The Delta vs. the delta
In recent weeks, I’ve seen many, many disturbing trends in media reportage on New Orleans–notably, facile discussions of race, misrepresentation of neighborhood demographics, and wanton usage of every gumbo and Mardi Gras cliche in the book. But by far the worst offense is some reporters’ belief that New Orleans is part of the Delta.
Quick geography lesson, folks: when people talk about “the Delta,” they’re talking about an area in Mississippi, north of Vicksburg, south of Memphis, and west of I-55. If you’ve ever heard of people talking about “Delta Blues,” that’s the delta they’re talking about.
“The Delta,” however, is a long way away from the Mississippi River delta, which is located a couple of hundred miles south–oddly enough, in Louisiana, below New Orleans, at the mouth of the river. Like the Delta, the Mississippi River delta is a floodplain, but that’s about the only similarity between the two regions.
The Delta is home to Mississippi’s once-thriving, now-lackluster cotton industry. It’s reasonably well populated, but the folks who live there are generally poor and black, many descended from slaves and sharecroppers. It’s flat and featureless terrain, the logical birthplace place for a musical genre as woeful as the blues.
The Mississippi River delta, on the other hand, is home to very little. There are a handful of shrimpers and fishermen, maybe a refinery here and there, but not much else. The population is minimal, not least because global warming and coastal erosion have gradually washed away the few shreds of land that people can live on. As a result, it lacks the well-defined, celebrated culture of its sister to the north.
So I beg of you, despite what dreamboat Andy Cooper and his cronies may suggest, please don’t come to New Orleans thinking you can pop over to the Delta for an afternoon of authentic Delta Blues (unless, of course, you’re up for a fairly lengthy drive). I mean, yes, please, come to the city–I’ll take you out for drinks!–but you’ll have to make due with New Orleans Blues–which is just as good, if you ask me.
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Culturally, you are correct. However, I’d argue the Delta is part of the delta as well. The river delta, as I have always understood it as a historian, native of the region and the wife of an environmental scientist, is an inverted triangle with the tip at the mouth and the wider base ending around Memphis, roughly encomapssing the richest areas of the alluvial floodplain. The floodplain aspect of the Mississippi actaully extends all the way north to St. Louis; if you take into account tributaries, add in the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys as well as the Red and Missouri.
But you’re right - people have no idea of the spatial aspects of the area. When I tell people I’m from Louisiana they almsot invariably reply “Oh you’re Cajun?” OR “Oh - it must be great to live in New Orleans!”
ARGH! ignorance is frustrating.
A
Actually, Ann, a river delta (including the MS River Delta) is the exact opposite of what you stated. As a fellow historian and geography teacher, I understand it to be a triangle with the top near the mouth and the broader bottom to be the alluvial fan. Imagine the Nile River, just upside down, as the Nile flows south to north. The Delta, as I understood it, got its name b/c it was the floodplain of the Yazoo where it meets the MS.
i hate teh constant references to “gumbo”. it’s like our whole city has been reduced to a tasty soup (an extremely tasty soup, but still).
There’s a map somewhere in one of these stupid texts I have - I’ll find the cite. I could be wrong - but I’ve always known a delta to be more inclusive than simply the mouth of the river, especially that of the Mississippi given its drainage. Northeastern Louisiana is considered part of the Delta as well and its nowhere near the Yazoo! ;-) I’ll ask the resident expert here what he thinks (he has his books organized, so it willbe an efficient search!)
A.
Here’s a quote from a Dept. of the Interior paper:
“Mississippi Delta at the confluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers” which is approximately 50 or so miles above Greenville, MS.
I have also seen it described as a series of deltas as it’s tributaries merge - maybe that’s why I have a vision of the MS delta as a huge upside-down triangle, as mentioned here:
“An inverted river delta is special category of river delta in which the narrow end of the delta emerges on the seafront and the wide end is located further inland”
still waiting on my geologist friend! :-)
Rivers have two sides, the high and the low. when rivers have more water than they can carry between their banks, they flood the low side, causing aluvium, those sediments of sand and clays carried by the river, to be deposited over the floodplain as the waters recede. These deposits are deltaic in nature, hence the formation of deltas. Rivers move over time in what is known as a meander path, changing course to suit downstream conditions. All rivers have deltas, usually on both sides, depending on the bluffs location. The mixture of sands and clays is called aluvial soil. Most of the crops grown are in aluvial soil. Cotton is a thirsty plant and grows best in sandy loam, an aluvial. The mixture of sand and clays makes it possible for a cotton plant to send a root to whatever depth is needed to find moisture.
When you hoe cotton and pick cotton by hand, gin cotton by hand and bale cotton by hand, your ass will sing the blues wherever you are, which is most likely a delta.
so true, Noe Ital (and I love your name!).
I asked my husband how they define the Mississippi delta in their reports for the EPA et al. and he said “We defeine the term in the begining of the report and use that definition throughout. We could define the delta as stretching from east Texas to west Florida, depending on what we’re talking about. It’s all relative.”
so - that’s from an evironmental scientist, for whatever it’s worth. :-)
Well, in the case of the Delta being discussed to the north, it actually extends up from Northeast Louisiana, most of Eastern Arkansas, some of Western tennessee, some of Western Mississippi and a bit of extreme Southern Illinois. It is, in fact, the largest landmass in the world under plow without irrigation. Believe me, if you were blinfolded and taken somewhere, had the blindfold removed, and then asked to tell where you were-there is no way that you could tell the difference between Lake Providence, LA, Clarksdale, MS or Paragould, AR. It’s all pretty much the same place. Flat as a board and nothing but fields, turnrow tree lines, and the occasional woodlot (sometimes a big one, but mostly just field after field).
Delta is a term used all over for lowland areas that commonly flood on a seasonal basis-which is exactly what used to happen to the delta in the South Central US along the Mississippi River until man took a crack at containing it (which hasn’t worked out so well-the River is bigger than the Corp of Engineers, apparently).
Hey - I have family from Lake Providence! and it is creepily similar to Pargould, Arkansas (my husband hunts ducks near there)
Have y’all read Rising Tide by John Barry yet? You must - he goes into the beginning of the losing battle between the Corps and The River. There’s also a book my ? McPhee that talks about the comtenporary battle for the Atchafalaya Basin.
A.
I realize I have spent my opportunity for comment, but I beg your forebearance to allow me one or two more comments about rivers and deltas and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The U.S. Army is charged with the task of overseeing and maintaining inland waterways in America. The Army Corps of Engineers, then under the War Department, designed and built the Intracoastal Waterway. The Corps has overseen projects like the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway and the Lock and Dam System on the Red River and countless dams and reservoirs all over this country. The Mississippi River drains everything from the west side of the Eastern mountain rages to the east side of the Western mountain ranges. Beginning in Minnesota, the Mississippi River winds it’s way through the center of America, collecting the waters from the majority of the United States. The corps has a hydraulic model of the Mississippi River at their station in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Farther downstream, where the confluence of the Black River, Old River and Red River runs into the Mississippi just above Simmsport Louisiana. A few miles away is the mouth of the Atchafalaya River, the deepest river in America. The Mississippi River under natural conditions would have already changed channels and there would be no Mississippi River from Pointe Coupee Parish to Delacroix. The only thing holding this event back is the Old River Control Structure, a jetty like device built by the corps. at the confluence of the two rivers. If the Corps had their way, all rivers would be in concrete viaducts. Rivers are living things and unless you turn them into lakes with a series of locks and dams, they pretty much do their thing. The levees in the midwest make it possible for more water to be carried in the river than the river could handle without artifical boundaries. It’s just a matter of time. The closer the ocean encroaches New Orleans, the more susceptible it will be to storm surge. The last major earthquake around the New Madrid fault system was in 1811 and the Mississippi Rver ran backwards for two weeks. It doesn’t matter what the Corps does, the river will do what it wants to just as it always has.
“It doesn’t matter what the Corps does, the river will do what it wants to just as it always has.”
yep. Well said.
A.
The Mississippi river delta is the rivers’ ass.
The Mississippi River begins way up north where it runs fast;
these people send their trash to the next people.
The middle of the river runs at medium speed these people
do the same stuff with their trash. By the time the
current gets past its middle it runs SLOW. By this time
we have acquired every one elses trash.
Who does the EPA blame?
Here’s what has to happen: We clean all the rigs,
lay ‘em on their sides, not too far out, and not too far inland,
to allow for soil exchange-let the horizontally dropped rigs
from all of southern Louisiana to coastal Mississppi
to become Reefs-Nature will finish the job.
Petroleum dependency has To end.
We don’t allow the government to tell us what alternate
forms of energy to follow.
Just not coal-Black Lung.
Solar, Geothermal, wind, water……It’s out there.
Laurie
I’m enjoying everyone’s comments very much regarding the Delta. I recommend: “This Delta, This Land,” an environmental history of the Delta written by Mikko Saikku. Also, Charles Aiken’s, “The Cotton Plantation South Since The Civil War.”
The Mississippi River Delta is region of tributaries that empty into the Gulf of Mexico.
Blackjack.
Laurie
carls levis