Did you know? Laconia Crevasse is located on the western bank of the Lower Mississippi River at mile 609.5, in Desha County, Ark. During the Civil War a detachment of Confederate cavalry attacked a Union merchant vessel – the Allen Collier – near Laconia Landing on Nov. 7, 1863. The rebels were surprised when they hit an unexpected jackpot. In addition to a large sum of money found in the safe, the Confederates captured several Union soldiers and a U.S. Navy officer. The Allen Collier was burned, and the rebels helped themselves to the money before sending the Union men off to a southern prison camp for the duration of the war. One of the major crevasses in the Flood of 1927 occurred at Laconia. About 2,000 people were driven from their homes, as the water poured through Laconia Crevasse and inundated thousands of acres of farmland. First built privately in the 1830s, by the time of the ’27 Flood the levee was almost 100 years old, thus making it the oldest levee in Arkansas. By late March 1927, the Levee was showing signs of deterioration from the continuous heavy rainfall. Corps of Engineers snag boats were sent there to monitor the failing levee. The boats were positioned close to the levee shoulder, which was the backbone of the structure. The shoulder rose above the levee proper and was rapidly weakening from holding back the fifty-one-foot flood stage of the Mississippi River. On March 29, a snag boat anchored near the levee sounded the first alarm, notifying the community of an impending break. Plantation bells assumed the distress call, and the residents of the area, consisting of plantation owners and tenant farmers, began the evacuation to safe ground. Many refugees made their way to the Snow Lake depot, where a Missouri Pacific passenger train waited to transport them from the area. The train was ordered to take passengers even if they did not have money for the fare. The Arkansas Gazette reported refugees being transported to camps in Helena (Phillips County) and McGehee (Desha County). Approximately 2,000 residents of the Laconia Circle area were evacuated. Many were housed in Missouri Pacific boxcars due to a tent shortage. Approximately 200 men worked for more than twelve hours to save the Levee. At midnight on Tuesday, March 30, the levee seemed to be holding; however, a few minutes later, a large section of the levee sloughed off into the river. It was evident to the work crew that the levee was failing, and the remaining government boats sounded the distress call again, warning any stragglers in the circle of the levee’s demise. The levee quickly broke apart. By 2 a.m., it had given way completely. The rushing waters of the Mississippi River left a hole more than 300 feet long in the levee wall. Within a couple of hours, the entire Laconia Circle area was inundated with flood waters up to twenty feet deep in some areas. It was transformed into a huge vat where the water stayed throughout the summer and far into the fall, too late to recover the land for planting.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 18:40:23 +0000
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