Mud Island Museum question

Mississippi River Museum at Mud Island OK

John: Unless the situation has changed in the last few days the Mississippi River Museum at Mud Island is OK. I checked their website and they are, of course, closed due to downtown streets being flooded near the park. I've seen aerial views of Mud Island on television news reports and am relieved that the museum building appears high and dry.

I've been fearfully wondering about the Tunica RiverPark Museum, which surely must be inundated inasmuch as the nearby casinos in that same area are well under water. Many of the prize artifacts, such as relics from the Civil War gunboat CAIRO, steamboat whistles and Paul McKinney's excellent models of the Str. MISSISSIPPI III and M/V MISSISSIPPI IV, are on the second floor of the museum building, but I hope they removed ALL of their exhibits to safety in time!

Perhaps Capt. Bob Reynolds can provide us with up to date information concerning the situation with the museums. Bobby ???

We went to Memphis today, in fact! Everything looks fine from what I could see as far as Mud Island is concerned. It was built with a record flood in mind. In fact, Keith, you may remember that there was a dredge working for about 2 years dredging the Mississippi and piping fill material out to build up the roadway for Interstate 40. After they finished that, they did the same thing to build up Mud Island. Otherwise, it would have been inundated a month ago.

When I last went by Tunica Riverpark, the water was dangerously close to topping the bank. There was maybe 4 or 5 feet of freeboard there. The river has come up a good 8 feet since then.

Making Mud Island

Thanks Bob! Indeed, I do remember when they were constructing the Mud Island Park (which opened in 1982) and I have some slides somewhere of the dredging operations, taken from the DELTA QUEEN. I also have dredged up some memories that Jan Clement, the first curator of the Mississippi River Museum, came to an S&D meeting in the late 1970's and made a presentation about all that had to be done at Mud Island (technically a peninsula in Wolf River) to make the new buildings flood proof. I hope they calculated correctly!

Keith,

Here´s an article about the Tunica River Museum. They got water but at least all exhibits are safe.

Carmen

Just as I feared...

Thanks, Carmen, for posting the article concerning the Tunica RiverPark Museum. Sounds like they will have plenty to deal with when the water recedes and I wish them well.

Thankfully, we haven't had to pack up furnishings and exhibits in the Howard Museum due to flooding. During the historic flood of 1937 the Howard family dealt with 7.1 feet of water sloshing through the house. Sixty years later the muddy waters of the 1997 flood covered the Jeffboat shipyard, Market Street and then crept up through the front gate into the yard of the mansion. Herewith is an aerial photo, taken on March 6th of that year, looking down on the mansion and carriage house, with Jeffboat and flooded Market Street to the right. Note that we are OUTSIDE the earthen levee, which shows at the left along High Street.

River Stay Away from Our Door!