Mile 468.0 — Arcadia Point Bar/Cottonwood Bar

John Ruskey

26 Apr 2026 � 2 min read

The main channel runs southwestward several miles out of Fitler and then without turning one way or the other slides in between two big sandbar towheads Arcadia Point Bar and Cottonwood Bar so smoothly and perfectly you would think it had been drawn that way on a design pad. Well, it had been planned that way, and then carved that way. Much to the consternation of the natural impulses of the river, a canal was carved right through the center of Cottonwood Bar to remove a troubling bend eastward (right bank descending) around its backside that had always been a difficult navigation challenge for the 1/2 mile long towboats. Also it seemed like the river was trying to dig further and further into Louisiana in its tendency to eat away at the outsides of its bends and form new meanders. Something had to be done. Instead of letting the river have its way, the US Army Corps Engineers carved a slightly curved canyon through Cottonwood that begins southwesterly and then turns ever so gently to the south. It’s the most perfect low-angle curve on the Lower Mississippi. A protractor couldn’t draw a better circumference. And the river hates it! So much so that several million yards of large limestone boulders, rock and rip-rap have been required to maintain this beautiful channel through Cottonwood. During the 2011 flood the big waters did extensive damage to the backsides of Cottonwood and now the damage is being mitigated with several more millions of yards of rip-rap. Soon all of Cottonwood will be a monument to rip-rap having been completely encircled by it. Like any moving waters, the biggest river in North America is always looking for weak places to explore with insatiable appetite, and it requires the constant attention of the most ambitious plumbers in history, the US Army Corps Engineers, to maintain it!

1262 acre Cottonwood is for sale (at date of Rivergator website publication). I wish we could save it as a public place for paddlers, fishermen, and hunters. At present there are only four public islands on the approximately 1,000 miles of the Lower Mississippi River. That’s one public island per 250 miles. You can count them on one hand: Hickman Bar, Loosahatchie Bar, Buck Island and Choctaw Island. Two in Tennessee and two in Arkansas. While paddlers typically end up camping in remote sandy places far below the average highwater mark (hence beyond the legal reach of any landowners) it can get a little lonely having to always feel like you are shunned, unwanted, maybe even feared. Paddler and author Eddie Harris, a black man, reported being harassed and then shot at while camping in the woods one night somewhere below Greenville in his 1988 Mississippi Solo. It’s kind of like a backpacker walking through a gated community. We need more public places on the Lower Mississippi, not

The top end of Cottonwood is protected by a long dike and weir with an opening on its north end (RBD). There is always some flow behind Cottonwood, although it's a slow channel at low water. Best run at 25 VG or above.

Arcadia Bar Back Channel

If the river is 30 Vicksburg Gauge or above stay left bank and follow the flow into the mile wide opening behind Arcadia, which narrows slightly and then opens up again towards bottom end. Watch for waterfalls over two dikes, one at top and one at bottom. Many routes to follow. Pick and choose.

Goodrich Public Boat Launch

Steep concrete ramp made from revetment falls steeply into back channel at base of Cottonwood Bar. Road access from US 65 over levee. Parking and ramp located south of Bunge grain elevator.

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