In the late 1880's and early 1900's the Mississippi River Commission (MRC) conducted an extensive high-resolution survey of the Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois to Minneapolis, Minnesota. These data were published as a series of 89 survey maps and index. In the 1990's, the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (UMESC) in conjunction with the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program's Long Term Resource Monitoring (LTRM) element automated the maps' land cover/use symbology to create a turn of the century/pre-impoundment land cover/use data set. Other data on the maps that were not automated include; elevation contours, water depth soundings, proposed water control structures (e.g., wing dams), levees, benchmarks, railroads, and city streets.

Full metadata available at:

http://umesc.usgs.gov/data_library/umesc_metadata/land_cover/umesc_1890s_mrc_lcu.html