Mile 674.5 - Harbert Point

674.5 Harbert Point

Swift currents past the point will carry the downstream paddler quickly into the final approach to the mouth of the St. Francis River. You can stay left bank and duck behind the St. Francis Bar. Or you can stay main channel and enjoy a quick view upstream the St. Francis into the heart of Crowley’s Ridge. Take a moment, if you have the time, and eddy out at the mouth of the St. Francis, and enjoy the change in water color, the narrow mouth of the river (several hundred yards) and the common wildlife and river rat sightings. Bald eagles frequent this area, and fishermen, both attesting to the prolific fishery.

Tunica Lake cuts through the woods several miles due east of here. It was in this stretch of river, at Ship Island, some 60 miles below Memphis, that Mark Twain's brother, Henry Clemens, and one hundred and fifty others were lost when the steamboat The Pennsylvania was destroyed by an exploding steam boiler. The boat had been hurrying upstream in June of that year, and had passed Austin just before dawn. There was a wood yard above the town, and George C. Harrison happened to be out on the river bank stacking cordwood when the big steamer passed. Harrison stopped his work to watch the boat round the bend above him. Suddenly the Pennsylvania seemed to disintegrate before his astonished eyes. A fraction of a second later, a tremendous blast shook the earth, and Harrison knew what had happened. When the smoke cleared he could see that the Pennsylvania was already a total wreck.

Peering through the smoke and fog that still hung over the river, Harrison thought he could see people in the water, struggling to stay afloat and clutching at bits of debris. Young Harrison shouted to his father, and the two men quickly untied a wood flat and rushed to the disabled steamer as fast as they could row the awkward craft.

Ship Island, and the old channel, are now found seven miles to the east within the confines of present day Tunica Lake, left abandoned by the shifting channels of the river and the 1942 Hardin Cut-Off.