|
Lake Whittington is an oxbow lake located in Bolivar County, Mississippi and Desha County, Arkansas, United States. The Arkansas-Mississippi border follows the center of the narrow, curving lake. Prior to 1938, the north-south flowing Mississippi River curved east into Mississippi, flowed along Lake Whittington (then called "Bolivar Bend"), and then continued its north-south route. ==History== The town of Bolivar, Mississippi, located on the east shore of Bolivar Bend, was protected by a small levee prior to the Civil War. In 1863, the Union gunboat ''USS Conestoga'' cut the levee, causing significant flooding to the town and surrounding area. "Island No. 76" was located in Bolivar Bend, just north of Bolivar. During the Civil War, the island was used by the Union Army as a woodyard, and a group of freed slaves lived there, cutting and stacking wood.〔 In 1865, the Union transport ship ''James Watson'' ran aground on the island and caught fire, killing 24.〔 The island is now called "Goat Island". In 1933, the United States Army Corps of Engineers began construction of 13 cutoffs along the lower Mississippi River. Previous cutoffs had been constructed along the river, and were of commercial benefit because they allowed ships to bypass lengthy U-shaped bends. Typically, cutoffs were created by digging a channel across a peninsula, leaving the bypassed bend to form an oxbow lake. Lake Whittington was created when the "Caulk Neck Cutoff" was constructed across "Caulk Island" peninsula in 1937-1938.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lake Whittington」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|