Year: 1859

of Arkansas, Little Rock.

 SIR-ln obedience to your instructions l have the honor to lay before your Excel lency my report of the surveys and inves- tigations have made with regard to the location and construction of a levee-whicb. while 1t protects Chicot county and part of Desha county from inundation, shall not obstruct the drainage of these counties or any other county in the State. Before en. tering into the details of this projected levee l take leave to present short Topo. and Hydrographcal sketch of the country, i'm mediately under the sphere of it's influence.

 By examining the accompanvine man (made partly from the Flats of the Land Office and partly from personal surveys) you will perceive the following facts:

 That Boggy Bayou is branch of Cv- press Creek, and OpoSsum Fork channel connecting Boggy Bayou with Cypress Creek near it's mouth. That the land lv ing between Red Fork Bayou, Cypress Greek, Arkansas river and the Mississippi is situated so very low, that it is the natu- ral reservoir for the waters of the country south of the Arkansas river. This land can only be drained by artificial means. as it IS well known that the banks of nearly all western streams are higher than the country immediately adjoining them. This is particularly so in the case before vour consideration, and to such degree that these lands are really the whole year more or less overflowed-conSequently, the value of these lands bears no proportion to those more favorably situated, even though less productive.

 The fall of Cypress Creek and in fact, of all these swamp land streams is very insignificant. Therefore when the Missis- | sippi is at high stage, the back water ex- tending up Cypress Creek beyond Boggy Bayou, runs through Boggy Bayou, thus producing great draught of water through the entire extent of Chicot county. It follows then, that if Boggy Bayou was not connected with Cypress Creek, this draught ot water through the former would not exist, while the disconnection would have no influence on the latter or on Red Fork BayOu-aS the water of the Mississippi only seeks its level and will cause these streams to rise till that is accomplished = This, however, only takes place when the Mississippi is very high and it is a fact be- yond dispute, that the closing of these out lets (were it possible) would not affect the level of the Mississippi particle If the levces on the Arkansas river should break, the water, which would overflow the whole country, would only disappear when the Mississippi commenced falling; as the back ing up of the Mississippi through Cypress Greek would prevent any drainage, and the waters of the Arkansas river would find the level of the Mississippi, before they could be drained off by Boggv Bayou. It is true that Boggy Bayou would carry off considerable quantity of water, but as this is actually only the waters of the Mis- sissippi, through Cypress Creek, cannot see how 1t would serve to drain the lands inundated by the Arkansas river, as water will always seek its level and the ArkaneaS bottom land would only in this case be so far drained as it happened to be situated higher than the surface of the Mississippi

 To extend the construction of levees along the Mississippi, from Napoleon down ward, closing the mouth of Cypress Creek and connecting with the levee on the Chicot

 

 Desha county, the whole of Chicot county and to several of the northern sparishes of Louisiana besides, the land lying very low, the cost of building such levee would be enormous. The mouth of Cypress Creek being closed, the drainage of this whole scope of country, would have to pass through Bayou Mason, a stream scarcely sufficient to carry off the rainwater, and of course without the assistance of Cypress Creek wholly inadequate to prevent an overflow, should the season happen to be wet The whole section of country above named would be depending on one levee, and the waters of Red Fork, the upper part of Cypress Creek and those of the Arkan- sas river, in case the levees on it's banks should give way, could find no other outlet than over the fertile and productive planta- tions of Chicot coun v-following the fall of the Mississippi, " probably destroy ing the levees in the southern part of the county and injuring the property of neigh boring State-besides making a difference, at the lowest valuation in the products of the county to the amount of 250 to BOG. .0O0 dollars per annum.

 Taking all these facts into consideration, l consider that the closing of Cypress Creek would be injurious to all parties interested Tn the protection of the rich and fertile lands of this part of the State from overflow. levee to be made, the land between Cypress Creek, Red Fork, Arkansas and Mississippi rivers, would become valueless-but should they come into demand (and they can only do so by the land adjoining increasing in value) then, by running levee along the Mississippi from Napoleon to Cypress Creek, then up the north bank of this stream to the highlands of Red Fork, this section of country could be made arable- the system of leveeing would be complete, and the counties of Desha and Chicot pro- tected from inundation without injury to each other.

 When it becomes necessary to construct the second part of this levee, culvert near the mouth of Cypress Creek, leading from the collection of lakes, as indicated on the map, into Cypress Creek, to be shut up in case of high water, would drain those lakes to their low water mark, as this body of lakes, levees or no levees, will always be a reservoir for the rainwater of this section of country. By this means property which at present is scarcely worth the amount of taxes paid on it annually and which would become wholly valueless by closing Cv- press Creek, will find ready market, and increase in value year by year.

 To those who reason that the water would run better through the channel of Boggy Bayou, into the Mississippi, than through that of Cypress Creek, have only to re- mark, that Cypress Creek being low, the current of Boggy Bayou, when swelled by heavy rain, runs into Cypress Creek thus showing exclusively, that the Mis- sissippi river alone has control over the drainage of the country.

 After careful examination of the conn try and the collection of the above facts. I have surveyed ahd located the following described levee, leaving it to the approval of your Excellency:

 Commencing at the banks of Amos Bayou, which are above all overflow. run. ming an air line to the inlet of Boggy Bavou