HEADLINE 21 Who’s Minding the Planet? SURFACE WATER The National Great Rivers Research & Education Center (NGRRECSM ) studies major river systems, the watersheds that feed them and the ties to the communities that use them. Founded in 2002 as a partnership of Lewis and Clark Community College and The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the center operates from the Jerry F. Costello Confluence Field Station in East Alton, Illinois (at the confluence region of the Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois Rivers). NGRREC is strategically located to study large rivers and their watersheds. The center is located geographically near the midpoint of the Mississippi River, with rich cultural, industrial and natural resources, and a history of human habitation of the floodplain and reliance on the river dating to the Mesolithic Period. “The confluence of the Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri Rivers have provided a natural framing of the settlement of the Western Hemisphere dating back more than 10,000 years ago,” said Lewis and Clark Community College President and NGRREC Board Chair Dale Chapman. “Complex, urban cities existed more than 1000 years ago at Cahokia Mounds, which is now a World Heritage Site." In more modern times: • The Lewis and Clark Expedition embarked from the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers on their expedition in 1803. • Rocky Fork is documented as an underground railroad safe harbor in 1816. • Elijah P. Lovejoy defends the first amendment and is martyred in 1837. • Benjamin Godfrey founds Monticello College as one of America’s first colleges for women in 1838. • The Lincoln-Douglas debate takes place in 1858. • Scott Bibb defends integration of schools in the 1890s. "These are all ways of defining the impact the confluence region has had on our deep river history,” Dale concluded.