They passed through the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. They went through the lock (see photo of similar lock) that lowered them several feet from the Sanitary Canal into the Des Plains River. They soon entered the meeting place

of the Des Plains and the Kankakee Rivers, where it became the Illinois River. This puzzled Sam. 

“How can we be in the Illinois River? You said the Illinois River emptied into the Arkansas River when we were in Kansas”. 

“Actually Sam, there are four rivers in the US named the Illinois River.” 

Sam’s eyebrows knitted up in confusion. “Is that legal?” 

Dorp said: “There is no law against it that I know of. While each state in the US has a unique name, 

this is not true of rivers or towns. 

“Wow,” Sam said. “So, a guy could be on a car trip; fall asleep in Paris, Texas and wake up eight hours later, in Paris, Tennessee. Why are there no cites named Paris west of Wichita?” 

“I’ll leave you to study that when you get home, young man.” 

“More homework. If this keeps up, I’ll learn more this summer than I did all last year at school. 

So, you said there are four Illinois Rivers are in the US?” 

“That is correct, Sam; one in the state of Illinois, 

one in Oregon, named by miners from Illinois. 

One that runs in the states of Arkansas and Oklahoma, named by a French explorer. 

One in northern Colorado."

"This Illinois River is completely within the bounds of the state of Illinois. It is about 275 miles long and used to be a major supplier of buttons for the clothing industry.” 

“Excuse me? “Buttons?” 

Dorp explained: “Before the invention of zippers and plastics, people used shellfish to make buttons to fasten their clothes. 

Immigrants from Europe, who made buttons from animal horns back home, learned to cut coin-shaped discs out of mussel shells pulled from river. This industry employed thousands of people along the Mississippi River basin.” 

“My grandma has a big metal can full of buttons from her mother. I’ll bet some of them are shell buttons.” 

“Most likely, Sam, especially if they were made before WW I, and are whitish and pearly-shiny.” 

“Hey, I have a joke, Mr. Dorp. A woman in a restaurant called the waiter over. 

The waiter asked: ‘What’s the matter ma’am? Is there a fly in your soup?’ 

She said: ‘No; there’s a button in my jacket fries’. Whoo-hooo!” 

“Really, Sam?” 

Sam was triumphant over his latest joke. “Yup, and Oh, what is a river basin?” 

“A river basin, also called a watershed or drainage basin, is the area of land whose rain and snowmelt is collected into a particular river. While the Mississippi River is about 2,300 miles long, its watershed is about 1.2 million square miles of land. This is about 40% of the US land mass”. 

Sam sorted this information: “So once the land ‘sheds’ its water of excess rain or snow, it goes into a river and into an ocean?” 

“Usually, but not always, Sam. There are two types of watersheds, exorheic drainage basins and endorheic drainage basins. 

Endorheic basins are either in a desert area and the desert drinks the water before it can make it to the sea, or the water basin doesn’t produce enough water to get to an ocean. There might also be natural barriers, like mountains, that keep the water from getting to the ocean.” 

“Don’t those areas with high boundaries eventually flood?” Sam asked. 

 “How long till we get to New Orleans?” Sam asked.

“It is about 1,400 miles from Chicago to New Orleans. The Mississippi River travels at speeds from 1.2 miles per hour at its source, to 3 miles per hour at New Orleans, in normal flows. The river can move 10 miles per hour during a flood. 

But if we calculate an average speed of 2.5 miles per hour, it will take us about 23 days to get to New Orleans.” 

“Really?” What will we do for that long?” moaned Sam. 

“Sam, we have no control over that. We just are. Besides, we’ve been going for three days already. It takes about 4 ½ days total to reach the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. This is close to the town of Grafton, Illinois, a town of about 700 people. Grafton had a population of 10,000 in the 1850s when fishing was better and there was a shipyard in town, and the limestone mines were busy before concrete became common. 

“Really? So why do they not make buttons from shells anymore? Wait; what is a confluence?” 

Dorp said, “A 'confluence' is where two rivers come together. They come together because gravity and the terrain made them want to use the same piece of land to run downhill. The two streams, creeks or rivers join together and become bigger. Sometimes the new river keeps the name of one of the old rivers, and sometimes it gets a new name. 

But also, I see you’re still stuck on that button topic. 

It is now more economical to make buttons from plastic. Plus, many rivers are now too polluted to sustain the marine life necessary to make the mollusks for buttons. Chemicals coming in the water kill living things in the water." 

“Where does this pollution come from?” 

Dorp answered, “Agricultural and lawn runoff, industrial wastes, and effluent from city sewage treatment plants.” 

“Mr. Dorp, why does Chicago take its drinking water from the Great Lakes and empty it into the Mississippi River? 

“Sam, Chicago learned a lesson that still plagues humanity today. The human digestive tract is a one-way street and the end should not meet the beginning. When body wastes mingle with drinking water, people get sick, and can die. Fecal matter (poop) can contain deadly germs, like cholera and typhoid. These two diseases killed millions of people in the 1800s. Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln's opponent in the 1860 Presidential election, died in Chicago in 1861 from typhoid fever. 

“But what does that do for the towns downstream?” 

“This is yet another human conflict that comes from people having to share water.” 

 “A day and a half until we reach the Mississippi River? Where will we spend the night? 

“Oh, Sam, we’ll spend tonight and several more in the river. This life is my unending fate unless I am changed back into the gases of oxygen and hydrogen.” 

“Do you ever wish you could be changed back?” 

“I would still be going through people, plants and animals. The only difference is that as a gas it would be harder to trap me or freeze me. Though…If I became liquid oxygen, I could help propel a rocket ship and then spend forever in outer space, doing absolutely nothing. How would you like to do that Sam?” 

“Maybe for a couple of days. I’ll bet there are cool sights, but I would get bored, I’m sure.” 

In fact, I guess I miss some of my TV programs.” 

“…And your video games, and your mom’s chocolate chip cookies?” 

“Yum. How is it I can miss food when I can’t get hungry?"  

Dorp and Sam approached Grafton, Illinois, where the Illinois River and Mississippi rivers run parallel like railroad tracks,

for about five miles before joining confluencing (my word). 

This strip of land is named Calhoun County, also called ‘The Kingdom’ by locals. 

Dorps call it ‘The Illinois Peninsula’. 

Sam saw a flat boat called a ferry with cars and people going across the river from one riverbank to the other. There is a 37-mile stretch of the Illinois/Mississippi River, from East Hardin to Alton, Illinois with no bridge across the river. Bridges that cross large rivers cost a lot to build. The Mississippi River, for example, is about 2,300 miles long and has just 220 bridges across it. This doesn’t meet everyone’s needs, so ferries still have a place in modern life. 

New York City is a series of islands and has a ferry system that many non-locals just call the Staten Island Ferry. 

That fleet of ferries give 3-4 million rides per year. 

They floated past Grafton and joined the Mississippi River at Island 526. They were nearly to St. Louis, Missouri. 

On the north end of the city, they came upon the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. 

Dorp spoke: “Well Sam, the Upper Mississippi River began in Minnesota and ends here in St. Louis and thus begins the Middle Mississippi River.” 

They floated through St. Louis and saw the Arch approaching, just above the Eads Bridge. 

(Actually, they were approaching the Arch. The Arch pretty much stays where it is. That’s the way people like it. 

It’s easier to visit the Arch when it stays in one place). 

“If you had a great, great arm, you could throw a baseball through the Arch right now and it would land in the stadium where the St. Louis Cardinals play. Between the diamond and the Arch is St. Louis Community College, which I’m sure has lower class attendance the days the Cards play a home game.” 

“I wish we could stop and see a game, Mr. Dorp. Man. That Arch is a lot bigger than it looks in pictures.” 

A pure catenary resembles the shape of a chain hanging by its ends; a very graceful, very strong design. The catenary is used as a structural design by architects; especially in bridges.” 

“Hey! I learned something in school. The word architect has the word ‘arch’ in it!“ 

“That’s right, Sam. The discovery of the arch was the key to building structures with openings that were self-supporting. 

They passed through St. Louis and continued south and west. They managed to not be evaporated by the breezes and winds that blew up and down the river, or by the sun that shone directly above the river, pulling hooptillions of other water molecules out of the river. 

But they were ingested and released a few times by channel catfish. 

“So that’s what a catch and release feels like,” Sam said. “There are so many creatures here in the water that I have never seen before. I guess it’s because we are so small now, I can see them. A little bluegill looks like a stadium.” 

“That’s right, Sam. Things that were once too small to see when you were a boy, are now big enough to eat you.” 

“I have a joke. What state does the Mississippi River flow in? “ 

“It flows in a liquid state.” 

“That’s actually clever. Now I have a riddle for you. There are three pairs of states that touch each other, both geographically and alphabetically. They are all east of the Missouri River. Can you name them?” 

“Not without a map to look at. Sigh. More homework.” 

Dorp announced: “Big event coming up soon. We are nearing Cairo, Illinois, about to be joined by the Ohio River. 

Look! the Ohio River is actually larger here than the Mississippi River.” 

“The Ohio River. And does the Ohio River begin in Ohio? Please, oh please, tell me that it does.” 

“Sorry Sam. The Ohio River begins in Pennsylvania, and acts as a watershed for water from the states of Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and even New York. 

The name Ohio, given to both the river and the state, was an Iroquois Indian name that meant ‘good water.’” 

“Aargh, matey.” Sam said in his best pirate voice. “I see. So is the Ohio River joining the Mississippi River, or is the Mississippi River joining the Ohio River?”

“Good question. It is here that the Mississippi is labeled the Lower Mississippi River. If we go strictly by size, called the largest branch criterion, the Lower Mississippi should be called the Ohio River, but it isn’t. Incidentally Sam, there are no locks, dams, or complete blockages of the river between here and New Orleans, about 1,000 miles away.” 

“Another thing that might interest you; Up the Ohio River is a town called Kenova, West Virginia. Its name is 'portmanteau', a combining of two or more other names. Kentucky, Ohio and Virginia gave Kenova its name. Other portmanteaus are Delmarva, Georgalina, Illiana, Arkmo, Idavada.” 

They passed several cities and towns on either side of the bank. After a time, Dorp pointed out a loop in the river near the boot heel of Missouri, by a town called New Madrid. Though not a big city, it still has very special place in American history and in geological studies. 

New Madrid, Missouri was first settled by a group of Spanish explorers in the 1700s, hence the name. But what is important about this town is what is underground, where we can’t see. 

This area of land where Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Tennessee sort of come together, sits on a spot called 

The New Madrid Seismic Zone. Several earthquake faults pass through this area. In the winter of 1811-1812, there were multiple earthquakes here that liquefied the topsoil in the area and opened holes in the river that swallowed entire boats and islands in the river. 

It spit chunks of coal and sulfur into the air, raised and lowered different sections of the river, and made part of the Mississippi River run backwards for a time at the speed of a trotting horse. One survivor said his boat was pushed four miles back up the river. 

The earthquakes rang church bells as far away as Boston, and Reelfoot Lake was created in nearby Tennessee. 

Naturalist James Audubon was in the area at the time of this event and wrote about riding his horse in Kentucky through the tremors. Relatives of the Presidents Roosevelt were killed on a steamboat near here and some thirty flatboats and crews were lost, apparently disappearing into the holes in the river, never to be seen again. 

 When Dorp told this to Sam, he was amazed: “People just disappeared? The river spit out chunks of coal? From underneath the ground?” 

“Yes, Sam, eyewitnesses said the river ran black with coal dust in some places. There were also several waterfalls created that the river soon eroded smooth again. And this problem isn’t over. Seismic experts feel this will happen again, perhaps creating problems on a national level. Several bridges and underground pipelines in the area could be destroyed.” 

Sam did a facepalm. “Well, this is certainly a happy turn of events. I thought the Midwest was safe from things like tsunamis, but now I’m not so sure.” 

They continued downstream and meandered toward the Gulf of Mexico, sometimes going south, sometimes going east, sometimes going west, and sometimes going north through an oxbow, but always going lower in elevation. 

They passed the city of Osceola, Arkansas. Dorp noted that twenty-one states have a town or a city named Osceola, 

probably after a White/Creek Indian who lived with the Seminole Tribe in Florida and took part in the Seminole uprising in 1835. He was arrested when he thought he was going to Georgia to talk terms of a peace treaty. This betrayal angered even fully white Americans, which may be why so many towns were named after him. Wisconsin has one town named Osceola. 

Just above Memphis, Tennessee, Dorp pointed to the west and said, “Behold the state of Tennessee.”