Old vs New Delta

[TWR]

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On May 3, 1893, a group of sporting gentlemen from the Delta banded together and formed what is now the oldest incorporated hunting club in the State of Mississippi. According to it's bylaws, the Swan Lake Hunting Club held as it's purpose "to afford oppurtunity to it's members for healthful recreation and relaxation from business." The shooting lodge was located on the banks of Swan Lake in south Washington County and even though it owned no property, it held a perpetual lease on 5-6,000 acres of primeaval swamp and virgin timberlands. It's membership stood as a virtual "who's who" of the Mississippi Delta. Senator Leroy Percy, O.B.Crittenden, George Metcalfe, Merritt Williams, H.L.Foote, Nathan Goldstein and many more very powerful and influential men were founding members of the club. Mentioned in the book Rising Tide, "the city's (Greenville) most exclusive gathering place was the Swan Lake Club, a shooting club outside the city. Since anyone in the Delta acceptable for membership already belonged, no guests were allowed who lived within a hundred miles."
Myriads of wild ducks, geese and swans made their annual migratory journey to Swan Lake, located only a few miles east of the Mississippi River and within sight of Lake Washington and Lake Jackson. It's location as a prime habitat for migrating waterfowl was unequaled in the Delta. An old oxbow of the Mississippi River, Swan Lake was a sump in the natural drainage of Black Bayou, Granicus Bayou and Silver Lake, filling up each winter and spring and slowly filtering it's excess capacity southward through Steele Bayou and into the Mississippi north of Vicksburg.
In dry years the hardwood acorns that floated in the swamp took root and sprouted, growing into huge mast producing trees annually dropping thousands of tons of pin oak, willow, red and swamp oak acorns, the favorite food of migrating mallards, wood ducks, pintails, teal, widgeons and gadwalls. Bald Eagles nested in the tall treetops. With the huge oaks nestled in amongst the stately cypress trees, the swamp was a virtual priceless ecosystem for bear, deer, panther, wild turkey and waterfowl. Ridges rising out of the slow moving water held prehistoric Indian Mounds amidst the dense hardwood forrest and almost impenetrable cane brakes. The Indians settled there because of the abundance of wild game and the proximity to the main avenue of commerce, what the Chippewas called the Mee-iss-see-bee, "Father of Waters", the Mississippi River.
Wade Hampton, whose son would become a decorated Confederate Gereral and later the govenor of South Carolina, came to Mississippi in the early 1800's and bought a large plantation that encompassed a great part of the Swan Lake area and named it Bear Garden. Documented tales of exciting and dangerous bear hunts are recorded. It was not very far south of that area that the ex-slave and Confederate Calvaryman Holt Collier guided President Theodore Roosevelt on his infamous bear hunt at Smede's Plantation close to Onward, Mississippi. The south delta was the last wilderness area that had not been extensively logged. A train ran from Greenville southward around the east side of Lake Washington to the immense cotton plantations and dense forrests being logged. Later, the first concrete road in the Delta would head south out of Greenville towards Lake Washington. Gentlemen could ride the train south and get off at Hampton and ride in mule drawn wagons to Swan Lake for shooting or around the bottom of Lake Washington and up to the Highland Club to spend the weekend playing cards and enjoying themselves. (some, of course, having told their wives they were heading to their club, would continue on to Vicksburg and all the amenities that awaited them there.)
The duck shooting in Swan Lake was unsurpassed anywhere in the state. Swan Lake is actually a naturally flooded greentimber reservoir. In the flat water areas, huge bald cypress trees stand sentinel, their air seeking knees growing taller with each flood and drought cycle. There was actually very little open water in Swan Lake. Gin Slough and Long Pond being the most prevelant and they only because of the depth of the water. Only a few duck blinds were ever built because of the hundreds of thousands of ducks that used the area. Trails were cut and maintained each year and small handbuilt cypress pushboats were utilized to move about the swamp. Local farmhands would readily be available during the winter months to push the boats through the trails. The shooter would sit in the front of the boat in a sawed-off slat-backed cane bottomed wooden chair. As the poler slowly pushed the boat along the trails, the sky would often be black with ducks, milling around, circling overhead, falling and tumbling through the treetops to get at the acorns and legumes floating on the shallow water. In the old days there were no game laws or limits pertaining to migratory waterfowl. The Swan Lake Hunting Club was the first in the state to self-impose limits on ducks and geese. You could not go into the swamp with more than 100 shells. Your bag limit was based on how good a shot you were.
Migrating waterfowl are very site specific and will return to the same wintering grounds year after year as long as water and food are available. During a drought cycle in the late 1940's, it was decided that a ditch needed to be dug and a large irrigation well installed to supply water to the lake during dry years. My daddy, owner of Burdine Construction Company, was contracted to dig a ditch almost a half a mile long to get the water to the middle of the lake. The ditch was dug and the very next year, with cheap EPA power supplying the large well, millions of gallons of water were pumped out of the ground and into the ditch. After a month's time, the water never made it to the end of the ditch. Huge fissures had cracked open during the extremely dry summer months and swallowed back up all the water before it could ever reach it's final destination.
In 1936, in an effort to link together a chain of refuges to provide for the overwintering needs of ducks and geese in the Mississippi Flyway, the Yazoo Wildlife Refuge was formed with an intial purchase of 2,166 acres. Authorization was given by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act. Further land acquisition continued and in 1961, the refuge acquired the land and timber rights to the 4,000 acre Swan Lake. In doing so, the hunting leases held by the Swan Lake Hunting Club went away, effectively eliminating anymore duck hunting activity in the area. Today the total acerage of the Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge is almost 13,000 acres
Over the years, Swan Lake began silting up, slowly choking out the regeneration of oak trees. Pocketed water killed everything but the cypress. Willow trees and button brush began to take over in the still water. Agricultural run-off began killing other mast producing trees and fishing was banned due to high levels of DDT and Toxaphene. As part of the Yazoo Basin Projects, a plan was devised to channelize Steele Bayou and convert the old Swan Lake bed into 4 compartmentalized chambers. Structures were built to effectively divert the silt and chemical laden water around Swan Lake. Weirs and water control structures maintain a proper water level in the compartments and through the years 96 structures have been built to creat 70 impoundments providing an abundance of different habitat areas.Over 2,000 acres of marginal farmland have been restored to bottomland hardwoods. The latest land acquisition was from a willing seller. The Cox catfish ponds were bought and converted into totally controlled waterfowl habitat. Frequent visitors to the Cox Ponds are white and glossy ibis, little and great blue heron, great and snowy egrets, and a wide variety of overwintering dabbling and diving ducks. A very well established wood duck nest box program produces over 2,000 hatchlings a year. The American alligator abounds on the refuge and huge deer are often sought and killed during alloted hunting seasons. Wild turkey roam freely and the black bear is being successfully re-introduced to the area.
There is some controversy as to whether the impoundments are working properly to produce the desired results in Swan Lake. The annual duck migration seems to have shifted eastward to the Tallahatchie River bottoms. The Corps of Engineers annually dump excess water from Enid, Sardis, Grenada and Arkabutla Lakes to prepare them for winter rains and spring flood retention, effectively flooding the river bottoms and agricultural fields in the fall. This draws a great portion of the waterfowl that used to enjoy the close proximity to Ole Man River. In any event, at 114 years old, the Swan Lake Hunting Club is still in existence today and stands alone as the oldest incorporated hunting club in the State of Mississippi.

[Po Monkey Lounger]

"The Corps of Engineers annually dump excess water from Enid, Sardis, Grenada and Arkabutla Lakes to prepare them for winter rains and spring flood retention, effectively flooding the river bottoms and agricultural fields in the fall. This draws a great portion of the waterfowl that used to enjoy the close proximity to Ole Man River."

-------------------------------

Not anymore. The recent COE dredging of the Tallahatchie, Yalabousha, Yazoo and other rivers in the Yazoo River Basin has eliminated most, if not all, of the seasonal flooding.

[RIP EM]

Saw the sillos against the WESTERN sky ?

IMHO,..... There be the problem !

If afternoon duck huntin a good hole dont kill it,..... It cant be kilt !

Rip Em !

[Wingman]

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On May 3, 1893, a group of sporting gentlemen from the Delta banded together and formed what is now the oldest incorporated hunting club in the State of Mississippi. According to it's bylaws, the Swan Lake Hunting Club held as it's purpose "to afford oppurtunity to it's members for healthful recreation and relaxation from business." The shooting lodge was located on the banks of Swan Lake in south Washington County and even though it owned no property, it held a perpetual lease on 5-6,000 acres of primeaval swamp and virgin timberlands. It's membership stood as a virtual "who's who" of the Mississippi Delta. Senator Leroy Percy, O.B.Crittenden, George Metcalfe, Merritt Williams, H.L.Foote, Nathan Goldstein and many more very powerful and influential men were founding members of the club. Mentioned in the book Rising Tide, "the city's (Greenville) most exclusive gathering place was the Swan Lake Club, a shooting club outside the city. Since anyone in the Delta acceptable for membership already belonged, no guests were allowed who lived within a hundred miles."
Myriads of wild ducks, geese and swans made their annual migratory journey to Swan Lake, located only a few miles east of the Mississippi River and within sight of Lake Washington and Lake Jackson. It's location as a prime habitat for migrating waterfowl was unequaled in the Delta. An old oxbow of the Mississippi River, Swan Lake was a sump in the natural drainage of Black Bayou, Granicus Bayou and Silver Lake, filling up each winter and spring and slowly filtering it's excess capacity southward through Steele Bayou and into the Mississippi north of Vicksburg.
In dry years the hardwood acorns that floated in the swamp took root and sprouted, growing into huge mast producing trees annually dropping thousands of tons of pin oak, willow, red and swamp oak acorns, the favorite food of migrating mallards, wood ducks, pintails, teal, widgeons and gadwalls. Bald Eagles nested in the tall treetops. With the huge oaks nestled in amongst the stately cypress trees, the swamp was a virtual priceless ecosystem for bear, deer, panther, wild turkey and waterfowl. Ridges rising out of the slow moving water held prehistoric Indian Mounds amidst the dense hardwood forrest and almost impenetrable cane brakes. The Indians settled there because of the abundance of wild game and the proximity to the main avenue of commerce, what the Chippewas called the Mee-iss-see-bee, "Father of Waters", the Mississippi River.
Wade Hampton, whose son would become a decorated Confederate Gereral and later the govenor of South Carolina, came to Mississippi in the early 1800's and bought a large plantation that encompassed a great part of the Swan Lake area and named it Bear Garden. Documented tales of exciting and dangerous bear hunts are recorded. It was not very far south of that area that the ex-slave and Confederate Calvaryman Holt Collier guided President Theodore Roosevelt on his infamous bear hunt at Smede's Plantation close to Onward, Mississippi. The south delta was the last wilderness area that had not been extensively logged. A train ran from Greenville southward around the east side of Lake Washington to the immense cotton plantations and dense forrests being logged. Later, the first concrete road in the Delta would head south out of Greenville towards Lake Washington. Gentlemen could ride the train south and get off at Hampton and ride in mule drawn wagons to Swan Lake for shooting or around the bottom of Lake Washington and up to the Highland Club to spend the weekend playing cards and enjoying themselves. (some, of course, having told their wives they were heading to their club, would continue on to Vicksburg and all the amenities that awaited them there.)
The duck shooting in Swan Lake was unsurpassed anywhere in the state. Swan Lake is actually a naturally flooded greentimber reservoir. In the flat water areas, huge bald cypress trees stand sentinel, their air seeking knees growing taller with each flood and drought cycle. There was actually very little open water in Swan Lake. Gin Slough and Long Pond being the most prevelant and they only because of the depth of the water. Only a few duck blinds were ever built because of the hundreds of thousands of ducks that used the area. Trails were cut and maintained each year and small handbuilt cypress pushboats were utilized to move about the swamp. Local farmhands would readily be available during the winter months to push the boats through the trails. The shooter would sit in the front of the boat in a sawed-off slat-backed cane bottomed wooden chair. As the poler slowly pushed the boat along the trails, the sky would often be black with ducks, milling around, circling overhead, falling and tumbling through the treetops to get at the acorns and legumes floating on the shallow water. In the old days there were no game laws or limits pertaining to migratory waterfowl. The Swan Lake Hunting Club was the first in the state to self-impose limits on ducks and geese. You could not go into the swamp with more than 100 shells. Your bag limit was based on how good a shot you were.
Migrating waterfowl are very site specific and will return to the same wintering grounds year after year as long as water and food are available. During a drought cycle in the late 1940's, it was decided that a ditch needed to be dug and a large irrigation well installed to supply water to the lake during dry years. My daddy, owner of Burdine Construction Company, was contracted to dig a ditch almost a half a mile long to get the water to the middle of the lake. The ditch was dug and the very next year, with cheap EPA power supplying the large well, millions of gallons of water were pumped out of the ground and into the ditch. After a month's time, the water never made it to the end of the ditch. Huge fissures had cracked open during the extremely dry summer months and swallowed back up all the water before it could ever reach it's final destination.
In 1936, in an effort to link together a chain of refuges to provide for the overwintering needs of ducks and geese in the Mississippi Flyway, the Yazoo Wildlife Refuge was formed with an intial purchase of 2,166 acres. Authorization was given by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act. Further land acquisition continued and in 1961, the refuge acquired the land and timber rights to the 4,000 acre Swan Lake. In doing so, the hunting leases held by the Swan Lake Hunting Club went away, effectively eliminating anymore duck hunting activity in the area. Today the total acerage of the Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge is almost 13,000 acres
Over the years, Swan Lake began silting up, slowly choking out the regeneration of oak trees. Pocketed water killed everything but the cypress. Willow trees and button brush began to take over in the still water. Agricultural run-off began killing other mast producing trees and fishing was banned due to high levels of DDT and Toxaphene. As part of the Yazoo Basin Projects, a plan was devised to channelize Steele Bayou and convert the old Swan Lake bed into 4 compartmentalized chambers. Structures were built to effectively divert the silt and chemical laden water around Swan Lake. Weirs and water control structures maintain a proper water level in the compartments and through the years 96 structures have been built to creat 70 impoundments providing an abundance of different habitat areas.Over 2,000 acres of marginal farmland have been restored to bottomland hardwoods. The latest land acquisition was from a willing seller. The Cox catfish ponds were bought and converted into totally controlled waterfowl habitat. Frequent visitors to the Cox Ponds are white and glossy ibis, little and great blue heron, great and snowy egrets, and a wide variety of overwintering dabbling and diving ducks. A very well established wood duck nest box program produces over 2,000 hatchlings a year. The American alligator abounds on the refuge and huge deer are often sought and killed during alloted hunting seasons. Wild turkey roam freely and the black bear is being successfully re-introduced to the area.
There is some controversy as to whether the impoundments are working properly to produce the desired results in Swan Lake. The annual duck migration seems to have shifted eastward to the Tallahatchie River bottoms. The Corps of Engineers annually dump excess water from Enid, Sardis, Grenada and Arkabutla Lakes to prepare them for winter rains and spring flood retention, effectively flooding the river bottoms and agricultural fields in the fall. This draws a great portion of the waterfowl that used to enjoy the close proximity to Ole Man River. In any event, at 114 years old, the Swan Lake Hunting Club is still in existence today and stands alone as the oldest incorporated hunting club in the State of Mississippi.

I read that article in the latest Delta Wildlife magazine. Good read.