchanting first there is the eloquence of silence for a deep hush broods everywhere next there is the haunting sense of loneliness isolation remoteness from the worry and bustle of the world the dawn creeps in stealthily the solid walls of black forest soften to gray and vast stretches of the river open up and reveal themselves the water is glass smooth gives off spectral little wreaths of white mist there is not the faintest breath of wind nor stir of leaf the tranquility is profound and infinitely satisfying it's along these quiet bayous that the french found their el dorado not gold but furs particularly of beavers [Music] but hunting in these bayous was not for the faint of heart as fur trappers moved here in increasing numbers they found the swaps to be infested with large numbers of very large alligators [Music] and when a mother is guarding her tiny hatchlings she will attack anything that comes too close baby alligators fall easy prey to herons as well as a host of other swamp creatures so it's wise to stick as close as possible to mother young possums have the same idea when tiny they are carried in the mother's pouch but even when too big for this they hang on to their mother's body or tail [Music] soon the young possums are just too big to ride piggyback and they're on their own to find out what's safe in the swamp and what isn't [Music] luckily a baby possum isn't worth the effort for a large gator especially since she was on her way to retrieve a deer carcass that she'd stored below the water [Music] and that now has rotted nicely [Music] french trappers soon got to know these swamps and bayous intimately beneath their canoes the waters were teeming with a great variety of fish many growing to large sizes in these rich swamps [Music] [Music] one of the biggest fish in north america lives here the alligator gar which can reach three meters in length like its namesake it is a predator armed with hundreds of sharp teeth [Music] the alligator snapping turtle has equally impressive jaws and a bite that can easily sever a finger which makes mating a tense affair [Music] this amount of activity is unusual for an alligator snapper they normally hide themselves in debris on the swamp floor and wait for something tasty to swim just a little too close [Music] alligator snappers are the biggest freshwater turtles in north america and one of the biggest in the world [Music] but there are large numbers of smaller turtles here too the swamps are full of fallen logs that make perfect places for turtles to bask in the warm sun but it was beavers that drew the french here their fur was turned into felt and used to make hats a trade that grew so large that a beaver pelt became an accepted unit of currency when the french moved into the mississippi valley the number of beavers was immense they were everywhere but although the french hunted for food whilst living in the wilderness they didn't trap their own beavers for the fur trade [Music] beavers it was said were far too smart to be caught by europeans [Music] it was the indians that supplied most of the furs to the fur trade [Music] trading posts and forts were set up all along the river where indians could bring their furs and exchange them for all kinds of goods from pans to guns [Music] one such fort fought rosalie was built near the site of lasalle's friendly encounter with the natchez indians but as the trade expanded relationships deteriorated and of course the indians had guns now in 1729 the natchez revolt began with an attack on fort rosalie and the french retaliated [Music] ah [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] but french weapons proved superior and the natchez were beaten the french forced them to leave their homeland and those that survived the fighting were adopted by other tribes in the area the natchez tribe that had welcomed lasalle ceased to exist and europeans began to tame the mississippi valley today the river certainly looks tamed safely contained behind levees an easy route through the continent for even the largest loads but looks can be deceptive [Music] every now and then the river throws off its chains and bursts through its levees with devastating floods mark twain witnessed one such disaster in the 19th century it was a big river below memphis banks brimming full everywhere and very frequently more than full the waters pouring out over the land flooding the woods and fields for miles into the interior and in places to a depth of 15 feet signs all about of men's hard work gone to ruin and all to be done over again with straightened means and weakened courage the river did the same in 1993 when thousands of levees broke and released the mississippi and missouri rivers to flood vast areas from north dakota to illinois and in august of 2005 hurricane katrina swept ashore over new orleans again the levees broke and flooded 80 percent of the city moving north along the mississippi other large rivers join their flows to old man river flowing from the west the arkansas brings water from as far as colorado the very first french explorers to come down the mississippi ten years before lasalle reached only this far the mouth of the arkansas in their journey of exploration father marquette a jesuit priest and louis jolier an explorer had traveled from the great lakes in new france south down the fox river [Music] from there local menominee indians guided them over land to the wisconsin river which they said would lead to a much bigger river but they also told the frenchman the great river was very dangerous when one does not know the difficult places that it was full of horrible monsters which devoured men and canoes together [Music] the wisconsin led them to the mississippi which they hoped would then lead them westwards across the continent towards the pacific but instead it led them south and it didn't take them long to find the menominee's monsters from time to time we came upon monstrous fish one of which struck our canoe with such violence that i thought it was a great tree about to break the canoe to pieces they had probably just encountered one of the mississippi's giant catfish which still reached over 45 kilos in weight but there were plenty of other monster fish in the river like sturgeon [Music] and of course those monstrous car fish father marquette kept detailed notes of his journey a detailed picture of life on the mississippi on the eve of european discovery they soon learned how to feed themselves from the river's bounty during which they found a most unusual fish when we cast our nets into the water we caught sturgeon and a very extraordinary kind of fish it resembles the trout with this difference that its mouth is larger near its nose which is smaller as are also the eyes is a large bone shaped like a woman's bust three fingers wide and a cubit long at the end of which is a disc as wide as one's hand this frequently causes it to fall backward when it leaps out of the water what they had caught was a mississippi paddlefish a primitive kind of fish whose only living relative is found in china as they continued on their journey the river took them even further south and the explorers slowly began to realize that this was not going to be a route west across the continent their route led them into what is today tennessee and passed a site that would be transformed beyond belief in the three and a half centuries since their insignificant birch bark canoes paddled by memphis tennessee a rich meeting place of different cultures and the wellspring of much of the music that gives the modern mississippi its character [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it was near the site of this bustling city that the first ever europeans desoto's tired band of conquistadors set eyes on the great river [Music] today the river is spanned by the desoto bridge and takes just a minute or two to cross but wind back time [Music] more than 450 years and the situation was very different [Music] when hernando de soto himself arrived here in 1541 the river was much more of a barrier he had no real interest in exploring his discovery he and his men were scouring this corner of north america for treasure and so far they were empty-handed their only thoughts on seeing the great river for the first time was how to cross it [Music] and they were dismayed to realize that it would take them a month to build enough rafts to ferry their small army across and continue their journey [Music] desoto had landed in florida two years earlier and had marched his men on a tortuous journey through the southeast looking for gold and silver to add to the fortunes the spanish had already found in the empires of the aztec and inca [Music] it was no easy trip through this unfamiliar land and his men often went hungry worse there were no great civilizations here and certainly no treasure it was as if the land and the creatures that lived here were mocking them [Music] de soto's brutal treatment of each indian tribe that he met soon earned the conquistadors hatred from the natives to get rid of their unwelcome guests each tribe told them that the next tribe along was rich in the yellow metal that they were looking for [Music] so ever deeper into the unknown territory full of strange creatures went the army of gold hungry spaniards [Music] after crossing the mississippi they traveled as far as the ozarks in arkansas and still having found no gold turned back towards the mississippi as winter was approaching [Music] even the weary conquistadors can hardly have failed to notice the autumn spectacle of birds migrating back down the river [Applause] [Music] but they had other things on their mind as they approached the river for a second time [Music] de soto was seriously ill [Music] he had nothing to show for his years trekking through unknown wilderness and now he lay on his deathbed [Music] sometime in the spring of 1542 he died on the banks of the mississippi his men sank his body in the river to be born away towards the delta eventually his men decided to make their way down river in the hope that it would lead them back to new spain it did so they must have floated past the site that would become new orleans nearly 300 years before it became famous for its steamboats [Music] at its peak thousands of them thronged the river [Music] a new hazard for the slow-moving manatee [Music] and each year there was a great steamboat race from new orleans to saint louis [Music] in just three days these boats traveled through the varied habitats of the lower river journeys that had taken previous explorers weeks and months of hard slog [Music] the steamboat races finished in saint louis a turning point in the story of the great river the 192 meter arch which dominates its skyline is a symbolic gateway to the west but there is also a real gateway to the west here just north of the city the missouri river flows into the mississippi and it could take explorers westwards across the continent and into landscapes that could not be more different from those of the lower mississippi the journeys would be just as hard as those of lasalle and desoto but the sights they saw were breathtaking and what of the mississippi itself it is still more than 1500 miles from saint louis to the source of old man river through landscapes very different to those of the lower river a new journey of exploration with new and unexpected challenges [Music] i'm a hard-working man i'm a hard-working man from morning too late i can't get it out of my head until i get old i'm gonna pick gonna pick that white gold [Music] old man river going past old man river going fast oh man river free lord i'm free and less [Music] [Applause] take me away [Music]

Channel: Free Documentary - Nature

Views: 177,092

Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), nature documentary, Free Documentary Nature, Nature, Wildlife, Wildlife Documentary, Animals, Animal Documentary, Ol' Man River, Old Man River, Mississippi, Mississippi River, Mississippi Documentary, Mississippi River Delta, United States Documentary, Gulf of Mexico, Lake Itasca, Mighty River, North America, North American River

Id: XKfvgFTMfvU

Length: 50min 33sec (3033 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 29 2022