Great River: Muddy Waters Wilderness
With author Boyce Upholt Wed-Fri June 26-28, 2024
Paddles up to writer-adventurer Boyce Upholt! Monumental accomplishment, as all creative endeavors involving the Mississippi River usually grow to be.
All aboard! Three day exploration of the wildest of the Lower Miss with author Boyce Upholt and the Mighty Quapaws. Last call for adventurers! See below for details. Some great reviews too, including several by other authors we’ve hosted on the river (Mary Ann Sternberg, Julia Holmes, and Ralph Eubanks). Local book signings include Delta Dirt Distillery Friday June 28th 5pm with Kevin Smith, and Clarksdale Collective Saturday June 29th 6pm with Howard Stovall. We have copies of book. Go to Boyce Upholt Great River home page for complete list of book signings.
Lower Mississippi River Dispatch No. 940 "Voice of the Lower Mississippi River" Memphis, TN ~ Wilson, AR ~ Clarksdale, MS ~ Vicksburg, MS Quapaw Canoe Company ~ Celebrating 25 Years of Service ~ ~Winner of the SBA 2024 Small Business of the Year Award~
Great River: Mississippi River Wilderness Paddle with author Boyce Upholt Wed-Fri June 26-28, 2024
The Great River: Mississippi River Wilderness Paddle with author Boyce Upholt Wed-Fri June 26-28, 2024 ~ Voyageur Canoe Adventure ~ Muddy Waters Wilderness Wed-Fri June 26-28, River Itinerary: Wed June 26 9am Meet at Quapaw Canoe Company, 291 Sunflower Avenue, Clarksdale, MS. Park your car and pack your bags. 10am Shuttle to river Put in: Load canoe at Quapaw Landing and paddle into some of the wildest & remote islands & forests of the Lower Mississippi. Great back channels & oxbow lakes to explore. Fossil finding & rock hunting. Great swimming throughout. Abundant wildlife, exceptional birding, world class fisheries, the greatest concentration of white tailed deer in the country, as well as the Louisiana black bear. Paddle to Island 64 (11 river miles) Points of Interest: Island 63, island 62, Burke’s Point, Modoc’s Pass, Island 64, Muscadine Vine Kingdom) Camp I: Rowe Island #64 Thurs June 27 7am River Rat Coffee 8am Campfire Breakfast 10am reboard canoe, continue downstream, exploring Points of Interest: Cessions Towhead, Island 69, Knowlton Crevasse, Hurricane Point, Mouth of DeSoto Lake, Mouth of Mellwood Lake. Route: Island 64 to Concordia (23 river miles) Camp: Concordia Towhead Thurs June 28 7am River Rat Coffee 8am Campfire Breakfast 10am reboard canoe, continue downstream Route: Schedule: Concordia to Terene Landing (13 river miles) Points of Interest: : Cessions Towhead, Island 69, Knowlton Crevasse, Dennis Landing, Island 70, Smith Point, Mouth of the White River, Big Island, Victoria Bend, Great River Road State Park, Arkansas Bar Mid-Day: Take Out at Terene Landing and shuttle back to Quapaw Canoe Company home base, Clarksdale, MS
Charge: $700 each, which includes guiding & outfitting + meals + shuttle. Seating is now open. $350 deposit required to hold seat in canoe. 6 minimum, 12 maximum. We have tents, sleeping bags and pads for rent. Books: $30 each + tax. Guiding & Outfitting: includes canoes, paddles, lifejackets and all necessary river gear, first aid kits & emergency gear. Meals: We will do all the food prep, campfire cooking, provide cookware & eatware & cleanup, using our time-honed recipes and well supplied outdoor kitchens including tables, chairs, and portable pantry. Shuttle: The shuttle fee applies to downstream trips and covers transportation of canoes & gear plus our vehicles & drivers for drop-off and pickup. QCC Payment Options: You can make payment by one of 4 methods: 1) Check: Send check to Quapaw Canoe Company, 291 Sunflower Avenue, Clarksdale, MS 38614 2) Credit Card: Paypal Billing (add 3% PP fee) paypal.me/quapawcanoecompany 3) Venmo John-Ruskey-1 4) Cash: Hand deliver, or send to Quapaw Canoe Company, 291 Sunflower Avenue, Clarksdale, MS 38614
Muddy Waters Wilderness: This is a journey through some of the wildest & remote islands & forests of the Lower Mississippi. Described in a 12-page article in National Geographic Adventure Magazine, August 2007. Great back channels & oxbow lakes to explore. Fossil finding & rock hunting at Knowlton Crevasse & Catfish Point. Great swimming throughout. Abundant wildlife, exceptional birding, world class fisheries, the greatest concentration of white tailed deer in the country, as well as the Louisiana black bear. No towns or industry. The only evidence of civilization is the tugboats on the river. We’ll pass by the mouth of DeSoto Lake, where nearby its namesake explorer Hernando DeSoto is thought to have discovered the “Rio Grande,” as he called it, the “Big River.” He and his men witnessed an armada of 200 Indian canoes on the river. Some of the canoes held 70 to 80 warriors. Opposite Smith Point (Camp II) is the mouth of the White River, through which commercial traffic can access the Arkansas River through the Arkansas Post Canal. This region saw the visit of explorers Jolliette & Marquette (1673), LaSalle (1681) and John James Audubon (1820). It was also the heart of the Quapaw Nation, the Siouan tribe who followed the rivers downstream out of the Ohio River Valley and settled within the forests of this dynamic confluence. Choctaw Island Wildlife Area is the southernmost public island in the Lower Mississippi Water Trail being developed by the American Land Conservancy & others. The route ends with passage through the notorious “Greenville Bends” whose collapsing forests and ruthless pirates & moonshiners caused much misery to steamboat pilots. Muddy Waters: This section of Lower Mississippi river flows alongside the Mississippi Delta closest to where the late great McKinley Morganfield (AKA Muddy Waters) grew up and lived the vast majority of years of his southern life (25 years). The shuttle out includes a stop at his home site (Stovall Plantation) and passes through the landscape he played in, fished in, and worked in. Visit Clarksdale’s Delta Blues Museum before or after the journey to see the original cabin, hand-hewn from huge Cypress Logs, and learn more about the earth-shaking artistic tradition that evolved in this region, the Delta Blues. Live music every night of the week in town.
Route: Put in at Quapaw Landing, (12 miles West of Clarksdale). 46 miles on the river. Take-out at Terene Landing (Near Rosedale). Camping: The camping is spectacular on the Mississippi River — it’s like having an entire ocean beach to yourself! Full of wildlife, and the wonders of nature. The stars are almost as good as western skies. You can find 5-star camping on land, but on the river it’s million star camping! It is primitive camping, so no bathrooms or showers. But, you can swim in the Mississippi, and there is plenty of privacy when you need it. We carry everything with us for all of our trips, and go completely self-contained with all canoe and survival gear, food, water, camp and kitchen equipment, and personal items.
Typical River Days: River trips flow along with a mixture of paddling (usually not more than 1-2 hours at a stretch), exploring islands, birding, beach combing, animal tracking, napping, swimming, and whatever else is of interest to you & your friends or family! Our goal is to share the profound experience of immersion in the wild beauty of the Lower Mississippi River. We arrive as visitors, and respect the landscape and the river as such, the home of the richest biota in the heart of our country, including superlative birds, fish, crustaceans, and amphibians. Micro-biotas on the Mississippi include deep water, shallow water, forests, wetlands, sandbars, and meadows. Great Wildlife: Great Birding, tracking, animal & insect sighting, fossil & rock hunting (on select gravel bars). Bring your binoculars & pocket guides. We will be paddling though some of the wildest & most remote forests in the mid-South. 60% of America’s songbirds use this flyway. Also, the richest biota in North America for many species (including White Tailed Deer). You may not see the 230 varieties of fish & amphibians, but they “see” you! The fishing is fantastic if you know what you’re doing. Cooking & eating considerations: We do all of our cooking on the campfire with cast iron cookware, pans, pots & Dutch ovens. Smoked Cowboy Coffee (our specialty) poured from enamel coffee pots, we always keep hot water in a separate pot for soups & tea. We’ll have on board big coolers with ice and several dry boxes for dry goods in case you have something extra you want to bring (ie: BYOB). Meals served on enamel camp plates, bowls & cups. Any personal food requirements? Let us know, otherwise we’ll go with whatever looks freshest & tastiest! Fantastic Swimming: Swimming: great swimming from ocean-size beaches and possible blue holes along the way. Blues holes are greenish or bluish pools of water carved directly into the sand & mud during high water, the low water leaves them in unexpected places. Best swimming in the Mississippi Delta! Pack swim gear and towels. Primitive Wilderness: This is the Lower Mississippi River. The Muddy Waters Wilderness. Save for the occasional passing towboat, there are few traces of civilizations. Every island we visit will be primitive. Bring any toiletries you need, and be ready to dig a hole when nature calls.
About Quapaw Canoe Company: Quapaw Canoe Company provides high quality guided canoe adventures on the wild and wonderful Lower Mississippi River, over one thousand miles of free-flowing watery wonderland. We cover any section of the river from Cairo, Illinois, to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. But most of our activity takes place in the most wild 500 miles between Memphis, TN, Vicksburg, MS, and St. Francisville, LA, where the river swells to its full, mature magnificence — here the big muddy river swirls through giant sandbar islands, in and out of vast wetlands, and along endless bottomland hardwood forests thriving with birds, fish and mammals. The big river creates one of the most important biotas in the world. Music and art overflows the juke joints and museums of Memphis, Vicksburg, and Clarksdale, MS (our home base where we fashion our unique hand-crafted 29′ cypress strip voyageur canoes). Jump on board and join us for an exploration of the wildest freshwater wetlands in the heart and soul of North America! Our mission is to share the great beauty, and raw, wild power of the big river!
The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi W.W. Norton, hardcover June 11, 2024, by Boyce Upholt
The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi Hardcover June 11, 2024 by Boyce Upholt A sweeping history of the Mississippi River―and the centuries of human meddling that have transformed both it and America. The Mississippi River lies at the heart of America, an undeniable life force that is intertwined with the nation’s culture and history. Its watershed spans almost half the country, Mark Twain’s travels on the river inspired our first national literature, and jazz and blues were born in its floodplains and carried upstream. In this landmark work of natural history, Boyce Upholt tells the epic story of this wild and unruly river, and the centuries of efforts to control it. Over thousands of years, the Mississippi watershed was home to millions of Indigenous people who regarded “the great river” with awe and respect, adorning its banks with astonishing spiritual earthworks. The river was ever-changing, and Indigenous tribes embraced and even depended on its regular flooding. But the expanse of the watershed and the rich soils of its floodplain lured European settlers and American pioneers, who had a different vision: the river was a foe to conquer. Centuries of human attempts to own, contain, and rework the Mississippi River, from Thomas Jefferson’s expansionist land hunger through today’s era of environmental concern, have now transformed its landscape. Upholt reveals how an ambitious and sometimes contentious program of engineering―government-built levees, jetties, dikes, and dams―has not only damaged once-vibrant ecosystems but may not work much longer. Carrying readers along the river’s last remaining backchannels, he explores how scientists are now hoping to restore what has been lost. Rich and powerful, The Great River delivers a startling account of what happens when we try to fight against nature instead of acknowledging and embracing its power―a lesson that is all too relevant in our rapidly changing world. Reviews of Great River by Boyce Upholt Back Forty: You don’t know the Mississippi River. But you should. Julia Holmes, June 2024 https://thefern.org/blog_posts/back-forty-you-dont-know-the-mississippi-river-but-you-should/ WSJ: ‘The Great River’ Review: Taming the Mighty Mississippi Engineers have tried—with varying degrees of success—to reshape the river to human needs. By Gerard Helferich, June 7, 2024 https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/the-great-river-review-taming-the-mighty-mississippi-0b2e2054 ‘The Great River’ explores the beauty and power of the Mississippi The narrative Boyce Upholt constructs engages with the wildness of the river while explaining the the forces that have long sought to tame it. Review by W. Ralph Eubanks June 13, 2024 at 1:39 p.m. https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/06/13/mississippi-river-history/ Review: In entertaining history of the Mississippi River, Boyce Upholt tells it like it is Baton Rouge Advocate by MARY ANN STERNBERG "The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi" by Boyce Upholt, W.W. Norton, 352 pages https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/entertainment_life/books/book-review-mississippi-river-history-boyce-upholt/article_d87dd396-2e39-11ef-9e4e-a34ef50ae4e4.html Podcasts: Centuries of engineering have altered the Mississippi River. A new book examines its effects St. Louis Public Radio
Radio: WBUR Here & Now 'The Great River' explores the history and future of the Mississippi River https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2024/06/21/great-river-mississippi KUOW 'The Great River' explores the history and future of the Mississippi River https://www.kuow.org/stories/the-great-river-explores-the-history-and-future-of-the-mississippi-river