Table Of Content

® Printedonrecycledpaper HERITAGE STUDY Volume2 September 1998 LOWER MISSISSIPPI DELTA REGION Arkansas,Illinois, Kentucky,Louisiana,Mississippi,Missouri,Tennessee UnitedStatesDepartmentoftheInterior•NationalParkService Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation http://archive.org/details/heritagestudylowOOnati 1 CONTENTS HistoryandCultureoftheLowerMississippiDeltaRegion Introduction 3 VignettesoftheLowerMississippiDeltaRegion'sHeritage 7 AMulticulturedRegion 7 DeltaCulturesReflectedintheLandscape 9 DeltaCu—lturesinLiteratureandMusic 1 Indians TheRegion'sFirstInhabitants 14 African-Americans:FromSlaverytoEquality 21 TheDeltaEconomy 29 TradeontheRiver 29 Agriculture:TheRegion'sTraditionalEconomicMainstay 30 OtherEconomicActivity 32 TheCivilWar 34 OverviewoftheEvents 34 Illinois 37 Kentucky 38 Louisiana 39 Missouri 40 Tennessee 41 TheNaturalEnvironment TheDeltaandItsResources 45 GeneralOverview 45 Geology 47 Ecoregions 48 ForestResources 54 Agriculture 54 MineralExplorationandExtraction 55 Fisheries 56 EndangeredandExoticSpecies 56 NationalWildlifeRefuges 57 TheMississippiFlyway 59 LowerMississippiRiverFloods 60 ExtraordinaryNaturalEvents 64 EnvironmentalIssuesandChallengesfortheFuture 68 OutdoorRecreation/SocioeconomicEnvironment RecreationalOpportunities 73 OutdoorRecreationDemand 73 OutdoorRecreationSupply 78 SocioeconomicsoftheRegion 87 Economy 87 Migration 89 Transportation 90 SocioeconomicProfile 93 Contents Appendixes/Bibliography/StudyTeam AppendixA:NationalNaturalLandmarks 101 AppendixB:NationalHistoricLandmarksandHistoricDistricts 105 AppendixC:U.S.FishandWildlifeListofEndangeredSpecies 123 AppendixD:DeltaRegionMuseumSurvey-SummaryofSurveyFindings 128 AppendixE:African-AmericanWorkshops 150 AppendixF:AmericanIndianMeetings 158 AppendixG:RecreationalResources —163 AppendixH:DeltaRegionResources DataAnalysis 169 Bibliography 288 StudyTeam 293 MAPS StudyArea 5 Ecoregions 49 RecreationalOpportunities 79 ScenicRoadwaysandBicycleTrails 81 NationalHistoricLandmarks/NationalNaturalLandmarks 103 J HISTORY AND CULTURE OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI DELTA REGION INTRODUCTION MuchofwhatisprofoundlyAmerican-whatpeopleloveaboutAmerica hascomefromtheDelta. The LowerMississippi Deltaisavastand tionalresources,presentsoneopportunity vitalpartoftheAmericanlandscape.This forachievingeconomicgainintheDelta. broad,alluvial valleyreachesfromsouth- ernIllinoistothesoutheasterntipof ThisvolumeIIoftheLowerMississippi Louisiana,coversmorethan90,000miles DeltaRegionHeritageStudyisacompan- ofriversandstreams,morethan3million iondocumenttovolumeI,whichwas acresofland,anddictatesmuchofthe releasedtothepublicinMarch 1998.To- region'slandscapeandlanduse.TheDelta getherthevolumesrepresentoneofthe formsthemostimportantbirdandwater- Nat—ionalParkService'sresponsestoTitle fowlmigrationcorridoronthecontinent XI LowerMississippiDeltaRegion andsupportsNorthAmerica'slargest InitiativespassedbyCongressin 1994. wetlandareaandbottomlandhardwood forest. VolumeIcontainsbackgroundinformation onthestudyarea,legislativemandates, TheDelta'sculturaltraditionsareasrich concepts,andmanagementalternativesfor anddiverseasitsnaturalresources.Thisis conserving,managing,andusingthe alandofconvergingcultureswithaunique heritageresourcesoftheDelta.Thissec- complexityanddensityofhistory,prehis- ondvolumecontainsculturalandhistoric- tory,andculturalexpression.Overthe al,natural,recreational,andeconomic centuriesAmericanIndians,French,Arab, overviewsoftheDeltaandananalysison Spanish,African,German,English,Irish, morethan2,000resourcesthatarenow Scots-Irish,Jewish,Italian,Chinese, beingpreservedandused,ormayoffer Mexican,andSoutheastAsianpeoples opportunitiesforthe future,toattract haveestablishedandmaintainedtheir visitorstotheDelta.Thedescriptionsand distinctiveethnicidentities.Oftenthese analysiscontainedinthetablesinthe culturesintermingledtoformdiscreet,new appendixformadatabaseofinformationto culturalelementsfoundonlyintheDelta. guidethoseinterestedindeveloping heritagetourisminitiativesintheDelta. MillionsoftravelersvisittheDeltaeach yearandprovideover$17billionindirect Althoughtheresourcetablesmayseemall revenuetocountiesandparishes.Nearly inclusive,theyarenotacompletelistingof 300,000jobsaretravel-relatedwitha allthecultural,natural,orhistoricre- payrollofover$3billion.Heritagetourism sourcesoftheDelta. Rathertheyrepresent development,whichseekstoexpandand across-sectionoftheheritageresources revitalizeurbanandruraleconomic foundinthisdiverseandrichlytextured developmentopportunitiesthroughthe region.Cooperativeeffortsbetweenlocal preservation,management, andutilization residents,businesses,andgovernments ofnatural,historic,cultural, andrecrea- willbeneededtoachievethefullpotential ofheritagetourismopportunities illustrated HISTORYANDCULTUREOFTHELOWERMISSISSIPPIDELTAREGION bythesediverseresourcesandtoensure beusedtogether.Theygivesomeinsight theinclusionofallinterestedpartiesand intothecomplexityofthesocial,political, sites. andnaturalenvironmentsofthisvery specialpartofthenation.Togetherthe Alongwiththeanalysisofresources,this volumescreateabasefromwhichCon- volumealsopresentsacomprehensivelist gressmightmakedecisionsregarding ofnationalnatural landmarks,national futureplanningand/orimplementation historiclandmarksandhistoricdistricts, strategiesrelatedtoheritagepreservation andsomeoftherecreationalresources andheritagetourisminitiativesinthe foundintheDelta. Delta. ThetwovolumesoftheLowerMississippi DeltaRegionHeritageStudyaremeantto