Mile 311.7 - RBD Auxiliary Intake -- Old River Control Structure

311.7 RBD Auxiliary Intake -- Old River Control Structure

As you paddle past Knox Landing and around Point Breeze, with the Clark Creek/Tunica Hills on your left, you might notice a mournful “fog horn” like sounding echoing through the woods right bank descending. This is the warning horn for the Old River Auxiliary Channel. The horn means the gates are open and water is flowing in. Paddlers take caution, and maintain a line of travel several hundred yards off the right bank. The Auxiliary Intake was built following this near disaster to help distribute the water more evenly during future floods, an add-on that seemed to work well during the 2011 flood. Huge piles of sand are piled around the mouth of this canal, but do not be tempted to make landing anywhere near the mouth for possible disaster when you are sucked into the canal by powerful waters. Even if you make safe landing away from the mouth, your nerves will be distraught by the baleful warning horn, which bellows mournfully on and off, on and off, on and off, on and off, on and off, on and off, on and off, ad infinitum, and seems to get louder and more maddening after dark.