Tunica Lake
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tunica County, Mississippi
United States
| Tunica Lake | |
|---|---|
  Tunica Lake  Tunica Lake | |
| Location | Lee County, Arkansas Tunica County, Mississippi United States |
| Coordinates | 34°39′00″N 90°29′39″W / 34.650032°N 90.494303°W |
| Type | Oxbow lake |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Max. length | 15 mi (24 km) |
| Surface area | 2,500 acres (1,000 ha) |
| Surface elevation | 157 ft (48 m) at normal pool |
Tunica Lake (also called Tunica Cutoff) is an oxbow lake located in Lee County, Arkansas and Tunica County, Mississippi.[1] The Arkansas-Mississippi border follows the center of the narrow, curving lake.
Prior to 1942, the north-south flowing Mississippi River curved east into Mississippi, flowed along Tunica Lake (then called "Fox Island Bend" and "OK Bend"), and then continued its north-south route.
In 1933, the United States Army Corps of Engineers began construction of 13 cutoffs along the lower Mississippi River.
Previous cutoffs had been constructed along the river, and were of commercial benefit because they allowed ships to bypass lengthy U-shaped bends. Typically, cutoffs were created by digging a channel across a peninsula, leaving the bypassed bend to form an oxbow lake.
Tunica Lake was created when the "Hardin Cutoff" was constructed across "Hardin Point" peninsula in 1942. It was the last cutoff constructed during that period.[2]
Communities
All the communities near Tunica Lake are located in Mississippi.
The present-day town of Austin was historically located directly along the east bank of Fox Island Bend. In 1884, the area was flooded when a nearby levee broke, and when the floodwaters receded, steamboats could no longer land because a large sandbar had been left between Austin and the Mississippi River.[3]
North of Austin is the community of "Fox Island".
At the northern end of Tunica Lake is a small community with cottages, fishing camps, bait shops, an RV park, and four boatramps.