Put in at at the mouth of the St. Francis River (10 miles N. of Helena, Arkansas). 113 miles on the river. Take-out at Arkansas City.
This is a journey through some of the wildest & remote islands & forests of the Lower Mississippi. Described in a 12-page article in National Geographic Adventure Magazine, August 2007, “Where the Big River Gets Lost.” Great back channels & oxbow lakes to explore. Fossil finding & rock hunting at Buck Island, Knowlton Crevasse & Catfish Point. Great swimming from giant sandbars. Abundant wildlife, exceptional birding, world class fisheries, the greatest concentration of white tailed deer in the country, as well as the Louisiana black bear. No towns & little industry. The only evidence of civilization is the tugboats on the river. Pass by the mouth of DeSoto Lake, where nearby its namesake explorer Hernando DeSoto is thought to have discovered the “Rio Grande,” as he called it, the “Big River.” He and his men witnessed an armada of 2-3,000 Natives on the river — all in canoes! Some of the canoes held 70 to 80 warriors. Opposite Smith Point (Camp II) is the mouth of the White River, through which commercial traffic can access the Arkansas River through the Arkansas Post Canal. This region saw the visit of explorers Jolliette & Marquette (1673), LaSalle (1681) and John James Audubon (1820). It was also the heart of the Quapaw Nation, the Siouan tribe who followed the rivers downstream out of the Ohio River Valley and settled within the forests of this dynamic confluence.
This first established section of the Water Trail is being developed between two public-use Islands, Buck Island and Choctaw Island, with passage through or alongside St. Francis National Forest, Great River Road State Park, White River National Wildlife Refuge, and Choctaw Island Wildlife Area. The Arkansas River is the biggest Lower Mississippi River tributary, and also highest drainage, running 1475 miles from the 14,000+ peaks of the Central Colorado Rockies. The Arkansas River Confluence is a wild flood-prone archipelago of islands with superlative habitat for all wildlife. Eventually this will be expanded to include the entire Lower Mississippi River (Cairo, Illinois to Venice, Louisiana) and the Middle Mississippi River (St. Louis to Cairo).
The Lower Mississippi River Water Trail is being developed by Quapaw Canoe Company into a water trail in conjunction with the Lower Mississippi River Conservation Committee, the National Audubon Society and others.