The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-01-17
Ree|foot Lake, Born Of Earth.
quakeS, Has an Ugly Past

been cut away at the water line, and If
one does not know the open waterways
of the old bayou he constantly runs
aground on the stubs. Even old fish
ermen sometimes lose themselves in
the dead wilderness, and many man
has lost his life in storms on the lake,
the waves coming through the woods
with frightful violence, pounding skiffs
and dugouts to pieces on submerged
logs and stubs.
Fishermen tell of finding men in their
skiffs frozen to death in sleet storms as
they rode the gale tied to a stub. The
cormorants or water-turkeys, cry from
the naked branches with melancholy
voices, quite in keeping with the place.
The dismal aspect is relieved by the
American lotus, which here grows in its
full splendid beauty, the wide green
leaves resting upon the water, shading
the black bass, while the blossoms rise
above the surface in beautiful fluffs of
fragrant beauty, as though nature re-
GREETED the wilderness tragedy, and
would make amends by spreading flow.
ers of wonderful loneliness in the GENE
terry of her dead. The lake water covers
at least an area of, perhaps, twenty
five square miles, or $4,000 acres, judg-
ing by the Mississippi river commission
maps. Around the lake are swamps
which bring the area of the lake and its
low shore up to, perhaps, $4,000 acres.
The local estimates vary from $4,000
acres, by Judge Harris, who sold the
land to the West Tennessee Land Com
pany, to $4,000 acres by fishermen on
the lake.
! South of Reelfoot lake is "The Scat
ters,' region where the lake s outlet
loses itself in wilderness of growing
and fallen trees, tangled vines, "dark
corners of swamp brakes, narrow
bayous, and reptile-infested morass.
The Scatters is visited only by hunters
and trappers, and by these infrequently.
Tiptonville, a cotton town, lies on the
Mississippi river side of the Reelfoot
lake country, and Union City, another
cotton town, on the railroad side. The
two towns are about twenty miles apart,
and are connected by stage line. The
road goes along the south side of the
lake, through the north edge of The
Scatters in forest. In dry weather, it
is a good road Wherever the land
is high enough to be dry and cultivate
BILE it is tow-bale cotton land. On this
fact hinges some of the trouble which,
among other things, led to the lynching
of Captain Quinten Rankin.
There are some scores of people who
live around Reelfoot lake in tents,
shacks and other sorts of dwellings.
They make their living fishing in Reel
foot lake. In former times these fisher
men made as much as $50 week in
season catching bass ("trout ~, crop.
pie, buffalo, rock bass, pike, catfish and
spoonbills, but, as usual, they overdid
the matter, and bare livings are made
now. The hunting was superb-nowhere
in the country were wood ducks more
plentiful than on Reelfoot lake, while
other ducks f1ocked there in countless
thousands, and wild geese in hundreds
The market shooters came with the
migrations, and even of late years they
find little difficulty killing from fifty to
100 ducks a day, for which they get
from $25 to $50. In former times Reel
foot lake offered unrivaled opportun.
tiles for the feather and meat hunters
The time was when Swan basin got its
name from the alleged fact that swans
kept it, open in freezing weather by
flying around all night long, padding
their feet in the water. Twenty five
years ago the last swan to visit Reel
foot lake was seen there. Other water
fowl have become as scarce in proper
ton. Even wild bees have been hunted
with such avidity that ssthey re get
ting scarce.
James C. Harris of Lake county first
saw the possibilities of Reelfoot lake
He owned upwards OF 10000 acres OF
land, and he tried to get possession OF
Reelfoot lake and its rich shores. He
bought titles when he could. built a
sawmill, and began TO clear out the
salable timber
J In all the Ree1foot lake history James
G. Harris looms curious and remarka-
BILE figure. His people were among the
first settlers of the lower Mississippi
after the Louisiana purchase was made
/ He grew up in the swamps and being
shrewd, able man, he became rich.
Most of his wealth was founded on
whisky made in a still beside Reelfoot
lake. In time this whisky making in
i volved the old man with the federal
government, and days came when he dis
appeared from his former haunts. He
was absent about ten years, when the
matter was finally settled, it is said, by
payment of heavy fine. He then look
ed a patriarch with his white hair, his
Mississippi bottom complexion, the
prominent cheek bones, and his flowing
white beard. He restlessly turned to
countless schemes for increasing his pos
sessions-out of the hardships of his
youth had grown the cankerous desire
to call things sEmine,o and long after
I he might have rested assured that he
would neither hunger nor suffer from
cold again he reached for more and
more. They tell in Lake county how
he would start out in sleet storms to
make a survey, and ride hither and yon
about his business in cyclone and torrid
i heat. His son. Judge, kindlier, better
| hearted and friendlier, raced after his
father, holding an umbrella over the
| white head, making a most interesting
spectacle Harris wanted railroad, a
city, trolley line, telephones, levee.
He seized the timber brakes around
Reelfoot lake and tried to get the lake
He wanted to shave profit from the
| fish caught and game shot on the lake
and this desire, passed on, finally
led up to the lynching. But most OF
all, he wanted to make two-bale cot.
| %ho