Man Tunnels Under Mississippi To Avoid Tolls
Lee: Jessy Stuart shouts "Stick it to the Man!" from the depths of a twenty-foot hole some hundred yards from the waters edge of the Mississippi. He has become something of a hero in Courtwright to some people; to others he's a nut.

 tunnel.jpg
Fighting oppression in his own way, Jesse Stuart proudly stands at the mouth of his tunnel under the Mississippi.
     "I don't care what folks think. I'm boiling mad and I ain't never going to pay another red cent to those river commissars!" he shouts from the bottom of the sloping hand-dug trench.

     Stuart is angry about the two cent hike in tolls on the bridge over the Mississippi River at Courtwright supposed to take effect on September 1. For the past ten years, he has owned and operated a one-man delivery service out of Courtwright and well over half of his business takes him over to the Illinois side. Every year since he started his business, he says, the toll has gone up and up.

     "A workin' man can't get ahead if the men running the show are gouging him every chance they get! I started this tunnel to show folks here that we don't have to take it from them anymore."

     On Friday, August 14, Stuart's Tunnel came under very close scrutiny by both local and state civil engineers. And they are impressed.

     Says Hilary Scott, a staff civil engineer for the Town of Courtwright, "It's hard to believe but he's in compliance with all the regulations for a project of this size---so far. It's his land, he has scaffolding in place and the edges of the trench are stepped back. If his back holds out, I'd say we could see him make the other side in about two hundred years. But, he'll have problems when the tunnel moves from his property to the public land that's between him and the river. When that happens it'll be a real can of worms."





Back to this Issue Contents
5sigil9.jpg