Mile 687.5 - Mhoon Landing

687.5 Mhoon Landing

Rough revetment landing with paved access to Tunica and Highway 61. Popular party spot. Don’t leave your vehicle overnight. County park just beyond with bathrooms. Possible camping, but expect company, usually of the friendly sort. Ten mile walk into town. If you need to resupply Helena is your best option, 25 miles downstream. Landing bottoms out in low water. Parking lot goes under at flood stage.

Mhoon Landing is the location of the infamous Splash Casino, the pioneer Tunica County establishment that charged $10 just to enter and game, and had three hour waiting lines when it first opened! Such was the raving popularity for gaming amongst the “live like there’s no tomorrow” Delta crowd! Gambling has a long tradition on the river that spans many generations and enjoyed its heyday in the Steamboatin’ era when every paddle wheeler boarded hucksters, gamers, charlatans, and tricksters of every sort. This lifestyle is detailed in Herman Melville’s little-known novel The Confidence Man, of which list of characters displays if nothing else the amazing variety of people connected by the waters of the big river, here including the mute, the man with the weed, the gentleman with gold sleeve-buttons, the charitable lady, the unfortunate man, the man with the traveling-cap, the old miser, the sick man, the Herb-Doctor, the soldier of fortune, the one who may be remembered, the hard case, the Tusculan, the Missourian, the philanthropist, the misanthrope, the China Aster, the Cosmopolitan, the man of questionable morality, the Press, the mystical master, the disciple, and many others (caps from Melville).