Mile 591.0 - Exit: LBD 591
Exit: LBD 591
The Old Channel of the White River
Note: I have created a google map at the above below to view and use as reference for better comprehension while reading this section of the river through the Old Channel of the White.
[CLICK HERE: Map of the Old Channel of the White River]
Although its approximately 10 miles long as opposed to 6.5 miles on the main channel, this channel is highly recommended for paddlers continuing downstream. (Note: if you are planning a landing at Terene stay main channel). This wild channel separates 4,000 acre LBD Montgomery Island from 20,000 RBD acre Big Island, as you paddle along you will experience the river as it existed before man's meddling.
The broad mouth of the Old Channel of the White yawns open right bank descending as you exit Scrubgrass Bend approximately one mile downstream of the Confluence of the White in its modern location, just past a small sandbar RBD. Water pours out of the White, as noted above, and shortly downstream it is seemingly divined back out of the river and retreats back into the Arkansas mainland.
The quick explanation for this situation is found in the big river's appetite for new landscapes. Looking at map while reading the below geo-history will help your comprehension. Historically the mouth of the White was located ten miles downstream, near the location where this old channel today returns to the main river. The Mississippi used to cut south from near Henrico across Concordia, while the White meandered alongside parallel to the main channel. There was a high ground known as Victoria that reportedly has never gone under water, now located deep in the woods behind Smith Point. Several hundred years ago the river changed channels as it is wont to do and cut right across one of the bends of the White, severing its pulse, and then charged eastward and then southward around present day Victoria Bend to rejoin the Old mouth of the White as its present location opposite and below Terrene Landing RBD at mile 591. The modern day results of this open heart bypass surgery is an isolated piece of the White River that paddlers can enjoy as a thriving back channel that always remains open regardless of river level, from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs.
Below 4HG only a thin sliver of water enters the Old White so be ready for a slow slog through pools of almost deadwater and some shoals and shallows to negotiate. There is a narrow gravel bar adjacent the back channel just below the opening where you can pull over at low water and see the strange things exposed from the depths of the river since the last high water. Around 10HG the flow gets noticeably better, and by 20 its a full-running channel, you can count on at least 3mph. By 35 HG this channel is bank full is most places, which means its running along at forest level even with the top of the river bank. At bank full you can count on 5 mph current. When the river reaches flood stage most of the forest will be covered with muddy waters.
As you are rounding the first big bend of the Old White the current pushes outward with centrifugal force and piles up along a tall embankment left bank descending, along a hairy snag field that might require some quick maneuvering. Trees are falling from the forest into the river, or sliding down the muddy banks as the earth collapses around their root balls. This creates new snags throughout the year. Along the cut bank you might notice some distinct horizontal banding in the mud. Look for lighter yellow/orange layers alternating with darker brown layers in the cross-cut sectioning of the steep muddy bank. The layering you see is evidence of various epochs in the flooding of the big rivers, the lighter yellow layers indicating flood water carried by the yellower waters of the Arkansas, and the darker layers indicating flood waters of the Mississippi.
This is a living breathing dynamic place full of movement and change. I once witnessed a shuddering tree atop the collapsing bank in bend #2. I was with a group of paddlers on a winter expedition. We could see the leaves shaking in the distance. Hmm, that's funny, we thought, there's no wind. What's this all about? We approached and then pulled over to watch as it became apparent that a tree was about to depart the earth and become one with the river. It was a medium sized hackberry. Ever so slowly it leaned over and then finally gave way and hit the water with a smack. Amazingly it was connected to another tree behind by a thick wild grape vine. As the hackberry fell it pulled the second tree over behind it, which later joined the first in the muddy cold waters. If before there was any doubt where these snags came from, we now had visual proof.
As you continue downstream through the Old Channel at medium water levels (or lower) you will pass by several prominent sandbars of yellowish sand, the first at mile 2 LBD below the first big bend, another one a mile so below it also mile 3 LBD, the third and most predictable is located at the top of the next bend below mile 5 RBD, and the fourth at the end of the last bend RBD near mile 7 (see map). There is a a fifth bar that becomes exposed at low waters below 10HG in the West channel around the island at the base of the channel. Of course other bars become exposed as the river drops lower and lower, and some of them become connected. All of these bars were regenerated from the Great Flood of 2011. Interestingly, after this flood the usually best sandbar (number 3 at mile 5) became more muddy and number 3 at mile 7 became much sandier and taller. At higher water levels most of these Bars go under except for number three. This bar, which is situated at the northernmost point in the giant north running bend of the old channel, stands tall above the water up to 37HG, when it is reduced to a sliver of sand with room for the landing of maybe three canoes. At 40HG it will be nowhere to be found. Above 40HG you might as well keep going on and out of the Old Channel of the White if you're looking for a place to make a landing. Great River Road State Park (10 miles downstream on the Mississippi side of the river) is a good option to aim for.
RBD Near Mile 3 of the Old Channel of the White
Wreck of the Victor?
After the flood of 2011 I discovered the remains of a steamboat-shaped vessel lodged in the muddy bank at a steep angle at the southernmost point of the first big bend RBD. The rough rectangular shape of the large wooden marine frame, and the hand forged square nails led me to believe it was either a steamboat or a steamboat era barge. This was exciting because rarely is any evidence seen of the legendary steamboat days along the powerful currents of the Lower Miss, which seem to destroy everything in its path or cover them in mud. Later after doing some research I located Dr. Skip Abernathy of the Arkansas Archeological Survey who told me that The wreck is probably the wood-hull stern wheel steamboat Victor which sank in 1907 while trying to free some grounded timber barges. Back in 2010 and early 2011, there was part of another wreck visible, a flatboat, only the second seen in the Mississippi Valley although there were thousands in the 1800s. The steamboat The Victor was lost in Sibley Chute [Old White] in 1907 while fleeting barges, but the nails and rivets attaching the keelson timbers to the ribs are wrought iron and mild steel would be expected in construction occurring after about 1880. As of yet there is little confidence in a boat name for this one. The Victor was 26 feet wide and this one measures 16 feet from keelson to the port side (still mostly buried) making the boat about 32 feet wide. Next rise and fall of the river might expose more evidence. Paddlers keep looking and record your findings with camera and GPS. Send your evidence to the above Archeological Survey.
Old Channel of the White
(continued)
The beauty of this channel is in its wildness and the lack of any channel improvements as the Army Corps calls it. You won't have to paddle around long piles rocks. You won't have to round miles and miles of revetment to get around the next bend of the river. You won't see any buoys or signage. You won't have to paddle past ugly places where the wild muddy banks have been asphalt paved like the streets of downtown Los Angeles. Towboats don't ever use the Old White. Here you get a taste of the Mighty Mississippi as it looked and felt in its ancient days -- before modern man made big changes with big earth-moving machines and giant water power vessels.
As you slide along through the deep woods between Big Island and Montgomery Island you will won't see any signs of mankind save one single bankside shack and a single strand powerline crossing, both near Mile 2. Otherwise there's nothing but ten miles of collapsing muddy banks, long yellow sandbars topped with the the ubiquitous willows and cottonwoods, while thick forests of tall oaks, sycamores, sweetgums, grow higher up in the bottomlands. The broad channel varies from 500-100- yards wide and you can choose any line of travel without the fear of getting plowed over by an oncoming tow. This is a huge relief in of itself, and will afford the long-distance paddler some mindless meandering & wandering in the way experienced on most other rivers. Watching the compass you will witness a bewildering blaze of directions, south, then west, then east, then north, then south, then west and finally east back into the Mississippi. As you head into the third big bend you will make a one mile paddle due north. This confounds some people who have always heard that the Mississippi runs out of the North Woods south to the Gulf of Mexico! This bend is reminiscent of the famous loop of river at Bessie's Bend (New Madrid, Missouri) where the water has to circulate nearly 360 degrees in a twenty-mile run and ends up one lateral mile from where it started. (In Bessie's Bend there is a seven mile northerly run before the big river gets turned around and pushed southward again.)
As you come around the third bend you will enjoy five miles of mostly southward passage with many striking views downstream, the scene composed of dramatic long distance sights down the wide Old White, banked by the undulating tall forests of Montgomery Island, with distinct highlights created by several small back channel islands. The first island lays right bank descending at mile 6. If the water is above 20HG you can cut in hard right and follow this narrow channel (30 feet wide) as it meanders behind the island, and then opens up and slows down as it rejoins the Old White approximately one mile below. There is a rustic hunter's ferry normally tied up LBD near mile 8 that services Montgomery Island Hunting Camp. Not far below at mile 9 is one last small back channel island. On the other side of this little island flows the main channel of the Mississippi River. Above 10HG you can paddle to either side of this last island to rejoin the Mississippi, but below 10HG you have to take the left channel because a large sandbar takes shape in the right channel.
As you leave Old White River there is an busy logger's camp found RBD 590 on Big Island that has been active for at least the last twenty years that I have been paddling the area (since 1991). As you paddle by look for river barges piled high with 16-foot lengths of cypress, cottonwood, oak, sweetgum, and other hardwoods of the bottomland hardwood forest.
If you have planned a campsite or picnic stop at the Terrene sandbar (Great River Road State Park) cut sharp across the bottom of Montgomery Island, checking for towboat traffic (VHF Channel 13) and then begin your long ferry crossing. [CLICK HERE: Ferry Crossing]. During high water little remains of the Terrene sandbar and you will have to paddle hard to reach the State Park.
On the other hand if you have no plans to stop but intend to continue on downstream to the Rosedale Harbor, or mouth of the Arkansas, you might as well stay in the right channel behind the last island of the Old White and enter the Mississippi below, and follow the strong currents of RBD downstream around Klondike Bend (opposite Great River Road State Park).
Arkansas City Gage (AG)
We will now switch over to the Arkansas City Gage (AG) for this section downstream of Rosedale. The Arkansas City Gage gage is located 24 miles downstream of the mouth of the Arkansas River at mile 554.
Low Water = -13 to 13 AG
Medium Water = 14 to 29 AG
High Water = 29 to 36 AG
Flood Stage = 37 AG and above