The Lower Mississippi River Water Trail

Rivergator:

St. Louis to Caruthersville

Middle Miss: 195-0

Lower Miss: 954-846

307 miles total

 

© 2014 John Ruskey

For the Rivergator: Lower Mississippi River Water Trail

 The www.rivergator.org is a free public use website

presented by the Lower Mississippi River Foundation.

Re-printing of text and photos by permission only with proper credits.

 


Preamble:

I first explored this stretch of river on a 5-month raft trip that began after my high school graduation in 1982. My best friend and I decided that we had enough of traditional schooling, and much to the dismay of our guidance counselors we scuttled all college plans and instead built a raft in the Great North Woods of Minnesota and started downstream for the learning adventure of a lifetime. The river became my teacher, and the big floodplain valley my center for higher education. Fast forward 30 years and I am still on the Mississippi River, and still as much entrenched in it as I was back then. At present I am writing the Rivergator from my canoe base (called the “cave”) in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Clarksdale is located in the great floodplain of the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta, birthplace of the Delta Blues, and one of the wildest stretches of the big river along its length. I am hoping to share with you some of the secrets for safe paddling so that you can too can enjoy its wildness!

 

The Rivergator was born on that raft trip of 1982/83, and has evolved through three decades of other expeditions, the carving of dozens of dugouts and stripper voyageur canoes, the formation of a canoe company, the training of dozens of guides and hundreds of young apprentices, and lots of exploration and documentation. Rivergator contributor Mike Clark has been exploring the Confluence and the Middle Miss for over a decade (after canoeing the entire length of the river in 2001). He is considered the expert on running the Chain of Rocks. In 2002 and in 2006 Mike Clark and I spent 5 months exploring the entire Missouri River in dugout canoes, the second time as engages in Scott Mandrell’s “Then & Now” Lewis & Clark Re-enactment. Our experiences paddling dugouts to the confluence and over the Chain of Rocks are here in the Rivergator. In 2009 Mike Clark and I guided German film-makers from St. Louis to Caruthersville (and on down to the Gulf of Mexico) on a giant raft (actually a “canoe-ma-raft,” a 16 x 30 platform supported by 2 voyageur canoes as pontoons). Big Muddy Mike has made dozens of other Middle Miss voyages after the 2001 formation of his Big Muddy Adventures, which is based near North Riverfront Park in St. Louis (including a “Huck ‘n’ Jim expedition” where he paddled it all after dark just like Huck and Jim did — this is not recommended). Rivergator contributor Mark River Peoples was born and raised along the Mississippi River in St. Louis and East St. Louis. After a career in pro football, Mark River is now a full-time guide on the Lower Mississippi River, and writes a blog, appropriately called the “Mark River Blog.” Former Navy Chief and Rivergator Contributor Braxton Barden is a full time river guide and photographer with the Quapaw Canoe Company. Mark River and Braxton Barden explored St. Louis to Cairo one last time in the low water of Nov 2014 to verify everything. I will share many real-life dramas and river experiences along the way as one of the best way to illustrate the challenges and demands of the big river. Even though it was over 30 years ago, I still remember in vivid detail floating rowing our 12×24 foot raft past the Missouri River Confluence, and then down the awful Chain of Rocks Canal, and finally through the last lock & dam and into St. Louis. We continued on down the Middle Miss to the Ohio, and then on down the Lower Miss to the Deep South. Our odyssey ended in disaster, a raft wreck, as is related in the Rivergator Memphis-to-Helena Section. I am lucky to be alive. The river tried to kill me. But then it turned around and saved me. That journey did something to me. My imagination blossomed with the freedom of the flowing. It turned my eyes to the river, and the health of the free-flowing waters of America. My blood started flowing with the muddy flow of the Mississippi River, and continues flowing to this day now with the Rivergator: Paddler’s Guide to the Middle and Lower Mississippi River.

 

Confluences:

For paddlers there is nothing more fascinating than approaching and then passing the junction of two rivers, especially when the rivers are major rivers coming together from long distances apart. We all walk the land that was once dominated by dinosaurs, and we all breathe the air Caesar breathed. And yet none seem as tangible as the immediate connection a river gives us to the places and people who live on the other end, and in the tributaries and drainages along the way.

 

Although most of St. Louis straddles short bluffs and terraces 100-200 feet high, it is defined by its waterways. St. Louis sits like the center hub of a giant wheel. You find rivers every direction you go, big rivers, the rivers that define the very heart of America: the Upper Mississippi, the Illinois, and the Missouri. And the Middle Miss gathers them all together and off they go slipping and sliding southward through an elegant, graceful glacial-carved valley ten miles wide. You could depart by canoe from downtown St. Louis and without leaving water reach such far flung locales as Omaha, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Billings and Bismarck. Of course downstream will eventually bring you to Memphis and then further downstream to New Orleans. In the acceleration of the internal combustion engine most St. Louisans have forgotten their water roots. LaSalle paddled through here, as well as Joliet and Marquette. Later came Lewis and Clark, and then Schoolcraft. St. Louis is actually an island when viewed from the perspective of rivers, encircled by the Missouri, Mississippi and Meramec (and their tributaries like the Bourbeuse). Big Muddy Mike Clark has proved this four or five times in the past decade. Out of 66 square miles, water covers 6.2% of St. Louis water, most of which is found in the flowing rivers.

While the Rivergator is only concerned with the south-flowing water down the Middle Miss from the Missouri Confluence, it opens the imagination to entertain the watery geography of the biggest city in the heart of America.

 

Big River Crossroads

For instance, by the reality of geography all expeditions must pass this Big River Crossroads. The Missouri River Trail and the Mississippi River Trail are the obvious biggies and create the N-S and E-W axis of the Crossroads. The Lewis & Clark Trail extends this axis to the Pacific (via the Clearwater, Snake and Columbia) and into the Alleghenies via the Ohio and Middle Mississippi (if you follow Capt. Lewis’ start place: Pittsburgh). The Joliette & Marquette route adds in the Great Lakes via the Wisconsin River, and creates a new end place at the mouth of the Arkansas River where the two Jesuit Priests turned around after deciding they had gone far enough down the river to determine it went to the Gulf (and into hostile Spanish territories!). Lewis & Clark and Joliet & Marquette also exemplify the upstream and downstream possibilities. But they are following the Native peoples, who used the rivers as their highways, going upstream or downstream as their needs demanded. 99% of modern day paddlers go downstream, but you can of course do both! You could paddle UP the Mississippi from New Orleans. To my knowledge only Verlen Kruger has completed the upstream challenge, although at publishing time one group of 6 paddlers have started their way up the Mississippi en route to the Arctic (Jan 2015, the “Rediscovering North America” Expedition). You would learn so much more about the river having done so. Upstream paddlers have to hug the banks. You get close to all of the wildlife and interesting topography you otherwise miss from the middle of the river going downstream. Other expeditions add the Illinois route to the Northeast. And a tiny fraction add in other smaller tributaries like the St. Croix, Meramec, Iowa, Wabash, Red, or others, and customize their own creative expedition routes according to their interests and personal connections along the way. For instance this year (2014) one particularly creative adventurer came down the Missouri, followed the Mississippi to the Atchafalaya Exit, and then turned up the Red to paddle upstream into the Southern Plains and conclude the trip at hometown Dallas, Texas. More and more paddlers are turning down the Atchafalaya, and with good reason: you enjoy the best of the deep south’s cypress/tupelo gum forests and avoid Cancer Alley, all of the industry and chaos of the Greater Port of New Orleans. A surprising number of paddlers follow the 6,000+ mile Grand Loop (Circumnavigating all of Eastern United States via the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Seaway, Intercoastal Waterway, and the Mississippi). A small fraction of paddlers come down the Mississippi, turn up the Ohio, and enter the Tennessee, to lock through over to the Tombigbee and follow that river down to Mobile Bay. That is the route most powerboats follow to the Gulf. But unless you like flat water, you’re going to want to stick to the Mississippi and let the Rivergator be your guide.

 

Further downstream the Ohio River Trail adds in many more permutations to the possible routes, adding in the Cumberland and Tennessee, and many others, but we’ll speak of this later when get down to this confluence, further along in the Rivergator.

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SECTION MILE ACCESS CITY
Middle Mississippi & Bluegrass Hills / Bootheel 195-0, 954-850 ST. LOUIS TO CARUTHERSVILLE
Preamble  
Introduction  
St.Louis
St. Louis Gage (SLG)  
Water Levels and Paddling Through St. Louis  
Water Levels According to the St. Louis Gage  
High Water Note  
Water Levels and Dikes  
Flood Stage Effects in St. Louis  
The Great Flood of 1993  
Historic Flood Crests  
Low Water Records  
Dredging Might Become Necessary SLG 5.0 to -7.0  
The Upper Mississippi  
200.6 RBD Mapple Island Access Ramp
200.7 LBD National Great Rivers Museum
200.7 LBD National Great Rivers Research and Education Center
200.5 – 197.5 RBD Maple Island
Paddling Downstream Along Maple Island  
Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary  
200 – 195 LBD Alton/Wood River Industrial Reach
195.6 RBD The Great Confluence!
What Color is the Mississippi River?  
The Lower Missouri River  
195.6 RBD Ted Jones Confluence State Park
LBD Mile 0.5 Missouri River
195 LBD Mouth of Wood River (Cahokia Diversion Canal)
195 RBD Camp River Dubois
RDB Mile 3 Missouri River
Columbia Bottom State Conservation Area  
Stopping at the Confluence  
195.6 RBD Jones-Confluence State Park
LBD Mile 0.5 Missouri River
195.6 RBD Columbia Bottoms State Park
RBD Mile 0.5 Missouri River
195 – 194 RBD Duck Island
194.2 LBD Chains of Rock Canal (Entrance)
Canal: All Boats Enter Here  
194 RBD Canoe & Kayak Access (Columbia Bottoms State Conservation Area)
195 – 184 Big Muddy Wild & Scenic Section
194 – 184 RBD Chouteau/Gabaret Island
190.7 Interestate 270 Highway Bridge
190.5 Highway 66 “Chain of Rocks” Bridge
190.4 Intake Towers
190.4 Intake Towers ##1
190.4 Intake Towers ##2
190.3 Chain of Rocks
Portaging (or Paddling) Over the Chain of Rocks  
Portage the Chain in Low Water  
Below 16 SLG: Portage LBD  
Paddling the Chain in Medium Water  
16 – 24 SLG: Stay Middle Channel  
24 – 30 SLG: Open Channel  
190.3 RBD Water Treatment Plant City of St. Louis
Water Towers  
Grand (“Old White”) Water Tower  
The Bissell (“New Red”) Water Tower  
Compton Hill Water Tower  
190 LBD Chain Sandbar (Low Water Only)
189 – 185 LBD Mosenthein Island
Circumnavigation of Mosenthein Island  
188 LBD North Riverside Park Boat Access
187.8 LBD Big Muddy Adventures (Primitive Mud Ramp)
About Big Muddy Adventures  
187.7 RBD Cementland Dock
Cementland: The Unfinished Adventure Land for Mischievous Adults  
189 – 184 LBD Gabaret Island
183.4 RBD The Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing and Rest Area
184.1 LBD Chain of Rocks Canal (Bottom End)
Safe Paddling Through the St. Louis Harbor  
Port of St. Louis  
The Insider’s Tour of St. Louis: On the River  
Viewing the Great Arch from the River  
183.2 Merchants Railroad Bridge
182.6 RBD Dignity Harbor
182.6 RBD Artica
182.6 RBD Bob Cassilly Sculpture/City Museum
182.5 McKinley Bridge
Fishing Between the Chain of Rocks & McKinley Bridge  
182.5 Venice Power Plant, Venice, Illinois
181.2 Stan Musial Veteran’s Memorial Bridge(I-70))
180.6 LBD Schoenberger Creek
St. Louis Riverfront (Mark River Reminisces)  
180.2 – 179.2 RBD St. Louis Waterfront (Cobblestone Landing)
180.4 Union Electric Light and Power Company, Ashley Street Powerhouse
180.2 Martin Luther King Bridge
180.1 RBD LaClede’s Landing
180 Eads Bridge
180 RBD “The Captain’s Return”
179.9 LBD East St. Louis Landing
179.7 LBD Malcolm Martin Memorial Park
179.7 RBD The Great Arch
179.2 Poplar Street Bridge
Paddling Route Downstream of Arch  
Running “The Gauntlet”  
179 Douglas McArthur Bridge (Railroad)
178.8 RBD USS Inaugural
178.9 LBD Small Sandbar Below Rocky Point
178.4 LBD Small Sandbar Above Old Cahokia Power Plant
178.3 LBD Cahokia Power Plant
176.8 LBD Best Emergency Sandbar in St. Louis Harbor
176 RBD Anheuser Busch Brewery
176.8 LBD Cahokia Church of the Holy Family
176.9 RBD US Army Corps of Engineers Service Base Dock
176.9 RBD US Coast Guard (314) 269-2500
176 – 174 LBD Marquette Transportation Fleeting
175.5 – 173.5 LBD Arsenal Island
174.8 RBD Iron Worker’s Cross/Diver’s Legs Sculpture
174 LBD Cahokia Chute
174 RBD Bellerive Park
171.8 RBD River Des Peres
171 – 169 LBD Prairie Du Pont Low Water Sandbars
170.4 RBD Limestone Bluff Shelfs
American Bottom  
168.6 Jefferson Barracks (JB) Bridge
Consider the Atchafalaya  
St.Louis to Cairo
168 – 167 LBD Carroll Islands
168 RBD Bussen Quarries
166.7 RBD Cliff Cave County Park
166 RBD Fleeted Barges
166 – 165 RBD Wing Dams
166 LBD Luhr Bros., Inc.
164.5 LBD Pull Tight Landing Blue Hole
161 LBD Meramec Bar
163 RBD St. Mary’s Convent
161.6 RBD Ameren Meramec
161 RBD Meramec River
The River of Ugly Fishes?  
2 Miles Up Meramec River: Flamm City Access Ramp  
St. Louis Circumnavigation  
158.7 RBD Kimmswick
158.5 RBD Hoppie’s Marine Service
158.5 – 157.2 RBD Dikes Below Hoppies
158 – 149 LBD Foster/Meissner Islands Dikes
156.5 RBD Sulphur Springs
156.3 LBD Fountain Creek
155.5 – 153.5 LBD Meissner Island Division Middle Mississippi NWR
151.8 RBD Herculaneum
Herculaneum Downstream: Mississippi River Hills  
151.6 RBD Joachim Creek
149.8 RBD Plattin Rock Boat Club (Hugs Landing)
148.5 RBD Plattin Creek
148.2 LBD Calico Island
146.2 – 144.5 LBD Osborne Island
144 – 140.5 RBD Harlow Island Division Middle Miss NWR
140.5 RBD Saline Creek
140.5 RBD Truman Access Boat Ramp
139.5 – 136.5 LBD Salt Lake Island
154.3 – 132.3 LBD Fort Chartres Island
132.2 LBD Chartres Landing
132.2 LBD Fort De Chartres
133.7 RBD Top End of Establishment Island
132.5 – 129.6 RBD Establishment Chute/Schmidt’s Island
128.7 RBD Lawrence Hollow/Magnolia Hollow Conservation Area
127 RBD Tower Rock Stone Company Quarry
125.6 RBD Ste. Genevieve and Modoc Ferry
125.6 LBD Consolidation Coal Company, Kellogg Dock
122.5 RBD Ste. Genevieve Harbor/Gabouri Creek
122.5 LBD Upper Moro Island/Back Channel
  Moro Island
120.4 RBD New Bourbon Port Authority
117.8 – 115.8 RBD Beaver Island
117.4 LBD Kaskaskia River
117 LBD Ellis Grove Landing
116 – 111 LBD Opposite Cherokee Dikes
110.5 RBD Access to St. Mary’s Boat Ramp Via Old River
Channel/Saline Creek  
110.5 – 109.7 RBD Horse Island
Saline Creek  
Switching to the Middle Mississippi Chester Gage (CHG)  
Chester Gage (CHG)  
Water Levels and Paddling Below Chester (To Cape Girardeau)  
Chester Gage Water Levels and How They Affect the Town of Chester and Nearby Surroundings  
109.9 Chester Bridge
109.5 LBD Chester Boat Ramp
Chester, Illinois  
Chester Downstram  
Middle Mississippi National Wildlife Refuge  
106.5 LBD Mary’s River
106.5 – 104 LBD Turkey Bluffs State Fish and Wildlife Area
105.5 – 103.8 RBD Crain’s Island
102.5 – 101 LBD Rockwood Island
101 – 100 LBD Liberty Island
100 – 98 RBD Jones Point Island
98 -87 LBD Liberty Bar
97 – 95 LBD Jones Towhead
96 RBD Roman Landing
94.5 RBD Cinque L’Homme Creek
94.3 RBD Red Rock Landing Conservation Area
93 – 88.5 LBD Wilkinson Island Middle Miss NWR
90 RBD Seventy-Six Conservation Area and Boat Access
88.4 LBD Lacour’s Island
88.3 RBD Star Landing
87.2 RBD Cumberland Rock
85 – 83 RBD Gill’s Point Bar
84 – 83 LBD Fountain Bluff
82.8 LBD Fountain Bluff
81.3 LBD Wittenburg Boat Ramp
80.8 LBD Grand Tower – Devil’s Bake Oven (Rock Cliff)
80.5 LBD Devil’s Backbone Park & Campground
The River to river Trail (American Discovery Trail)  
80 RBD Tower Rock
79.7 LBD Grand Tower Boat Ramp/Seawall
80.7 LBD Grand Tower, Illinois
79 – 76.5 LBD Grand Tower Island
79 – 77.5 RBD Cottonwood Bar
76.6 – 75.7 LBD Big Muddy Island
75.7 LBD Big Muddy River
75.3 RBD Apple Creek
74.5 RBD Hines Boat Ramp (Dysfunctional)
74 – 63 LBD Hanging Dog Island
73.9 – 71.6 LBD Crawford Towhead
71.6 RBD Hanging Dog Bluff
69 RBD Indian Creek
69 – 65.6 RBD Trail of Tears State Park
67.5 RBD Trail of Tears Overlook
Bald Knob Cross and the Bald Know Wilderness  
66.6 RBD Mocassin Springs Harbor And Boat Ramp
66.6 RBD MIssissippi River Campground (Trail of Tears State Park)
66.3 RBD Mocassin Spring Creek
63 – 61 LBD Hamburg Landing Dikes
62.5 – 56.6 RBD Schenimann Chute
62 – 57 RBD Windy Bar Conservation Area
61 – 55 LBD Picayune Chute
62.8 – 54.6 LBD Devil’s Island/Swift Sure Towhead
56 – 53.7 LBD Minton Point Bar
55.3 RBD Flora Creek
54.5 RBD Juden Creek
54.1 RBD Cape Rock
Middle Mississippi – Cape Girardeau Gage (CGG)  
Water Levels and Paddling Below Cape Girardeau (To Cairo)  
Cape Girardeau Gage Water Levels and How They Affect the Town of Cape Girardeau and Nearby Surroundings  
52.7 Red Star Boat Ramp
52.2 LBD Cape Girardeau Flood Wall
Approaching the Ohio River  
51.5 Cape Girardeau (Bill Emerson) Memorial Bridge
51 LBD Giboney Island
51 – 47 LBD Marquette Island
51 – 47 Cape Bend Chute (Marquette Island Back Channel)
48.8 RBD Castor River Diversion Channel
48 RBD Shoutheast Missouri Port Authority/Cape Girardeau
Slackwater Harbor  
46.2 RBD Gray’s Point
45.8 LBD Rock Island
45.5 LBD Clear Creek
46 – 40 Pawnee Hill/Thebes Dome
44 LBD Thebes, IL
43.8 Thebes Boat Ramp
43.7 Thebes Railroad Bridge
42 – 39 LBD Orchard Springs Island
42.0 RBD Uncle Joe Light
40.3 – 39.3 LBD Betsy’s Bar
Comemrce Rock  
39.7 RBD Commerce, MO
Entering the Bootheel  
39 -35 LBD Burnham Island
39 -35 LBD Santa Fe Chute
37.7 35.7 LBD Jack Pattern Chute
34 RBD Goose Island BLue Hole/Old River/Horseshoe Lake
Horseshoe Lake Nature Preserve  
34 – 33.3 RBD Billings Island
33 – 32.7 RBD Lower Billings Island
31 LBD Doolan Chute (Power Island Chute)
31 -29 LBD Bumbgard ISland
31 – 29 LBD Burnham Island Bend
29.8 RBD Price Landing
27 Hacker Towhead Levee Break
26.5 – 24.5 RBD Buffalo Island
25 LBD Brown’s Chute (Top End)
25 – 21 LBD Brown’s Bar/Dogtooth Island
21 – 20 LBD Dogtooth Bar
20.2 Thompson Boat Ramp
18 – 17 RBD Thompson Towhead
Approaching the Ohiao River Valley  
16.8 LBD Scudder Bar
14.5 – 11.8 LBD Sister Chute
14.3 – 13.5 RBD Island No. 28
13.5 – 11.8 RBD Island No. 29
13.5 – 11.8 RBD Island No. 29
13 LBD Cache River Diversion Canal
10.2 – 7.7 LBD Boston Bar
10.2 – 7.7 BD Boston Chute
7.5 Interstate 57 Bridge
5 – 1.8 LBD Angelo Towhead
5 – 1.8 LBD Angelo Chute
1.3 Cairo Highway Bridge
Cairo, Illinois  
Cairo Landings  
Cairo Camping  
0.8 LBD Fort Defiance
Continuing Downstream from Cairo  
Cairo to Caruthersville
The Lower Mississippi and Ohio River Forecast  
Lower Mississippi Mileage  
Switching to the Cairo Gauge  
Referring to the Cairo Gauge (CG)  
Cairo Gauge  
Dikes and Water Level According to the Cairo Gauge  
Dike Exposure Using the Cairo Gauge  
Effects on Cairo and Surrounding Towns in Regards to Cairo Gage  
Cairo Gauge: Effects on Cairo and Sorrounding Communities  
Historic Highs and Lows According to the Cairo Gage  
954.5 Ohio/Middle Miss River Confluence
Start of the Lower Mississippi River  
The Kentucky Hills (Loess Bluffs)  
Greatest Dust Storm Ever  
954 – 953 RBD Birds Point Dikes
953 – 952 LBD Wickliffe Reach
952.6 LBD Quaker Oats Light
952 RBD New Madrid Floodway Inflow Crevasse
952 RBD Bird’s Blue Hole
952 LBD Wickliffe Boat Ramp
951 LBD Wickliffe Docks and Wharfing
951 LBD Wickliffe Cross (Jefferson Hill Memorial Cross)
951 LBD Wicliffe Bluff (1st Kentucky Bluff)
950.2 LBD Mayfield Boat Ramp
950 LBD Mayfield Creek
950 LBD Westvaco Pulp Mill Dock
949 RBD Norfolk Landing
949 – 946 LBD Island No. 1
Zadok Cramer: The Navigator  
947.7 RBD Pritchard Boat Ramp
950.5 – 945.5 RBD Pritchard Revetment
944.5 LBD Island No. 1 Boat Ramp
943.6 LBD Carlisle County Boat Ramp
945 – 943 RBD O’Bryan Towhead/Pritchard Dikes
943 – 939 RBD Chute of Island No.2 (Lucas Bend)
942 – 939 LBD Campbell Dikes
938 – 937 LBD 2nd Kentucky Loess Bluff
Chain Across the Mississippi?  
937.2 LBD Columbus-Belmont State Park
937 LBD Iron Bank Light
937 LBD Columbus Boat Ramp
936.9 LBD Ingram Drydock
Wild Miles Below Columbus  
935 – 934 LBD South Colombus Island
934 LBD Chalk Cliff Bluffs (3rd Kentucky Loess Bluff)
934 – 933 RBD Sandy Bluffs Opposite Wolf Island Bar
935 – 930 LBD Wolf Island Bar
935 – 930 LBD Wolf Island Chute
First Order (Big) Islands on the Lower Mississippi River  
930 – 927 RBD Moore Islands
930 – 928 LBD Williams Landing Bar
926.6 LBD Samuel Light Sand Dune
926 – 924 LBD Beckwith Bend Bar
924.6 RBD Dorena Boat Ramp
924 RBD Dorena Crevasse
922.6 RBD Hickman Ferry Landing
921.5 LBD Hickman Harbor
921.5 LBD 4th Kentucky Bluff: Hickman, Kentucky
The Wiggles  
922 – 921 RBD Dorena Towhead
918 – 915 RBD Seven Island Conservation Area
917 – 916 RBD Island No. 7
Bald Eagles  
916 – 911 RBD Island No. 8
917 – 916 RBD Big Oak Tree State Park
926 – 924 LBD Beckwith Bend Bar
915 RBD (Back Channel) Bend of Island No. 8 Boat Ramp
914 – 913 LBD French Point Gravel Bar
911.5 LBD Island No. 8 Chute Boat Ramp
910 907 LBD Milton Bell Bar
907 – 900 RBD Donaldson Point Dikes
905 – 887 Weclcome to Tennessee?
908 – 905 LBD Donaldson Point Conservation Area (And Also RBD 896 – 893)
Reelfoot Lake State Park  
The New Madrid Earthquake  
Amazing Natural Phenomena Result of the Earthquake  
902 – 898 RBD Winchester Towhead/Island No. 10
902.5 – 897 RBD Winchester Chute
902 – 899 LBD Below Island No. 9 Dikes
899.1 LBD Slough Neck LAnding Boat Ramp
Slough Landing Neck (Bessie’s Neck)  
Bessie’s Bend/Kentucky Bend  
896.5 – 894.5 RBD Hotchkiss Bend Dikes and Bar
890.5 – 889.5 RBD Morrison Towhead
890.5 RBD Sleeping Giant Eddy
890 – 883 LBD Kentucky Point Bar
889.5 RBD St. John’s Bayou
The St. John’s Bayou/New Madrid Floodway Project  
New Madrid  
889 RBD New Madrid Boat Ramp
888.5 – 886.3 RBD New Madrid Bar
Losing Our Tents on the Bottom End of the Kentucky Point Bar  
885 – 883.8 RBD New Madrid Industrial Reach
883 – 879 RBD Island No. 11
882.3 RBD Welcome to Tennessee
880.2 LBD Kentucky Bend Crossover Portage
879 LBD Tiptonville Chute
878 LBD Marr Towhead Secret Sandbar
878 – 875.5 LBD Matt Towhead
877.2 RBD Williams Point
876.5 RBD Linda Boat Ramp
874 – 867 RBD Stewart Towhead
873.7 LBD Bixby Towhead Light
872.2 LBD Tiptonville Boat Ramp
869 LBD Sheep’s Ridge Break
868.9 LBD Sheep Ridge Secret Camp
867 -861 Little Cypress Bend
867 -861 RBD Bar of Island No. 13
Caruthersville Gage (CUG) Water Levels Caruthersville to Memphis  
Dikes and Water Levels Caruthersville to Memphis  
860 RBD Secret Bar Kennedy Point
860 – 855 RBD Kennedy Bar
859.3 – 867.5 LBD Lee Towhead Back Channel
856.2 LBD Fritz Landing Boat Ramp
855 – 852 RBD Robinson Bayou Bar
855 – 850 LBD Island No. 14
855 – 850 LBD Island No. 15/Little Prairie Bend
Options for Paddlers in the Caruthersville Stretch  
Above Caruthersville  
Below Caruthersville  
850 RBD Caruthersville Harbor Boat Ramp (1/2 Mile Up Harbor)
849 RBD Mouth of the Caruthersville Harbor
848 RBD Trinity Barge Fabrication Plant
847 LBD Blaker Towhead
846.5 RBD Caruthersville
846 RBD Isle of Capri/Lady Luck Casino (Casino Inn & Suites)
  Isle of Capri/Lady Luck Casino (Casino Inn & Suites)
Appendix  
Chickasaw Bluffs 850 – 737 CARUTHERSVILLE TO MEMPHIS
Upper Delta 737 – 663 MEMPHIS TO HELENA
Middle Delta 663 – 537 HELENA TO GREENVILLE
Lower Delta 537 – 437 GREENVILLE TO VICKSBURG
Loess Bluffs 437 – 225 VICKSBURG TO BATON ROUGE
Atchafalaya River 159 – 0 SIMMESPORT TO MORGAN CITY
Louisiana Delta 229 – 10 BATON ROUGE TO VENICE
Birdsfoot Delta 10 – 0 VENICE TO GULF OF MEXICO