About ten miles west of my home, Okatibbee Creek flows through deeply wooded eastern Mississippi pinelands and hardwood bottomland on a winding southward path, flowing down the North Chickasawhay River watershed. The topography that determines the twists and turns of this lazily flowing creek were established tens of thousands of years back in time by a slowly evolving deposition and erosion of loamy soil augmented by occasionally occurring shale outcroppings formed as the remnants of ancient sea floors from long passed geologic eras. Scientists, boy scouts and redneck adventurers who take time to examine the gravel bars and shallow stream bottom of Okatibbee Creek can find many pieces of evidence that point to times when the areas where pine, gum, oak, hickory and hackberry trees now grow lay at the bottom of a giant shallow saltwater sea. In those times, crustaceans, sharks and swim through the water things predated the raccoon, deer, bass and perch fish that are inhabitants of the beautiful eastern pinewoods Mississippi ecosystem of this time.
The Okatibbee is no great waterway, but it serves the purpose of its existence well, draining the hilly forest lands of east Mississippi and carrying the water southward to a point, just above Enterprise, Mississippi, where it joins with the Chunky River and takes on that name. The Chunky River has served the exact purpose as the Okatibbee, and the two, now combined and carrying the name of the larger Chunky continue their southward journey to a union with the Leaf River where they become the Chickasawhay River, which flows another 60-70 miles downstream.
None of these waterways are particularly spectacular and if you drove past them on the Interstate, state highway, or county road you would not be likely to look upstream or down as you motored past. In our part of the world, they are known as pretty good stretches of water to canoe or float. Depending on the time of the year and rain conditions, a trip down any of these might be a leisurely canoe ride, with no more paddling effort required than an occasional dip of the blade into flowing water to avoid a downed snag or sandbar. At other (dryer) times, the water could be shallow enough to require quite a bit of walking down sand or gravel river bottoms, avoiding muddy places if possible as you pulled your canoe or carried your inner tube or raft along until passage had been completed to the next pool deep enough to paddle or float through. At these low water times, quite a bit of wading is required on all of the waterways I have mentioned, along with hours of paddling through still or slowly moving water. I have spent quite a bit of time on these East Mississippi creeks and rivers as a Scoutmaster or amateur explorer, enjoying the peaceful calmness of shallow water canoeing or floating on raft or inner tube.
The river I wanted to write about today begins about 60 miles below the point where the Chickasawhay begins.
The Pascagoula
The Pascagoula River is only about 80 miles long. It passes through the swampy bottom lands of south Mississippi and over the thousands of years of its existence, has formed channels and bayous through land that looks pretty much the same as when the giant salt sea moved away from land at the end of another time in the planet's history. As the river nears the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, it splits, forming the West Pascagoula River, which flows into the Mississippi Sound at Gautier, Mississippi (pronounced Gau-shea). The main channel flows past the towns of Escatawpa and Moss Point, then into the Mississippi at Pascagoula.
Wikipedia lists 8 or 9 names the river has been known by in recent times (Last 300 years), including
The East Pascagoula River (below the branching off of the West Pascagoula River)
The Fiume Pescagoula
Pasca Oocooloo River
Pascoboula River
Paska Okla River
Paspagola River
Pasquagola River
Rio de Pascagula
Riviere des Pascagoula
Riviere des Pascagoulas
And
The Singing River, which is the lower 8 miles of the East channel of the river, before it empties into the Gulf of Mexico
Several years back, Mississippi Public TV produced an excellent special on the Singing River. The Pascagoula is one of the special rivers in our nation. People who understand such things are important will tell you that the Pascagoula is the only unaffected (undammed, unmodified, un channelized) river flowing into the Gulf Of Mexico in the United States and the largest unimpeded free-flowing river system in the lower United States.. To me, it is a true national treasure, a river that is pretty much the same as it was five or twenty thousand years ago. The river was special enough to the State of Mississippi that much of the river was purchased by the state in cooperation with the Nature Conservancy to assure that it would remain in as pristine condition as possible for future generations. If you care to look on the internet, you will find that the future of the river is in peril at this moment. Hopefully, those who fight for its salvation wil win over those who do not care what happens as long as their desires are met.
About the same time as the MPB special, the Gulf Coast Paper Sun Herald published a series of three articles on the Pascagoula River, called River on Peril. Most of this material is posted on the ETV website and can be found by going to the link:
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and clicking on the River in Peril link on the navigation bar.
When I started writing this post, I believed that I could do the river justice, but I understand that I am not up to that task today. I would recommend that anyone wanting to know about a national river treasure go to the ETV link and read materials already written.
Some day, God willing, I will ease my canoe down a mud bank into the water in Lauderdale county a few miles west of my house and load it back onto my trailer close to the beach in Pascagoula, Mississippi (about 200 river miles south). I figure the trip will take about a month, depending on the river level and current speed. I know people who will happily go with me. The only things that will keep this from happening will be time, money and some as yet unrecognized health concern that might affect paddling stamina.
Let me end with this.
The Singing River
I would like to share a little about the last eight miles of the Pascagoula. It is that part of the west channel of the Pascagoula that we call the Singing River.
People who spend time on last few miles of the Pascagoula River claim that at certain times, it is possible to “hear the river singing.” One time, I had the pleasure of hearing the Singing River at its best voice. What I experienced was a treat not many folks get a chance to enjoy. The occasion of my witness occurred about eight years back one afternoon toward the end of August, while on a day long canoe outing with three friends. I’ll call us outdoor enthusiasts if you will let me exaggerate a little. I would describe the “singing” we heard as a low volume modulation of tone and beat - almost a drone, except it had a distinct musical quality. Some people have described it as similar to the sound of a swarm of bees, but to me it was different (more of a musical quality) than that. When we realized what we were hearing, our group lingered in the area (north of Cunningham Lake chute close to Escatawpa) and listened in amazed silence as the song continued for at least ten minutes, growing and declining in volume, tone and speed. Then, just as mysteriously as it started it ended, and we paddled on toward Moss Point, where we exited after dark and went to a local establishment to discuss our experience over amber fluids and massive bacon cheeseburgers.
Now, let me share the legend.
The legend of the Singing River connects the singing sound with the mysterious extinction of the Pascagoula Tribe of Indians, supposedly in a conflict with the Biloxi Tribe. Pascagoula means 'bread eaters' and the legend says that they were a gentle tribe of contented, innocent, and inoffensive people. In contrast, the Biloxi were a hostile tribe who considered themselves the 'first people' and were enemies, believing that they had first rights to the lands occupied by the Pascagoulas.
Legend says that Anola, a princess of the Biloxi tribe, was in love with Altama, who was the Chief of the Pascagoula tribe. She was betrothed to a chieftain of her own tribe, but fled with Altama to his people. The spurned and enraged Biloxi chieftain led his Biloxi braves to war against Altama and the Pascagoula tribe. The Pascagoula swore they would either save the young chieftain and his bride or perish with them. When thrown into battle the Pascagoula were out-numbered and faced with enslavement by the Biloxi tribe or death. With their women and children leading the way, the Pascagoula joined hands and began to chant a song of death as they walked into the river until the last voice was hushed by the dark, engulfing waters.
Many believe the modern day sound is that of the death song of the Pascagoula tribe. Various hypothetical scientific explanations have been offered for this phenomenon, but none have been proven.
