Mark Twain wrote that if the Mississippi were a "little European river... it would just be a holiday job... to wall it, and pile it, and dike it, and tame it down, and boss it around... But this ain't that kind of a river."

Residents along the Mississippi River are no strangers to overflows and flooding during the spring thaw and rains. Since the early 18th century, settlers have built levees and floodwalls along the 2,000 mile long waterway to try and control it. However in years with record-breaking rainfall like 1897 and 1927, the Mississippi has proved impossible to tame.

source: Reno Evening News
March 16, 1897