The Mississippi Valley Traveler Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Early in the morning of December 16, 1811, residents of New Madrid, Missouri were literally shaken out of their beds. One of the largest earthquakes in United States history shocked and disoriented residents of the busy frontier town. For several weeks, earthquakes continued to tremble and terrify folks and, in the process, rearrange the land and reshape the Mississippi River. In...

Send us Fan Mail In 2019, Victoria Bradford Styrbicki ran the length of the Mississippi River. Not content with the physical challenge of doing that, she used the run as a way to hear about people’s lives and their stories about the Mississippi River. In this episode of the podcast, I talk with Victoria about the project called Relay of Voices, about the inspiration and the physical challenges. We...

Send us Fan Mail What’s in a name? Would the Mississippi sound as sweet by any other name? If Colbert had carried the day, would Mark Twain have still been inspired? Big Muddy, Old Man River, Father of Waters, we sure seem to have a hard time sticking to one name for this river. In this solo episode, I retrace the steps for how we came to use these names and why names matter. I even take a little...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I wrap up the two-part mini-series on fall travel along the Great River Road. Arkansas-based travel writer Kim Williams and I talk about when fall colors are likely to bloom and the best places to catch them. We also talk about the upcoming King Biscuit Blues Festival and how the state is gearing up for a once-in-a-lifetime event, a full solar eclipse that will be...

Send us Fan Mail It's bonus episode time already! This episode is part one of a two-part series on fall travel along the Mississippi River. First up: fall travel through the spectacular Driftless Area.  Reggie McLeod, founder and editor of Big River Magazine , and I talk about places to enjoy fall hikes, places with good views, food, and festivals. We get specific about the places we like to...

Send us Fan Mail In 1849, St. Louisans must have wondered what they had done so wrong to deserve suffering through two terrible tragedies. Steamboats brought cholera to the city, triggering a deadly epidemic that would ultimately kill thousands of people. In the early waves of the epidemic, a steamboat fire on the levee got out of control and quickly spread on land. While only three people died in...

Send us Fan Mail For decades, Louisiana has been losing coastal marshes in areas around the mouth of the Mississippi River. The biggest causes for the loss of land are the levees built along the Mississippi and the hundreds of canals cut through the marshes for oil and gas exploration. Hurricane Katrina helped renew the determination to not only stop this loss but find ways to restore the Mississi...

Send us Fan Mail Historian, musician, and author Gregg Andrews grew up in the Mississippi River bottoms south of Hannibal, Missouri, in the shadow of Mark Twain. In this episode, Gregg shares stories about the struggles and hardships his family faced but also about how the community known as Monkey Run stuck together and looked out for each other. . He also describes how growing up in a working-cl...

Send us Fan Mail The Mississippi River is polluted! It’s for barges only. Dams on the upper river were built for flood control. These are a few of the myths about the Mississippi that persist. In this episode, Klinkenberg will tackle these and other mistaken beliefs about the Mississippi. For the Mississippi Minute, I offer a few quick thoughts about Moro Island, a place near Sainte Genevieve, Mis...

Send us Fan Mail The Mississippi River is one of the great attractions in the United States, and the route that parallels the river, the Great River Road, is one of the best drives in America. What makes it so attractive? Why do so many people keep coming back? In this episode, Klinkenberg digs into the major reasons travel along the Mississippi River can be so rewarding, from the rich history alo...

Send us Fan Mail In the inaugural episode of the Mississippi Valley Traveler podcast, host Dean Klinkenberg describes his journey to the Mississippi River. After leaving behind a small city in the corn belt, he started college in a Mississippi River town where the river first captured his heart and imagination, but it would be a while before his life centered around learning and writing about the...