The Man Who Saved Pierre and Fort Pierre

By John Nagel

This is a real life story of a flood which was prevented in large part by one man, one company, and hundreds of volunteers. These volunteers constructed a levy which held back flood waters for 80 days.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798350947823

John Nagel

Survivor of the 2011 Missouri River Flood. Biographer of Milton Morris. Owes a debt of gratitude to Milton Morris along with many more.

Book preview

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Special thanks to my daughter, CVI, for her relentless editing.

All my love, Dad

©2024 John Nagel. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

©2024 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

ISBN: 979-8-35094-781-6 paperback

ISBN: 979-8-35094-782-3 ebook

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Epilogue

Prologue

In 2011, the Missouri River flooded the small communities of Pierre and Fort Pierre in South Dakota. This time in the area’s history was one of panic, fear, and anger, but it was also a time of banding together, problem solving, and determination. Had Milt Morris, a local businessman, not taken action during the flood of 2011, the outcome of this story (and many others, for that matter) would have been drastically different. Milt Morris is the man who saved Pierre.

A lot of people who worked tirelessly and filled very important roles in saving Pierre and Fort Pierre will take offense to the title of this narrative. It seems to give credit to just one man. However, the following pages detailing Milt Morris’ life will put forth the argument that, as surely as the Missouri River rose and stayed risen during the summer of 2011, hundreds of homes and businesses would have been lost without him.

Milt Morris was born for this task. He possessed the necessary qualities to fearlessly tackle the erecting of a defense against a very mighty foe. There are possibly other companies that could have built the requisite levees, levees that might have been as good and held up for as long as those constructed by Milt Morris’ Morris, Inc. But very few could have done it in eight days, and no prudent ones would risk the potential liability; failure could bankrupt their companies and destroy their reputations. Suppose you might find one brave enough to enter into this contract - it would not have been in central South Dakota.

Why would a profitable company, i.e., Morris Inc., with plenty of other work to do in 2011, attempt this project? Was it the money? Assuredly not. The company would do just fine without the income produced by building the levees. Lucrative as the contract might have been, it was not lucrative enough to risk Morris, Inc. The question remains: Why did they take this on?

Maybe the management of Morris Inc. felt that if the project was successful, it would cement the company’s reputation as one of the can do companies of South Dakota. On the other hand, if the company tried but failed to construct levees that held, or failed to construct them in the allotted time, maybe most people would still give them high marks for trying. In all likelihood, neither of these considerations held much weight with Milt.

The likely motivation was summed up by John Morris, Milt’s youngest son: Dad liked to work hard. He liked to be able to see what he’d done. He liked other people to see it, too.

Milt would answer, I like to help people. We had a chance to help a lot of people. After looking at what was involved in the contract, I believed we could do it.

Whatever the case, in the final analysis, Milt was strong enough, stubborn enough, and confident enough to get his family, Morris Inc., and various government entities to follow his lead. Because he was able to do that (and only he would have been capable of doing that), Morris Inc. was able to save Pierre and Fort Pierre. It all started with Milt.

Chapter 1

Milton Lee Morris was born in 1944 in Gary, Indiana. He was the third of ten children and the oldest boy. His father, JB, had a successful vending business, and the family lived in a big brick house. One day, organized crime came to the door and politely let JB know that he was operating in their territory, along with the suggestion that he might want to find something else to do.

After being paid a second visit, which was far more convincing, JB decided to get out of the business and even relocate. He took his family and shipped off to Oklahoma, his birthplace.

JB had some money after liquidating everything in Gary. By nature, he was a green grass over the hill kind of guy. Rumor had it that land was cheap in South Dakota, so, after six months in Oklahoma, JB bought 1,600 acres north of Pierre, South Dakota. The family moved to begin farming, something he had grown up doing.

Milt was the primary farm worker. He drove tractor, herded sheep, fixed fence, and a thousand other farm chores. He began working hard at an early age and to this day has never stopped. He is always asking, What did you get done today?

Because he was such a hard worker, most of the work responsibilities fell to him, freeing his younger brothers to play – something he never really did and never learned to do. Milt firmly believes that if you aren’t working, you’re wasting your life.

As soon as he was old enough to be useful (and perhaps even a little before), Milt and his father clashed. For example, the soil was rocky and so the disc was frequently broken. Since Milt did most of the discing, JB placed the blame on him. Milt liked to take things apart to see how they worked; he couldn’t always get them back together.

However, the main reason for their constant conflict was that JB didn’t think Milt was that smart. He didn’t do well in school and he was always breaking the disc. JB treated Milt as if he were not capable and didn’t know how to do things right. In JB’s eyes, his oldest son would never amount to much.

Ironically, Milt was proven over and over in his later life to be a mechanical and engineering wiz. He did many things in the area of irrigation that had never been done before. He fixed and repaired things that couldn’t be fixed. He manufactured parts when parts weren’t available.

Milt moved massive amounts of water from point A to point B using lift stations and ditches and powerful electric pumps, which he became an expert at fixing. He