Mile 462.0 RBD — 459 Willow Island

John Ruskey

26 Apr 2026 � 2 min read

The Main channel runs southeasterly from Cottonwood Bar into Willow Cutoff (1934), and continues south around Willow Island, and then slides southeasterly past the Madison Parish Port at Milliken Bend towards Paw-Paw. The five mile channel between Cottonwood and Willow almost a mile wide and nearly featureless. For expediency the strongest flow is found right bank descending past the Goodrich Light (RBD 466.9 and Dogtail Landing (RBD 466.5). You’ll want to avoid the long series of wing dams (Tennessee Bar Dikes) lines the left bank. As with all dikes, these slow the water, create turbulence, and you will have a long line of buoys to weave through.

As you enter the cutoff a scrubby group of willows atop a mid-channel island will take shape and grow in size. This is appropriately named Willow Island, since not much else grows here. You’ll find a few cottonwoods, and some flowering bushes and grasses such as buttonbush, and maybe a few migrating invasive plants. Tumbleweeds have been seen in recent years. In the low water of 2012 we discovered a plot of watermelons near the Willow blue hole. Willow Island is predominantly composed of young willows. But these small trees are nothing to scoff at. They have survived many years of high waters, high winds, severe thunderstorms and the nearby crossing of an F-4 tornado (see below). Even the great flood of 2011 failed to unearth the willows of Willow Island. There was no sand to be found on May 21, 2011 when the river crested but the willows were still there, making their presence known by their leafy green tops reaching towards sky above the churning mass of orange-brown water.

At low water Willow Island extends 3 miles north to south with a high point near mile 460.5 and a short ridge not far below at 460 topped by a single line of mature willows. There used to be a channel in between the two high points, but the 2011 flood filled it up and now they are connected by a long high plain of sand that starts going under around 30VG. The huge Willow Island back channel opens up in low water, around 15

Vicksburg Gauge, with good flow in medium water 25VG. By 35VG the back channel is flowing as fast as the main channel and long-distance paddlers might want to use it and shave off a few precious miles. Great camping is found around Willow Island at all but the highest of water levels. It is the last possible sandbar island campsite above Vicksburg, which is now 23 miles downstream. (Note: at low water you will find much good sandbar camping below here, but none at high water). At medium water a blue hole is sometimes found in a large depression just downstream of the tallest forested part of the island. This depression is created and scoured by high waters and floods. It is self-propagating much to the delight of the fish and turtles that thrive in its impound, and later by the herons, egrets, roseate spoonbills, anhingas, terns, killdeer and other waders that flock to its shores for a wild fish smorgasbord.

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