The area remained an unnavigable bog, forcing traders to drag their boats through the mud until 1848, when William Butler Ogden, the mightiest industrialist in the Midwest, backed the first canal that allowed boat traffic to sail straight through.

FORBES: A most unromantic river

The Nobel Peace Prize, as much of the world keeps holding its collective breath, fearing that the potential collapse of the Eurozone, exits of member states, region-wide banking crisis, half-steps and dithering by European leaders could drag the global economy deeper into the mud and tear Europe into pieces yet again?

FORBES: Cynics Be Gone; Europe Deserves Its Nobel Peace Prize