I saw some people kayaking on the Jim River near our farm this week. I wonder if that will catch on? It's as rare as seeing a swan on that river.

Native Americans called the river E-ta-zi-po-ka-se Wakpa which basically means “un-navigable river” or “don’t bother to bring your big canoe.” French explorers simplified the name to Riviere aux Jacques, and even that was shortened to the Jim River by early settlers frugal with everything, even words.

Actually, all those names are illegal. The U.S. Congress officially titled it the Dakota River many years ago. Everybody blatantly violates the law, including our state’s own mapmakers. But nobody is likely to press charges because the river also ignores the law of gravity: it hardly drops at all in elevation as it winds and twists for 710 miles (460 as the bird flies) from its mouth in North Dakota to where it empties into the Missouri, just east of Yankton.

The Indians were right. The Jim is officially the world’s longest un-navigable river. Small boats and canoes can travel the picturesque waters – especially in early summer when snowmelt and spring rains often flood its banks. After all, it’s not hard to flood a river so flat it hardly flows. But a vessel of much size is likely to rub the river bottom and disturb the catfish.