People Along the Mississippi (1952)

[Music] from the Minnesota headwaters to the Gulf of Mexico the ground runs with water a long grip of winter is broken but north or north of here a colder slower spring comes to the northern wilderness to the source of the river Lake Itasca and here with a Minnesota spring a story begins which traces the mighty course of the Mississippi itself but it begins here where the river begins with a mailbox on a lonely North Country Road and a farm boy who had faith in winds and river currents and something more faith in people along the Mississippi [Music] [Music] he'd wanted to go down the big river himself but instead all through the long winter evenings it carved a small boat Dedra RFD 7 - minnesota i christen thee a Mississippi away went his fragile little boat and withered his big winter dreams do you think it'll make it yes his brother hands well people be too busy to bother with it few people will see it at first deer or beaver may noted silent passage through their forest or perhaps a turtle then through desolate cut over timberlands and then miles down the river through rabbits [Applause] a long way to go twisting and turning then flowing south south down the Great River Valley the American heartland 2,400 wandering miles to go before it reaches the river's end and waiting hands at the Gulf of Mexico well it might I couldn't not in a thousand years it could you mean if you're up whether Mississippi begins and it's ten something down it get all the way here to the Gulf it might too [Music] but now it rests in a Minnesota thicket who knows who might help it on its way [Music] [Applause] we were your grandmother's car dear Robert Piedra I was headed home across the shallow spot and River when it happened there was the Mississippi it had been floating there all the time we were playing cowboys and Indians of course none of us the real Cowboys around here but were real honest-to-goodness Indians chip away like my grandmother now she speaks only chip away and she wishes I spoke that Morton to do she calls me Nicoya say which means he walks in the noon but I have an American name too in a bicycle just like other kids I'd be playing baseball right now except that take my father's lunch to him he's a lumberjack drives a tractor in the timber [Applause] [Music] Saturday afternoons our day to go to town I guess it's the same with you Robert anyway outside one of the stores on Main Street we got an idea [Music] well Robert we had a something new to your boat totem pole the guided safely on its way and so bobbing its thanks upon every wave the Mississippi leaves its chip away friends and after days or weeks leaves the North Country wilderness now strange new sights power liens and tall bridges spanning the river industries making important noises along the bank prowling down upon our tiny craft bustling cities crowing and brainerd Little Falls and at last the first river Giants Minneapolis and st. Paul [Music] dear Robert Pedro yes where your little boat is now it's sailing in a river that's busy with tow boats and barges and great dredges to dig away year after year keeping the channel open for navigation this is the river I know for I am a river captain and here's how I first saw your little boat the Mississippi Hey look at there they had found it Robert just about the time my tow boat was ready to show off downriver my daughter Tina and her friend bill had come down to see me off oh hi Kathy I said goodbye to them but although I didn't know it then I didn't say goodbye to your boat for Tina and Bill had a plan [Applause] [Music] all right cast off well Robert that's how your vessel got tied on mine anyway you're welcome to tag along with us down to st. Louis down one of the richest river valleys in the world you are going down with a freight train of the river a tow boat besides your little boat we are navigating a string of oil barges wider and longer than the Queen Mary [Music] our first stop by the way will be lacrosse Wisconsin one of our crew members Pete Shaw is getting married there Pete claims he's not nervous but I've got an idea he's doing a pretty good job of covering up here's the log where Pete gets off Pete comes from Arkansas he's a long way from home Pete told me about the wedding afterwards how everything Karen pointed out to him seemed strange the rolling countryside the way they farmed and the names of the people whose farms they passed Swenson purchased them and poverty Karen never guessed it but the site the Wisconsin dairy farm may feet long to see cotton growing in Arkansas and then Karen's home Pete felt like a stranger and wondered what was in store for him there hadn't been many people at the wedding he told me yes he figured people just weren't very friendly in that part of the country but then all of a sudden how wrong can you defeat one the people whose names were purchased from an armed Christmas rental in fact all the neighbors from miles around gave them a real old-fashioned welcome Pete found out that people in Wisconsin's aren't too much different from those in Arkansas but later that night somewhere downriver from the cross there was a floating uprooted tree and the line to your boat snapped then another tow boast looming out of the darkness and that Robert was the last we saw of your little boat hey [Music] [Music] [Music] fellas look at this T Robert Biegler I found the Mississippi and our gang Swimming Hall it was pretty banged up so I decided to take it home with me your name's Fred Robert and mine's German Hans Kruger I live on a farm near Guttenberg Iowa most of the people in this part of the country came from Germany a long time ago chairman stonemasons built his church we go to it's about a hundred years old and you ought to see the river Front Street and Guttenberg my great grandmother says it looks just like a little German town but you can't prove it by me the country knows the river is one hill after another but it's some of the best farming land in Iowa that's something I do know about I just got home in time that day I found your boat it was Saturday and just about every Saturday our family goes to the build my mother was going shopping but my dad and I we were gonna sell Frieda hey did they help you see any heifers a young cow that hadn't had a calf yet anyway Frieda was on her way to the Dubuque auction bar oh all right boys we got a good overseer here no we're doing us our man Bob what's the money on them good load of her purse here Freddie my hands what you got oh boy not much of a boat not worth trading for anything that's all you know came all the way down from the beginning of the Mississippi River almost a thousand miles it did let's see yeah let's see it yeah let's see it boy look at that it's taken to get you can't I'll trade you my pocketknife for it okay I'll throw in this that's a neat comfort pants hey why not put it on the boat you mean put my compass on your boat sure boat needs compass doesn't it gee Terry if you put it on it'll started me here both too and I'll help it go in the right direction all right let's go get it fixed up well that's how it was Robert y'all went over to the Dubuque shipyard where they build big river barges and toe box going to the yard why do you kids think you're going boy were we scared she told him about your vote we'll just put a puppet on why did you launch it okay fellas go ahead hey thanks mister yeah thanks I wonder where it'll go now it has come from the Minnesota headwaters to st. Paul from Saint Paul to La Crosse Wisconsin River City from lacrosse to Dubuque on Iowa shores and at last st. Louis largest river city of them all nerve center of the modern river but city of century-old levees here the Mississippi pauses but not for long a little girl whose great-grandparents journeyed overland in a covered wagon ties a toy packet in tow a dime-store reminder of the river Tom Sawyer knew now from st. Louis on down the levied river of small southern towns of cotton scorching Summer Sun over yearly flood hey what's that down there dear Robert Biegler that was the first time my friend Paul and I saw your boat we tried to get it but the levee dropped off too steep and the tribe was taking it away the river was pretty high for that time of the year there were flood warnings out crest was supposed to reach our Tyler next day we watched it till it disappeared the Lynn said goodbye to each other Paul and I had always been good friends ever since we were real young but lately we hadn't been seeing too much of each other just happened to meet on the levee that day the day the flood took your boat away heart or keeping the waters back sometime it comes almost up to the street signs but this year it wasn't too bad separate down by the river Hardy came to the third step of my house when the water went down pretty quick and a few days you'd hardly know there's been a flood at all come on swing me swing me swing me row fan my wrap your arm are you alright they're gonna ride me go with your Hey look at me Who am I baba left well gee whiz believe it or not there was your boat again Robert I was so surprised I ran all the way across town to where Paul lives hey Paul where are you hey Paul what's up come and see what I got what is it come in please gee whiz how did you get the boat flood wash it right up by my front porch let's go lunge it all well I'm sorry Robbie but I'm playing a game right now some other time [Music] [Applause] it was Paul he come to help me after all that's what Paul and I are writing this letter you see Robert we thought you'd like to know how you're both sort of brought two old friends back together again but there will be days when the vast Loire River will seem without end Memphis Vicksburg Natchez and at last with luck New Orleans great trading and manufacturing center river port and port of the world freighters loading for Brazil Java the Indies and it will be here that our tiny craft will need all the luck in the world [Music] [Applause] and it's luck we'll hold thrown out by a paddlewheel carried downriver we're free once more get drift off course into a mysterious land of moss country of Cajun boys with French names like the ashamed Omo moving silently through a Louisiana bayou and here to our boat will need luck I wonder how and it's luck we'll continue in a lonely tidal Bay pretty good Caspian best of all look what we caught well he's way off course we'll see that it gets back but on its way to the south pass the channel to the sea it passes a gulf shrimp fleet running before a storm warning a tropical hurricane [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and now it lies landlocked and lost at Lands End lost and unnoticed for days or weeks or months but then dear Robert beaker I just know it could happen [Music] [Applause] [Applause] you must have hundreds of letters by now Robert and makes ours won't be the last four we've painted a new message on your sail around the world from a little boy in Minnesota to people along the Mississippi end here at the river's end to the peoples of the world now where is it bound and who will bring it ashore