Weeks of heavy rainfall bring serious flooding to the upper Mississippi

A late, damp spring had produced unseasonably heavy rains during the last weeks of May 1859 in the upper Mississippi River Valley and during the first week in June heavy flooding took place.  The damage was especially heavy in St. Paul, Minnesota where the the river reached unprecedented levels.  Hundreds of tons of logs on the river were lost to the timber industry and several Minnesota bridges were carried away.  (By John Osborne)