19 Aug 2019

Moving sand isn’t just for kids

Navigation on the Upper Mississippi River this year has been anything but normal. Historic flooding plagued the region for much of the spring and early summer. The floods brought historic high water and a significant increase in the amount of sediment. The high water has since receded leaving sediment as the sole souvenir of the 2019 flood.

27 Jun 2019

District recognized as safest workplace in the Corps of Engineers

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, was selected as the winner of the 2018 Chief of Engineers Safety Award of Excellence – District Category, once again raising the bar in safety excellence.

5 Oct 2018

A river rerouted: Step 1 in the Marsh Lake ecosystem restoration project

The St. Paul District, along with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Upper Minnesota River Watershed District, oversaw the rerouting of the Pomme de Terre River, near Ortonville, Minnesota, on Oct. 1.

16 Nov 2017

Finding a way to make it possible – deer hunt for the physically disabled

The 10th annual physically disabled and veterans deer hunt took place on the wildlife sanctuary within the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, St. Paul District, Orwell Dam and Recreation Area, near Fergus Falls, Minnesota, from Nov. 14 to 16, 2017.

6 Oct 2017

New well dig prompts archaeological survey at Sandy Lake

With respect and preservation in mind, archaeology experts with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, conducted an excavation at the site of a recently-defunct well at the Corps’ Sandy Lake Recreation Area Sept. 27.

24 Apr 2017

Springing into spring cleanup

Spring cleaning took on a slightly different meaning recently as the St. Paul District environmental section teamed up with a few of its partners to clean up a backwater slough in northeast Iowa.

21 Apr 2017

Corps of Engineers breaks ground on Fargo-Moorhead flood risk management project

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, and the Fargo-Moorhead Diversion Board of Authority hosted a 1997 Flood Commemoration and Groundbreaking Ceremony for the Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Area Flood Risk Management Project April 17.

16 Mar 2017

St. Paul employee part of team searching for Amelia Earhart

District employee Kenton Spading, rehired annuitant, regulatory, believes he and his team could be in the midst of unraveling the decades-old mystery of what happened to famous aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, who both went missing in 1937.

28 Feb 2017

Flood of ’97 overwhelms Wahpeton/Breckenridge

(originally published in the October-November 2007 Crosscurrents) Engineering division’s Matt Bray and Tim Grundhoffer fought two swiftly rising rivers, blizzard conditions and extreme temperatures only to be overcome by conditions beyond their control and to lose portions of a town not just once, but twice, in the same flood. Bray, a geotech engineer, and Grundhoffer, a structural engineer, were assigned as flood subarea engineers in Wahpeton, N.D., and Breckenridge, Minn., during the 1997 floods that wreaked havoc across the Red River Valley. Although they worked together closely, Bray worked primarily in Wahpeton and Grundhoffer in Breckenridge. Pete Corkin, from Rock Island District, assisted them.

28 Feb 2017

Memories linger of disaster at East Grand Forks/Grand Forks

(first published in Crosscurrents Oct.-Nov. 2007 edition) The district, the locals, the volunteers –they all put up a tremendous fight, but ultimately the Red River of the North rose too high, too fast. And although it’s been 10 years since the spring flooding in the Red River Valley destroyed much of Grand Forks, N.D., and East Grand Forks, Minn., the sights, the sounds, the emotions of this event linger for those who were there. "I can still picture those breaches like it was yesterday,” said Neil Schwanz, a geo-tech engineer. “I can picture myself standing [there], watching all this happen.”

16 Feb 2017

RED talks continue educating employees

With more than 12 RED talks in the books, the St. Paul District is adjusting its sites on the knowledge sharing program in the coming weeks.

27 Oct 2016

St. Paul District cultivates need for knowledge management

Curing work frustration was the focus of the inaugural RED talk at the St. Paul District office, in St. Paul, Minnesota, Oct. 19.

3 Nov 2015

Meeker Dam: Controversy plagued one of the first locks on the Mississippi River

Listed as one of the “controversies” in Raymond Merritt’s book “Creativity, Conflict & Controversy: A History of the St. Paul District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,” the Meeker Dam project continues to provide intrigue.

3 Nov 2015

Gouverneur Kimble Warren

Maj. Gouverneur Kimble Warren was the first district engineer of the St. Paul District. After the Civil War, he came to St. Paul in 1866 and began work surveying the Mississippi, Chippewa, St. Croix and Wisconsin Rivers. He also began the preservation of St. Anthony Falls and designed the nation’s first reservoir system, the Mississippi River Headwaters Reservoir System.

3 Nov 2015

St. Paul District regulatory boundaries

In 1976, the St. Paul District regulatory staff consisted of four people (clerk included) that focused on evaluating projects under Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899. The scrutiny was largely of bridges, trestles, docks/piers and dams that had the potential to impede navigation.

3 Nov 2015

Expansion of the regulatory mission

The Department of the Army Regulatory Program is one of the oldest organizations within the federal government. Initially, its purpose was to protect and maintain the navigable capacity of the nation's waters. The St. Paul District’s regulatory role in protecting Minnesota’s and Wisconsin’s water resources has evolved and expanded greatly since the program began regulating commerce and navigation on the Upper Mississippi River in 1866.

3 Nov 2015

History of recreation in the St. Paul District

The St. Paul District constructed and placed approximately 15 dams into operation starting with Lake Winnie, Leech Lake and Pokegama Lake dams on the Headwaters of the Mississippi River in 1884 and concluded with the Highway 75/Bigstone Dam in 1972. Except for the Headwaters dams that were constructed at the outlets of large natural lakes, the remaining dams created new reservoirs. These lakes, reservoirs and tail water areas created prime locations for outdoor recreation and visitors slowly starting utilizing the areas as railroads, road systems, vehicles and accessibility became more modern.

28 Oct 2015

History of the Headwaters Recreation Areas

The Mississippi River Headwaters dams, located in north central Minnesota, were constructed and placed in operation between 1884 and 1912. Maj. General Warren, the first St. Paul District commander, noted the importance of the Mississippi River Headwaters area during field surveys in the 1860s. Less than 10 years later, Congress authorized a feasibility study to determine whether a series of dams and reservoirs could aid in stabilizing water flow in the Mississippi River between St. Paul, Minnesota, and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. As a result, a system of dams capable of raising water levels and storing annual spring runoff from six existing lake systems was designated. These structures are located at the outlets of Gull Lake, Leech Lake, Big Sandy Lake, Cross Lake, Pokegama Lake and Lake Winnibigoshish. Two of these lakes, Leech and Winnibigoshish, are located within the Leech Lake Indian Reservation.

28 Oct 2015

Gull Lake Native American Burial Mounds

The Gull Lake Mounds were excavated in 1969 by the University of Minnesota. This excavation was one of the last large-scale mound excavations conducted in Minnesota. The human remains and many of the artifacts removed from these mounds were returned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, to the Dakota people for reburial in 1998.

28 Oct 2015

Dredge Goetz

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, uses the Dredge William L. Goetz to help maintain 850 miles of the Upper Mississippi River, 335 miles of the Illinois River and other inland rivers. The St. Paul District acquired it in the spring of 2005.