But the river was not an easy beast to tame.
The typical response to a flood was to dam areas that had been affected.
As soon as a dam would be built, floods would gush into a new region.
Preparing the site itself took three years from January 1943 to May 1946, before model construction could begin.
The model was built using an exaggerated vertical scale of 1:100 and a horizontal scale of 1:2000.
The larger vertical scale was thought to reduce surface-tension and therefore better simulate turbulence.
Water from a nearby stream was distributed throughout the model through a complex system of pipes and pumps.
An entire day could be simulated in 5 minutes.
That year the Mississippi River Basin Model prevented an estimated $65 million in damages.
The model was used last in 1973 to test the effects of opening the Morganza Spillway.
But when the cost of maintaining the park became too high, it was abandoned.
The Mississippi River Basin Model now lies in ruins and is overgrown with bushes.
Also see:Scale Model of the Mississippi River on Mud Island
Sources:Places Journal/Wikipedia/io9
