Mile 494.0 - LBD 494-487 Baleshead/Stack Island/Ben Lamond
LBD 494-487 Baleshead/Stack Island/Ben Lamond
The river opens up below Mayersville and Wilson Point Island into a virtual ocean of open water and hypnotic distances that seem to shrink even the biggest tow/barge packages into flea-sized morsels. Distances are difficult to calculate here. As you paddle downstream with the main channel it easy to get mesmerized by the waves, the colors in the water, and the endless lines of trees and the sky that meets them. Distant towboats appear from out of the treeline and seem to take forever to approach and then pass. Trees and island forms take shape and then seem to rearrange themselves as you paddle along and then reappear as different shapes. It’s a similar experience to paddling on any big waters.
In high water yawning wide back channel opens up behind the top end of Baleshead LBD 491 or 492. Unless you are planning on cutting behind the “right bank” Stack Island further downstream (RBD 489) for entrance into the Lake Providence Harbor, you can wander behind Baleshead and the “left bank” Stack Island and enjoy the pleasure of back channel paddling for many miles free of any towboats or buoys. You might want to avoid the back channel in medium water levels when the river speed slows down and you need to watch out for cascading water over the dikes. At low water there is no option but stay main channel and follow the current outwards around the entire conglomeration of tall islands, desert-sized sandbars and clumps of willows in between. You can camp anywhere along the way at low water, but at high water your options are narrowed to the top end of “left bank” of Stack Island, and a few small sandy locations at the tops of the other islands. Towards flood stage all sand disappears except for the highest ground on “left bank” Stack Island.
Two Stack Islands?
Stack Island predates steamboats on the river, but was originally located on the East bank (left bank descending). As such it was considered Mississippi property when the state lines were drawn. It is said to have disappeared during the New Madrid Earthquakes 1811 - 1812. According to Marion Bragg, “Two or three years later, a sandbar appeared where the island had been. The sandbar became a towhead, and the towhead grew into a new island. By 1820, Stack Island 94 was back on the voyagers' maps and John James Audubon spent a night there late in the winter of that year. He was entertained, he said, by some woodcutters who lived in the area. They had some tall tales to tell about the size and ferocity of the wildlife of the area. They claimed that alligators, wolves, and bears of enormous size were overabundant in the vicinity of Stack Island and swore that a huge brown tiger had recently frightened a 12-year-old boy literally to death.” (Historic Names & Places).
Over the years since then a portion of Stack Island has disappeared and reappeared or in a slow migration across the main channel of the river over to the Louisiana side (right bank descending). It has melded itself to the shoreline above Lake Providence so smoothly that unless you see it from the air you would swear that it’s not an island at all, but part of the bank. The Mississippi owners have maintained throughout the years that the island is the same Stack Island that used to be in Mississippi, and never disappeared, but slid across the river. But some land owners in Louisiana saw the emergence of the island on their side of the river as a fortuitous addition to their holdings. These Louisiana opportunists argue that the islands are not the same, and that the old Stack Island got submerged or washed away, and a new Stack Island has emerged. In 1995 The State of Louisiana took the dispute to the Supreme Court, where J. Kennedy delivered the opinion for the unanimous court. The case hinged on whether the island disappeared or not. Here is how J. Kennedy reported it: “we are unconvinced that Stack Island disappeared in 1883. Louisiana alleges other disappearances, including one as recently as 1948. We find no credible evidence of these disappearances, but instead find compelling evidence of Stack Island's continued existence. We note first that the North portion of Stack Island has 70-year-old cottonwood trees growing on it and that longtime residents of the area report no disappearances of the island. The record, moreover, contains numerous maps of the region beginning with the 1881 patent survey and coming into the present era, and every one of them shows the existence of Stack Island. With the exception of a single exhibit, dated 1970, all the maps and mosaics show a land mass that the mapmaker identifies by name as Stack Island, even for the years since 1954 when that land mass has no longer been insular in form. These maps show Stack Island's progression from the Mississippi side of the River to the Louisiana side. When the maps are superimposed one over the other in chronological order, the successive maps show a land mass covering a significant portion of Stack Island shown on the preceding map. The maps satisfy us that Stack Island did not wash away and is now the disputed area.”
(From 1995, LOUISIANA v. MISSISSIPPI, U.S. Supreme Court).
To further confuse the issue in our present day, not one but two Stack Islands appear on the most recent set of US Army Corps Maps, one at the top of Baleshead, that we’ve denoted “left bank” Stack Island, and the other above Lake Providence that we’ll denote
“right bank” Stack Island. Perhaps this is an attempt to pacify both interests? If you are intending to make a landing into the Lake Providence Harbor, and the water is 10 or higher on the Vicksburg Gauge, try cutting behind the “right bank” Stack Island (RBD 489) for a beautiful six-mile meandering back channel experience. Best run at medium water or higher, above 20 on the Vicksburg Gauge.
Lake Providence
Lake Providence is the first town landing south of the Greenville Bridge (Sunnyside Landing), hence you could make Lake Providence the end-place or start-place for your river adventure. If you are resupplying in Lake Providence safeguard your canoe or kayak, and walk into town for access to a number of convenience stores, groceries and restaurants. The US Post Office is just over the levee at Sparrow Street (US 65) and 1st Street. You can find Wi-Fi just down the street at the library (109 Sparrow). Paddlers needing accommodations might try the Lakeview Inn & Suites, which is a mile north of town on US 65.
For sit down or take out food, some of the best eating anywhere along the Lower Mississippi is found in Lake Providence at the Dock. Its well-worth the mile walk from the river for the ambience and Cajun cuisine found at the Dock, which is located literally on a dock at the edge of the oxbow lake at 829 Lake St, (318) 559-3625. Just beyond the Dock the mystical Bayou Macon takes shape as it flows under the nondescript highway 65 bridge. Lake Providence is the birthplace of Bayou Macon. A hundred miles downstream Bayou Macon is the spectacular archeological wonder -- Poverty Point -- the site of the largest & earliest organized native society in the Western Hemisphere. 2-3,000 people lived and flourished here several millenniums before Christ, to mysteriously disappear about 1100BC. See Rivergator Appendix for complete descriptions of the fascinating paddling trails of Northeastern Louisiana including Bayou Macon, Tensas River and Bayou Bartholomew.
Lake Providence Landings
Lake Providence Primitive Landing
You'll see a primitive landing with access into town two miles down RBD. Hide your canoe or kayak and walk through woods, over levee and into town via City Dump Road (which brings you out on Lake Street US 65). If you need a quick resupply of water or food, this would be your closest landing to town.
Lake Providence Harbor Boat Launch
Narrow concrete ramp cut through the muddy banks of the harbor. Good at all water levels. Don't leave vehicle here except for daytrip. The walk to town is three miles.
At low water canoeists and kayakers must stay main channel through some very long straightaways and very, very long gently curving turns around Mayersville, Mississippi and Lake Providence, Louisiana. But at high water levels, above 30 on the Vicksburg Gauge, several long back channels open up delivering fascinating scenery and sometimes spectacular wildlife.
Main Channel
The main channel route through this area is fairly straightforward. Go with the flow around the outsides of the bends, and make your crossings through the middles. As always be forever alert to towboats and their navigation routes, moreover watch for buoys.
Tennis Court Landing LBD 496
There are two ramps are located here. The older one is frequently bogged down in mud (below medium water 25GG). The new one was recently crushed by an upstream tow (sometime in 2011). Access to Mayersville is over a gravel/muddy road that gets flooded around 45 Greenville Gauge.
Back Channel Wilson Point Towhead
At high water Wilson Point Bar splits the ocean of water in two, the majority of the flow going wide around the bend, and a smaller portion staying right bank descending and flowing more slowly through a beautiful back channel. Nearing flood stage 48 on the Greenville Gauge (43 Vicksburg) the top of Wilson Point Bar splinters into a tapestry of smaller channels which flow over the top of the island in a dozen or more sluices through the sandbars and in between stands of willows, cottonwoods, sycamores and other scrubby vegetation.
Back Channel Baleshead/Stack Island/Ben Lamond
In high water yawning wide back channel opens up behind the top end of Baleshead LBD 491 or 492. Wander behind Baleshead and the “left bank” Stack Island and enjoy the pleasure of back channel paddling for many miles free of any towboats or buoys. Once you get past the lower island around 487.5 start checking traffic for return to the main channel, or continue downstream behind the next set of islands.
Back Channel of Stack Island
Cut in behind “right bank” Stack Island (RBD 489) for a beautiful seven and a half mile meandering back channel experience. Best run at medium water or higher, above 20 on the Vicksburg Gauge. Primitive access into town two miles down RBD. Reenter main channel out of the Lake Providence Harbor at RBD 483.
Lake Providence Primitive Landing
You'll see a primitive landing with access into town two miles down RBD. Hide your canoe or kayak and walk through woods, over levee and into town by way of City Dump
Road (which brings you out on Lake Street US 65). If you need a quick resupply of water or food, this would be your closest landing to town.
Lake Providence Harbor Boat Launch
Narrow concrete ramp cut through the muddy banks of the harbor. Good at all water levels. Don't leave vehicle here except for daytrip. The walk to town is three miles.
Boat Launch to River
You can put in at the Lake Providence Harbor Boat Launch and paddle one-and-a-half miles to reach the main channel of the Mississippi River.
Back Channel Ajax
When the river is high (above 33 Vicksburg Gauge) adventurous paddlers can dive into a series of chutes and back channels that dart in and out of a myriad of islands that have formed over the years in the Ajax Bar vicinity. The route chosen here is just one of dozens of possibilities. Pick a line and follow it, but be watchful for snags, strainers and other hazards. Frequent log jams changes in sandbar topography. Ajax is mostly contained within the Shipland Wildlife Management Area.