Faculty

John Thompson


John Thompson
  • Emeritus Professor of Geography
  • Ph.D. Stanford University, 1958
  • Office: 316 Davenport Hall
  • Phone: 217-333-1880

Recent Publications:

"Coping with the Elements and Chicago on the Illinois & Michigan Canal, 1848-1933," Canal History and Technology Proceedings 26 (March 17, 2007), 77-111.

"Early Reclamation and Abandonment of the Central Sacramento – San Joaquin Delta," Sacramento History Journal 6:1-4 (2006), 41-72.

"American Contractors and Excavators of the DeLesseps Isthmian Canal, 1881 – 1889," Canal History and Technology Proceedings 25 (March 18, 2006), 159-188.

"Addressing the Elemental Challenges to Navigation on Ohio’s Towpath Canals," Canal History and Technology Proceedings 23 (March 20, 2004), 130-154.

"Pioneer Dredging in the Midwest Wet Prairies," Bulletin of the Illinois Geographical Society 45:2 (Fall 2003), 3-32.

Wetland Drainage, River Modification and Sectoral Conflict in the Lower Illinois Valley, 1890-1930, Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2002, 284 pp.

"When Steam Dredges Transformed Wetlands to Croplands in Illinois," Illinois Steward 10:3 (Fall 2001), 19-22.

"The California Long-boom Clamshell Dredge," Nautical Research Journal 45:1 (March 2000), 21-32.

Flood Chronologies and Aftermaths Affecting the Lower Sacramento River, 1878-1909, Sacramento, CA: California Department of Water Resources, November 1996, 74 pp.

"Land Drainage and Conflict Resolution in the Lower Valley of the Illinois River, 1890s-1930," in Gregory McIsaac and William R. Edwards, Sustainable Agriculture in the American Midwest (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1994), 79-94.