re: Long time lurker, first time caller

Thanks Down South. If you've never heard of it, check out the Little River Drainage District. Supposedly the earthquake of 1812 created an area of swamp in SEMO larger than the Everglades. Our boys coming back from the building of the Panama Canal were put back to work with the backing from wealthy timber businessmen.

They figured the land dropped 1' per mile between Cape Girardeau & Jonesboro AR. A series of ditches helped contain & drain the Castor & Whitewater rivers into the Diversion channel.

Once the timber was harvested, the timber men defaulted on the taxes allowing poor immigrants to get a stake for cheap from the state.

One of my grandparents farm was on Ditch 1 between Arab & Duck Creek. Even when I was a kid, there was lots of ground too wet to farm. Loved fishing for bluegill & bass as a kid. Nothing but tall flooded cypress.