Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-05-25
ARK aNSAS' SUNK LANDS.
Prairies TransformeH Into Lakes in
Single Night.
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
when people living in what is now the
eastern part of Craighead county. Ark,
Went 70 bed ore night in the latter part Of
December, 1871 said a former resident Of
that region. they closed their eyes on
one of the most beautiful and fertile
stretches of land that ever man saw. The
region was a series Of rolling prairies. in
tcr@persed with heavy forests. The ST.
Francis river ard its twiu sister, the Lit
tie river. wound through the prairies and
around the edges of the woods, which cast
their shadows on the waters from high and
solid banks. When those residents looked
out upon the prospect presented the EeNt
morning they must have been surprised.
In place of the rivers and the rolling prai
ries vast lakes spread away over the area.
In places above the surface of the largest
Of these sheets Of water so suddenly
brought into existence the tops of trees
could be seen, but in others the woods had
been entirely submerged. The land for ~
miles up and down the river, and for
width Of probably sixty miles, had sunk
below the surface, and water had filed the
great cavities thus formed. The area thus
wiped off the face OF the earth came t. be
called the Sunk Lands. and that is its name
today.
To-day the entire area of the Sunk Lands
Is chain Of great cypress and gum
sWamps, with here and there an extent of
| old prairie and remnant of ancient for
! cstS diVcrsfying the landscape. The cy
press grows luXuriantly in the lakes while
( the gum trees and species of sycamore
! occupy the swamus The trees are fes-
| TONED with massive growth of parasitic
! vines mOSSeS. The valley is probably
| the most picturesque stretch of aquatic
! scenery in the entire south. Steamboats,
| make their way at a favorable season of
! the year III the tOrtuOUS course through the
| long and narrow Vistas beneath t e over
| hanging and mOss-hung trees the rivers
| still retaining their old names. the ST.
| Francis being navgable from it, mouth.
| near Helena, on the Mississippi for poe
miles.
ITO the canoest the weird lakes of the
| Arkansas Sunk Lands offer a paradise e-s-
| pCc1aliy If he is lover Of sport with the
! game fsh and swarm with wild fowl of the
| choicest species. In the gum and sycamore
/ sWampS the beaver, otter. mink raccOou
and poSSum are as abundant today as thev
| ever were anywhere. Black bass southern
| bass, a rare and gamy SpeckIed trout of
uneXcelled flavor, which grows to seven
pounds in weight; sun perch gar the most
! enormous catfish and a fish known down
| there as the siVer-sided perch give the
| angler who seeks the Sunk Lands such
sport as he VIII never forget. The silver
slded perch L never saw anywhere else 1t
| is the handSOmest fish | ever looked at and
| is as gamy Il black bass | caught one
VI inc Cdtnsh OF those waters once that
| weighed ninety pounds The old negro
VINO roWed the boat declared that ii was a
| ieNathan or the deep, and it was a levia-
| than OF that deep and no mistake.
| II any one should ask me where to go
| hshinS should send him down to the sunk
| Lands by all odds. Those waters have one
| drawback, perhaps, to the modern south
erh tourist There are no alligators there
But they We got the next thing to them
gars eleven feet long"