Memphis to Helena — Introduction

700 Basket Bar This long series of luxurious sandbars are full of birds and thick with fish -- and broken up into in a long line of wild islands -- and are found opposite the thickest concentration of casinos outside of Vegas and Atlantic City! During higher water levels above 25 Memphis Gauge paddlers can opt for the enjoyment of the back channel. Stay RBD as you pass Finley Bar (Mile 702.8) and follow the back channel a full five or six miles downstream before popping out at Peter’s Bend (Commerce Bend) near Rabbit Island.

Paddlers Routes through Commerce and Mhoon Bends:

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid= 217859314001592865582.0004e5b96e2db7c41a661&msa=0 http://goo.gl/maps/hPaou Commerce and Mhoon Bends carve a classy S Curve through deep forests and extensive sandbars of the Mississippi Delta, offering great paddling, picnicking, and camping in a wide variety of landscapes, from woods to soft sand to fascinating gravel bars.

Main Channel

Main Channel is fairly straightforward. Go to the outside of each bend for the fastest waters, follow middle channel out of each bend, and make your crossings with the main outward thrust of water. Watch for tows and strong eddies. Rabbit Island Back Channel In high water go with the blossoming currents bank left across the wide watery expanse as close to the trees as you can find flow. Several miles past Commerce Point you can paddle behind a small forested island through which the channel narrows and gurgles along through stands of submerged willows and cottonwoods before re-entering the main channel a couple of miles above Mhoon Landing. Mhoon Bar Back Channel At high water you can stay tight bank right as you exit Commerce Bend, and swirl around the last big eddy at Ashley Point, and then follow the receding line of trees downstream. Watch sharp for bankside beaver and treetop bald eagles (which are known to next in this area). There is a hump of sand bottom end topped with willows and cottonwoods. Paddle behind these and back out into the main channel.

695-690 Commerce Bend Right angle bend running westward and then south slightly eastward around Rabbit Island. Commerce Bend is as good as any in demonstrating the dynamic and irascible nature of the big muddy river in a big muddy landscape. Commerce, Mississippi, had a hopeful beginning and was a thriving little river town in the 1830's, but by 1841 it was engauged in a losing battle with the Lower Mississippi, and it soon lost most of its waterfront buildings and houses. In 1874 the Mississippi jumped across a neck of land just below Commerce and cut about ten miles off its channel. Local people reported that a steamboat passed through the new cutoff just two days after the river changed its course, and that it was 800 yards wide by the third day. The river continued making changes around Commerce, causing all kinds of trouble for the little town and doing a lot of damage to property in the area. It finally settled itself comfortably in a new bed known as Mhoon Bend, where it still remains today- restrained from further movement by a long revetment on the east bank of the bend. The steamboat landing at Commerce was still in occasional use as late as 1888, when a boat called the Kate Adams caught fire and burned at the landing. The big side-wheel boat was one of the first steamers on the Lower Mississippi to be completely equipped with a modern invention known as the electric light. The popular boat was also noted for the beauty of its cabin accommodations. The staterooms were paneled in solid walnut, cherry, and ash. The town of Commerce was still hanging on in 1915, and still had a post office and steamboat landing, but the river had built up a big sandbar in front of it. As the steamboat trade on the river dwindled away, the community gradually disappeared. (Adopted from Bragg’s Historic Names & Places ) But fortune has many twists and turns along its convoluted route. Today Commerce has been rejuvenated by a cluster of casinos just over the levee from the old town site, which is now occupied by a MicroHotel, a Quality Inn, and an Exxon gas station at the corner of Casino Strip Resort Blvd and Perry Rd. There is no present connection to the river save for a short revetment above Rabbit Island called Commerce Revetment. This history would be worthy of another Robert Johnson blues, had he lived long enough to pen more songs. He is reported to have resided for a year at the nearby Abbey & Leatherman Plantation.