Why Has the Missouri River Near Kansas City Changed So Much? |

The Missouri River has had a long and winding history. Today not as much.
Rebecca Nunn wondered why. She rode a boat on the Missouri River when she was young. Today she works at the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport. All that exposure to the river that runs through us prompted Nunn to ask our curiousKC team why and how the route of the river changed over time.
All photos are courtesy of the Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri.
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[@williambrandondavis6897]

Nice video although I think you missed a couple main reason we changed it. Transportation of goods and sand to be specific. When it was natural it was wide and very, very shallow in spots. So shallow you couldn't reliably get even small boats up the river at times and the sand bars were constantly changing making it very difficult to navigate without running your boat aground and getting stuck. They channeled the river to make it deeper for shipping goods on large barges and boats. It was also to control flooding and erosion (as you mentioned) in areas of docks, bridges, train tracks, roads, sewers, business and buildings. They also did it for the sand. This city took alot of sand to build. The process of channeling the river uses dredges to suck up sand off the bottom, harvesting the sand for use in construction and for making concrete.

[@jaxonbounds7710]

thank you

[@hankschrader7050]

Is it deep enough for scenic dinner cruises to be introduced that can sail all the way up to the 200ft Weston river bluff and then back?

[@seankeikbusch9404]

Glad you brought up sand. I might add that we are moving into a time of sand shortage on a global scale. It'll be interesting to see how humans address this issue.

[@FishingKC15]

@@seankeikbusch9404 I actually have a friend that works on the dredges east of KC on the Missouri River in the Wellington-ish area. They are moving a lot of sand daily.

[@seankeikbusch9404]

@@FishingKC15 not too much of a shortage around here yet that I'm aware of but the quality of sand has gone way down hill. It's hard to find really nice brick sand anymore. But as far as a shortage I was speaking more globally. I'd post some links but yiutube doesn't seem to allow that. Just google sand shortage and I'm sure plenty of articles will come up. Probably safe in the states for now though. I seem to recall a third of nebraska being sand if they're willing to sacrifice the grazing.

[@samwasthebest6633]

Blame it on Trump.