The Motor Vessel Joseph Patrick Eckstein was the first tow of the 2024 navigation season to reach St. Paul. She arrived March 17, 2024. The earliest date for a tow to reach St. Paul occurred March 4.

A tow boat pushes barges downstream through Lake Pepin on October 31, 2022, on the Mississippi River near Lake City, Minn. About 60% of the Midwest and northern Great Plain states are in a drought.