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108: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1912 · Common Mystics

• 0:10
  Speaker A: On this episode of common mystics, we turn our attention to one of the most devastating and underreported natural disasters in american history, the Mississippi flood of 1912. I'm Jennifer James.
• 0:28
  Speaker B: I'm Jill Stanley.
• 0:29
  Speaker A: We're psychics, we're sisters. We are common mystics. We find extraordinary stories in ordinary places. And today's story takes us to the St. Francis river district in Arkansas.
• 0:43
  Speaker B: Thanks, Jen. I'm very excited to get to it. Do you want to remind everyone where we were and where we're headed to?
• 0:50
  Speaker A: Yeah, we started at my house in Chicagoland, and we were heading to Dallas, Texas.
• 0:58
  Speaker B: True story. So we're driving. We're stopping in southern Illinois. We cross the Mississippi, we drive in a few miles into Arkansas, and we stayed at night in a town called Marion. Is that right?
• 1:11
  Speaker A: That is right. We stayed in Marion, Arkansas. I believe.
• 1:16
  Speaker B: I believe you're right. And it's just 8 miles west of the Mississippi river across from Memphis, Tennessee.
• 1:22
  Speaker A: Yeah, I would call it part of the greater Memphis area.
• 1:27
  Speaker B: Okay, so it's.
• 1:28
  Speaker A: And you know Memphis is right up against the Mississippi river.
• 1:31
  Speaker B: I do, yeah.
• 1:32
  Speaker A: So it would be the other side of the Mississippi river, but still part of that general area.
• 1:38
  Speaker B: Got you. Got you. Okay. Now, can you please remind our listeners of our intentions?
• 1:44
  Speaker A: Absolutely. Our intention was, as it always is, to find a verifiable story, previously unknown to us that allowed us to give voice to the voiceless.
• 1:56
  Speaker B: That's right. So we're spending the night in Marion. We wake up our stretch, do our makeup, we get back in the car and what happened?
• 2:03
  Speaker A: Get coffee. We get lots of coffee.
• 2:05
  Speaker B: Lots of coffee. Lots of coffee.
• 2:06
  Speaker A: Probably some greasy sandwiches, some greasy breakfast. Sammies.
• 2:11
  Speaker B: You need the grease to get it down. Yes, you do.
• 2:14
  Speaker A: You gotta get your digestion moving.
• 2:17
  Speaker B: True statement.
• 2:18
  Speaker A: Yeah. Anyway, after that, you know, we're looking for a story. We don't know where we're going. They know how we work. We never going. But we did see some signs for the Parkin archaeological site in Parkin, Arkansas. We saw signs for that location.
• 2:36
  Speaker B: I wasn't interested. You weren't interested. We're like, we'll note it, but I'm not going there.
• 2:40
  Speaker A: Exactly. And the notes were like, we saw it. We're like, yeah, no, we acknowledge it's a hit spirit. Like, yeah, we get you. It's a hit, but we're not going there. Like, we. That would not be the direction that we want to go in.
• 2:51
  Speaker B: Not only that, but we also decided that we weren't going to get back on the highway.
• 2:54
  Speaker A: That's right.
• 2:56
  Speaker B: We're going to take small little roads around so we can check out the area.
• 3:01
  Speaker A: You got it. And that's what we did. So we're on these smaller country roads, and I don't. We weren't using the map. We were just using our spidey's. Like, I'm feeling right, I'm feeling left. And we're doing this for a while. And, Jill, where did we end up?
• 3:14
  Speaker B: You. You guys. We ended up at the Parkin astrological site.
• 3:19
  Speaker A: No, no, not astrological. Archaeological.
• 3:25
  Speaker B: It would be a lot cooler if.
• 3:27
  Speaker A: It was astrological, but we ended up.
• 3:29
  Speaker B: In parkin at the archaeological site. You got it. We did not want to be at.
• 3:34
  Speaker A: No.
• 3:35
  Speaker B: And I'll tell you, I was right. We did not want to be there.
• 3:40
  Speaker A: Okay, so it was a little rundown. It's not what I expected. It didn't look the safest place, but I wanted to get out of the car. You wouldn't even let me out of the car.
• 3:51
  Speaker B: I would not let her out of the car. And remember, we were out of the car in Cairo, Illinois. And when we got to Parkin, I was like, no, there's no, uh uh, foot down. Not doing it.
• 4:03
  Speaker A: You let me out of the car in New Jersey.
• 4:07
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 4:10
  Speaker A: Wait, what was the name of that. That seaside town we were, like, skipping around.
• 4:17
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 4:18
  Speaker A: At least.
• 4:18
  Speaker B: And we were totally, like, we were drunk on Atlantic City. Yes.
• 4:23
  Speaker A: Yeah. We almost got mugged in Atlantic City. But you would not let me get out of the car and park in Arkansas to look at an archaeological site. But it was closed. Like, it did not look open. You know what I mean?
• 4:35
  Speaker B: Well, to be completely honest with you, there was a car other than ours in the parking lot. I wasn't sure. I know that there were people on a bench, like, scattered among, but I was not 100% sure if they were faculty or vagrants. I didn't know, and I wasn't gonna find out.
• 4:54
  Speaker A: They didn't look like faculty.
• 4:56
  Speaker B: They did not look sleepy.
• 4:56
  Speaker A: They did not look like faculty.
• 4:58
  Speaker B: Sleepy factory people or faculty people who had a hard day.
• 5:04
  Speaker A: No, I would actually like to see that. I've seen the map of it online as part of my research. Don't give me that look. I would. I would like to walk around, but you were very adamant that I was not getting out of the car.
• 5:17
  Speaker B: Maybe one day, if we had security teams, maybe then when we have bodyguards.
• 5:22
  Speaker A: With us, you'll let me go back. Okay. You heard it.
• 5:26
  Speaker B: People ran with you on a leash. Like, bodyguards and a leash situation.
• 5:30
  Speaker A: Okay. All right. That's fair. Okay, so we get. So we start driving around again, and we started to get some hits.
• 5:38
  Speaker B: I love this hit.
• 5:39
  Speaker A: Well, what were you feeling?
• 5:41
  Speaker B: I was feeling a movie called betrayed. It's from 1988. Cause you know how I just loved watching, like, old movies when I was a kid? Old movies. That was actually a good movie when I was a kid. A new release, and I would put it on. And it's about an FBI agent that goes undercover in, like, the farmland to seek out a, like, terrorist organizations that were, like, KKK and part of that type of community. And in the movie, she poses as a girl that rides in this big farm equipment. I forgot what it's called, but it's, like, a huge tractor.
• 6:20
  Speaker A: A columbine. Yeah. Isn't it called a columbine?
• 6:23
  Speaker B: I thought it was, but I didn't want to be wrong. I already got astrological and archaeological.
• 6:26
  Speaker A: That's okay. I mean, yeah, I don't think people listen to us for accuracy, so.
• 6:32
  Speaker B: So I was getting that hip. The whole plot of the movie is about, basically, the terrorist organization, the KKK, and how they were killing people in most horrible ways. It's a good movie. Deborah Winger, isn't it? Very good.
• 6:47
  Speaker A: I've never seen it. I'll take your word for it, but I'm not gonna watch it, because I think you have pretty crappy taste in movies. But moving on. I was seeing our mother in my mind's eye, and she had, like, coins, like, falling from her hands, and I felt that whatever we were gonna stumble onto, like, money and finances were going to be a part of the story. You know, like, the effect of money and how that has on decision making.
• 7:20
  Speaker B: Gotcha. I got you. So we leave the archaeological site, and we're driving around Parkin, and we see a historical sign. So, like, historical markers.
• 7:33
  Speaker A: And let me just give people a little bit of context about this town. This is a tiny town, okay. And it's located west of Marion. Right? So it's not so close to the Memphis area, but it's right up against another river called the St. Francis river. So it's in this kind of St. Francis river district. And that'll be important later when we start talking about the flood. But it's also. It looked kind of depressed, wouldn't you say?
• 8:01
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 8:02
  Speaker A: Yes. And also, I took a look at the census information on wikipedia, and it looks like back in 2020, that census recorded just short of 800 people in the town, and that number has been steadily dropping since 1980.
• 8:21
  Speaker B: So it's a understand that.
• 8:24
  Speaker A: Right. So I just wanted to give people that sort of context as to where we were. Now, go ahead.
• 8:29
  Speaker B: Okay. So we're in the car and we stumble upon a school. And in front of the school is a historical marker. Now, we have seen historical markers all over this country at this point. And this historical marker was noticeable because the information on it wasn't a. A wonderful, fun loving tidbit about this town. It was like you're asking yourself, why is this town so depressed? Well, here is the historical marker to tell you. And Jennifer, hit me up with that information.
• 9:04
  Speaker A: I'm just going to read you important excerpts from this sign. But it was entitled the flood of 1912. And it said the flood of 1912 was the greatest disaster ever suffered by Parkin. Breaks in the St. Francis and Mississippi. Levees covered the land and into our homes from four to 30ft in depth in April, and part remained until summer. Most of the people fled to seek refuge in a colony of government tents on Crowley's Ridge or to loved ones elsewhere later. Many people were subjects of charity. Deaths, destruction, damage and financial ruin resulted from the catastrophe.
• 9:55
  Speaker B: So that was the historical marker. So as we're driving around asking like, what is going on here? What happened here? Here's a historical marker that filled us in.
• 10:05
  Speaker A: Right. So unusual because like you said, usually when we come upon historical markers, they're bragging about something.
• 10:12
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 10:13
  Speaker A: Right. It's a source of pride. This was the opposite. It's like, you wanna know what happened here? And then actually after that, it goes on to cite more floods, a tornado and drought that would happen after this catastrophic flood of 1912.
• 10:28
  Speaker B: It was almost like Cliff notes version of the book of Revelations, for sure. It was like one thing after another. And by the end of the, like, we were shaking and we're like, we need to get out of here, like now. I don't know what's gonna happen. We need to leave.
• 10:43
  Speaker A: Right. But thank you for answering our question because we were like, what happened here?
• 10:48
  Speaker B: Exactly. The only thing that would've been more helpful is like one of those like signs, like kiosks in the mall that says, you are here. Here's how to get out. Like, just. That would have been helpful, too. So, Jennifer, let's talk flood 1912. Worst disaster in Parkins history. And that is saying a lot. Tell me about it.
• 11:11
  Speaker A: Right. So that's where we focused our initial research on the flood of 1912 and also the, the levees. We knew that that would also be significant to the story based on the information on that sign. So I started looking at. Okay, let's go back, because you know how I like to do that.
• 11:28
  Speaker B: It's true. Tell me about the research that you picked up from the area and the history of the place.
• 11:35
  Speaker A: So the earliest settlers to the greater Mississippi Valley region were, of course, the indigenous peoples. Right. Who lived there first. And they knew Jill. They knew that land flooded regularly. They knew it. But as we know, the indigenous peoples, they didn't leave written records. Their records were passed down orally from generation to generation.
• 12:01
  Speaker B: True statement.
• 12:02
  Speaker A: But in the 15 hundreds, Europeans were starting to come on over to the new continent. I shouldn't say new, but to the western hemisphere. And as they started to explore the american continent, they started taking notes. And so we do now have some written records going back to the 15 hundreds. And much of the following information comes from an awesome book that I found called Mississippi river tragedies, a century of unnatural disasters by Christine Klein and Sandra Zellmer.
• 12:38
  Speaker B: So it's not a feel good.
• 12:41
  Speaker A: It's very interesting, and it's well written, but, no, I would not call that a feel good. It's not an uplifting history.
• 12:48
  Speaker B: I do want to mention how cute and how excited you are that you found this bit of research, because, like, you're literally glowing, waiting to tell me about it.
• 12:56
  Speaker A: Like, I'm flapping is what I'm doing.
• 12:59
  Speaker B: Chase with a toy in the mouth.
• 13:01
  Speaker A: My dad. Yes. Yeah.
• 13:02
  Speaker B: Chase with a toy.
• 13:03
  Speaker A: So have you heard of, or do you remember hearing about a man named Hernando de Soto?
• 13:10
  Speaker B: What's so crazy, Jennifer, is that I'm researching a different story from our road trip, and I just read about him.
• 13:17
  Speaker A: Shut up. Okay, so it was e in my.
• 13:18
  Speaker B: Computer screen when I logged in.
• 13:20
  Speaker A: No. Yes.
• 13:23
  Speaker B: Have I. I'm looking at his picture.
• 13:25
  Speaker A: So then you know that he was in a spanish explorer.
• 13:30
  Speaker B: An Anglo Saxon, comes from Europe, comes over here.
• 13:33
  Speaker A: Not Anglo Saxon. Spanish from Spain.
• 13:36
  Speaker B: But aren't they Anglos?
• 13:38
  Speaker A: No, Spanish from Spain. I don't know how much clearer I can be. European, not Anglo. Anglo is like UK English, not English, not white. You can say, like, you white? Yes. There we go. All right, now we're speaking the same.
• 13:59
  Speaker B: Area. He's white af.
• 14:02
  Speaker A: I mean, like, swarthy white, though, because Spain, you know, Spain.
• 14:06
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 14:07
  Speaker A: Olive Italian, like, you know. Yeah. Greece. So we're not talking, like, not irish white, not swedish white. No, not bright white. No, not bright white.
• 14:17
  Speaker B: Like, not shockingly white. No, but a little grimy. Yeah, I like that.
• 14:23
  Speaker A: Yeah. Okay.
• 14:24
  Speaker B: Yeah. Okay.
• 14:25
  Speaker A: All right.
• 14:26
  Speaker B: Okay. What's his. What's his number.
• 14:29
  Speaker A: Okay. So Hernando de Soto from Spain was a spanish explorer who lived during the, quote, age of exploration in the 15 hundreds. And at that time, Spain was, like, sowing its oats. It was all over the place. It was a major world power.
• 14:49
  Speaker B: Yep.
• 14:50
  Speaker A: Major world power. And they could get on ships and, like, be on ships for, like, years. Like. And they didn't care. They didn't give a fuck. They would just, like, get on ships and they'd be like, look what I found. Flag. Look what I found. Flag. Right?
• 15:01
  Speaker B: Mm hmm.
• 15:02
  Speaker A: Mm hmm.
• 15:02
  Speaker B: And that's how we got Mexico.
• 15:03
  Speaker A: That's. We will. Yeah. That's why they speak Spanish in Mexico and in Central America and in South America in a lot of places. Right. I. As well as other places around the world. Exactly. So. So Hernando de Soto is best known for leading the first european expedition deep into, like, the belly of what's now the United States. Like, most people were, like, touching on the edges. Do you know what I mean? But he went right up into it. He went, like, right up, right up the Mississippi. Like he was in it. Okay. And he had a group of men with him, and one of them was keeping a journal. Mm hmm. And journal writer Jennifer.
• 15:49
  Speaker B: He was on the ship writing all the notes, and they were going along.
• 15:53
  Speaker A: All right, I'll take that. Yeah. So a journal survives from the year 1543 that belonged to one of DeSoto's guys, and it includes one of the earliest accounts of the Mississippi's flooding, which occurred near a village of a people called the Amenoya people.
• 16:15
  Speaker B: Are you Anoida?
• 16:17
  Speaker A: I'm not annoyed. Are you annoyed? Amen, people. Okay, here's what the journal says. These are. This is an excerpt. A mighty flood of the great river came down with an enormous increase of water. Afterward, the water rose gradually to the top of cliffs and then overflowed the fields with the greatest speed and volume. On the 18 march, the river entered the gates of the little village of Amanoya in the wildness and fury of its flood. And two days later, one could not pass through the streets of this town except in canoes. And it was a most magnificent spectacle to behold.
• 17:07
  Speaker B: So did the journal mention the town before the flood?
• 17:12
  Speaker A: I'm not sure, but what I do know is that there was a elderly Native American. She was probably an amnoyan, but she was telling the Spaniards, like, you know what? Be careful, because you don't want to live right here. Because this. It happens regularly, like, every 14 years this happened. That's what he told her that's what's written in the journal that she said every 14 years this river floods. So like, don't like settle there. Do you know what I mean?
• 17:43
  Speaker B: Yeah. Well, yeah, and the thing is, about Native Americans from just doing this podcast is that they're very, it seemed like they very much were in tune with the cycles of the land. This is not the first time that we had natives reacting to ongoing floods in an area. I think the last one was we were in Pennsylvania where the town flooded and we saw the native people would be like, pick up and be like, see ya. Because they knew it was coming.
• 18:09
  Speaker A: Right, exactly, exactly. And so the Spanish hearing her like warning were like, ha ha ha, isn't she cute? Like she doesn't know anything about how strong we are. You know what I mean? Like, we conquer nature, right, right. We are conquistadors, right? So they're like, hahaha, she's so cute. But as it turns out, she was pretty, she was not wrong. Since the early 18 hundreds, modern record keeping suggests that major floods have struck the Mississippi river basin roughly every ten years. So she was not wrong.
• 18:43
  Speaker B: And what we know is that usually.
• 18:46
  Speaker A: Water is gonna win 100%. Water always wins. Now, today, archaeologists who study the Mississippi river peoples understand that those inhabitants, like you said, were adapted to living in the area. And so that meant that if you live there, your community was portable. You got ready to like pack up and move in an instant, because you know that the land could be inundated with water at any moment, especially during that ten to 14 year cycle.
• 19:21
  Speaker B: So these people were like hunter gatherers, they were not like farming communities, correct.
• 19:26
  Speaker A: Because you can't pick up a farm and move it.
• 19:28
  Speaker B: Exactly.
• 19:29
  Speaker A: And then, you know, your farm would be flooded. Right. And then similarly, many of the tribes that lived in this upper Mississippi River Valley adjusted their lifestyles accordingly to cope with the floods.
• 19:43
  Speaker B: I mean, that's smart, right?
• 19:45
  Speaker A: Because of course, in its natural state, and I have to say that because right now the Mississippi is not in a natural state, because man has changed the flow inside, you know what I mean? Like the flow and the state of the river, but in its natural state, they knew that it meandered across the floodplain all the time. And for thousands of years, the native Americans embraced, embraced the unpredictable nature and adapted to the ever changing patterns of the great river.
• 20:21
  Speaker B: I can see that.
• 20:24
  Speaker A: So exciting.
• 20:24
  Speaker B: I love that. It is exciting because you think of like, you need water to live, and they like fishing opportunities, travel opportunities. Of course you're gonna embrace it.
• 20:34
  Speaker A: Right, exactly. So then of course, the Europeans came and they moved in eventually. Here we go into this floodplain region of the Mississippi. And they took a very different approach to interacting with the land and the river.
• 20:51
  Speaker B: Surprise, surprise, they hardheaded, hard headed. That's what that is. They hardheaded.
• 20:55
  Speaker A: In the 17 hundreds, Europeans began to settle in significant numbers in the Mississippi floodplain. And they were drawn, they were actually drawn to the floodplain because it had excellent farmland.
• 21:10
  Speaker B: Oh, my God.
• 21:11
  Speaker A: Have you heard that, that flooding, the flooding's effect on soil.
• 21:16
  Speaker B: I have nothing.
• 21:18
  Speaker A: Okay. Like, that's the thing. Like, when a river floods, especially when it floods regularly, it creates excellent soil for farming because it overflows its banks and it carries with it sand and silt and other debris with organic matter like fish, poop and other minerals from, from the river. And it settles it on the land and then it goes back, leaving all of that richness in the soil. And that's good for crops.
• 21:46
  Speaker B: Well, oh, my God. Because it feels like the river giveth and the river taketh. So to rely on the giving and not the taking seems like a pretty risky venture. But that's just me. That's just me. I'm not a farmer. That's just me. That's just me, Jen. That's who I am.
• 22:10
  Speaker A: You done? Are you done?
• 22:12
  Speaker B: Okay, so are you annoyed of now?
• 22:16
  Speaker A: I am annoyed. Okay. The, the initial floods, initially, they didn't deter the european farmers. You know why? Because they're like, wow. Yeah, it flooded. Butt. When the water recedes now my shit is really fertile. Like, now this land. Damn. You know what I mean? So, yeah, they lost their corn, they lost their wheat every, like, cycle, every ten or so years. But they would have abundant harvests afterwards. And to describe how easily crops would grow, some farmers in the Mississippi delta were known to say, quote, even a fence post will sprout leaves, dude. Like, short.
• 22:58
  Speaker B: Like, super short sighted. Like, honestly, unless you, like, you. Oh, my God. Dumb, dumb, dumb, da da da dum dum dum. But you just, this is. I understand what you're saying, but unless you can predict what year with accuracy, you're gonna lose a lot of shit. And if we're talking about flooding and, like, natural occurrences, that shit be escalating. You don't know how, how far reaching that shit's gonna get. So to be like. But the con is so high, it's.
• 23:31
  Speaker A: Like, yeah, today, right, right, exactly. And so, of course, over time, the Europeans kept coming, right? And so they kept coming in increasing numbers. And then the river's tendency to flood became much more of a hindrance to settlement and development. Not a surprise. Right? And the white man began to be like, okay, now we have a real problem. Right.
• 23:55
  Speaker B: You see, you have a land.
• 23:57
  Speaker A: I like the land, but it's just.
• 23:58
  Speaker B: Oopsie, I keep flooding. So now, badlandhouse, it's like, oh, my gosh.
• 24:02
  Speaker A: Right? So the early settlers started to construct earthen embankments, or levees.
• 24:10
  Speaker B: Yes, we know that from the Pennsylvania town.
• 24:14
  Speaker A: Tell me more.
• 24:15
  Speaker B: Remember, an earthen embankment is made of earth and sand, and they try to build it up to keep the water from going through it.
• 24:23
  Speaker A: Exactly. Levee. Yeah, 100%. But they weren't like modern levees. They were basically a mound. They create a mound against the river to keep the river kind of contained. Right. Kind of right along the riverbanks. And that would manage the flow and also provide somewhat of a safeguard for residents and property. For instance, as early as 1717, the French erected levees to protect New Orleans. Now, by the late 17 hundreds, there was this patchwork of crude levees stretching for over 100 miles upriver from New Orleans all the way up the Mississippi. And these structures were built and maintained by the individual landowners. Because if you had.
• 25:12
  Speaker B: Well, I get what you're saying, but it's such a false sense of security, especially when you have to, like, make sure that the landowner is keeping that shit. Okay. You know, like, some people can't keep their fences. Okay. In my neighborhood. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm gonna trust your ass with my life and I'll levy no.
• 25:30
  Speaker A: Right. But also, the point is there was no greater responsibility. Like, it was every person who had enough of the resources to own a big piece of property in the floodplain, then took it upon himself to protect his own shit. Right? And so everybody was kind of, like, doing it just to protect their own property. But there was no widespread effort to collaborate and get together and figure this out.
• 25:55
  Speaker B: Was the population of these. This area in the Mississippi delta and the St. Francis river floodplain. Is the residents of these communities predominantly rich? Is it. This is like, a rich area, or is it like a mixed income? Like, what are we talking? Who is living here?
• 26:15
  Speaker A: Well, initially, people who are living here had property. That's why they were there. Okay. Over time, you have the establishment of towns, and the towns are going to be mixed in terms of class.
• 26:29
  Speaker B: Got you.
• 26:30
  Speaker A: Okay, so here we go. By the 1830s, the states. Now the states start getting involved in flood control. So now it's not just up to the individual landowners. Now the states are like, okay, this is a problem for the whole state. Like, you can't just protect your own shit. We have to figure out, like, how to protect the state. And they did this by funding projects directly and setting up levy boards. So the levy boards are officials who are in charge of making sure that the levees are secure for the state. And they built and they maintained the levees using money collected from taxes from the landowners. Okay, so we see more of an action.
• 27:12
  Speaker B: Yeah, pretty much what we're supposed to be doing today. But as the, like, we know shit don't always happen that way. But that's what they supposed to be doing.
• 27:20
  Speaker A: But even with these greater efforts, with. Even with this more collaboration, even with the participation of the state and the boards, flooding. Flooding kept happening.
• 27:35
  Speaker B: So even with consistent oversight. Yes, it was still happening.
• 27:39
  Speaker A: Yes. And there were actually seven major floods that hit the area between 1844 and 1874. And by the way, reading the data on these floods, every time there was a flood, the water would rise higher the next time. The water would rise higher the next time. The water would rise higher the next time. There's a reason for that. We'll talk about that later. But by the 1870s, the levee system was in terrible shape because every time there's a, like, a flood, it breaks your levees. Like, you know what I mean? And then you have to, like, fix them and raise them. So then there were calls for the federal government. They're like, okay, us government, you need to do something about this because the states aren't able to do, like, this board system with the states. Like, it's not happening. Like, it's not enough.
• 28:28
  Speaker B: It's not working.
• 28:29
  Speaker A: It's getting worse. Right? So now the federal government is interesting because according to a quote that I found from, again, that book by Klein and Zellmer, federally elected officials feared the political and financial burden that could be expected if the federal government took on the challenge of nationwide flood control. So they didn't want to pay for that.
• 28:52
  Speaker B: They didn't want to pay for that.
• 28:52
  Speaker A: They don't want to pay for that.
• 28:54
  Speaker B: And they don't want the feds calling up in their state being like, hey, we're going to check out. They don't want any of this.
• 28:59
  Speaker A: Well, so what the feds did want was the feds wanted to make sure that the Mississippi was navigable. Okay? So we want to protect the flow because that's. That's a commerce on the Mississippi. That is a big moneymaker. Right? So you can't close down the federal economy. That's. That's trans. Trans State, you know, interstate, you know, commerce happening. So, in a sense, they had this Mississippi river commission, and for a while, it was only about making sure that the flow remains steady. And then finally, in 1879, they're like, okay, MRC, Mississippi river commission. Yes, keep it flowing. But also protect the levees. Okay. So then finally, the federal government was involved, but really, they were just about, like, patching up the levees. Like, they didn't really take it seriously. Like, there was this army corps of engineers, and, like, they provided data to the local boards, but other than that, there really was no real oversight.
• 29:59
  Speaker B: Well, and again, it brings me back to these farmers that, like, even a fence post sprouts leaves. It's like, this is the risk that you're taking. So if I were the federal government, I'll be like, well, it seems like you have a farm in a pretty shitty area, bro. And I don't want to take my resources to. To control a river that's actually, by controlling it, will lose money. So, I mean, this isn't like the 19 hundreds. We don't have rail like rails. There are no real maintained, well engineered roads. Like, you need the rivers.
• 30:34
  Speaker A: For sure.
• 30:35
  Speaker B: For sure. Hang in there, guys.
• 30:37
  Speaker A: We'll be right back. Hi, everyone. We are so excited to unveil the first book in our series entitled common Mystics present. Ghost on the road, volume one, murders and mysterious deaths. It's everything you love about common mystics and more. It's a retelling of ten of our favorite stories from our pod with exciting.
• 30:58
  Speaker B: Extras, extras like souvenirs, what we took away from the experience, and what to know if you go, if you decide.
• 31:04
  Speaker A: To travel in our footsteps, pre order the Kindle edition. Now, all other formats of the book will be available for purchase@Amazon.com on July 1, 2023.
• 31:15
  Speaker B: Thanks, guys. Now back to the show.
• 31:18
  Speaker A: Well, let's. Let's fast forward to 1912, because I think now the stage is. Is set for some pretty significant catastrophe.
• 31:29
  Speaker B: Okay, are you ready? Let me think. Deep breath. Yeah.
• 31:36
  Speaker A: So, the winter of 1912 rolls around, and there is an unusual amount of snowfall in the upper Mississippi and the area of its tributaries. Right.
• 31:48
  Speaker B: Got you.
• 31:49
  Speaker A: So, as we know, everything all flows together, right. Water doesn't stay separate. They're in these different rivers, but they all end up in the Mississippi. The Mississippi takes it and flows it down to the Gulf of Mexico.
• 32:00
  Speaker B: True statement.
• 32:00
  Speaker A: It's a natural order. So, up in the north, there's heavy snowfall in Iowa and Missouri. And then a month later, in March, there's record snowfall in Nebraska and Kansas. And then six storms in the east caused significant snow and rain in Ohio and its tributaries.
• 32:25
  Speaker B: That means the Ohio river is swelling, bringing it down to the ole Miss.
• 32:29
  Speaker A: And Memphis, Tennessee, which is located right on the Mississippi river right in this region we've been discussing, received over nine inches of rain, which is well above the usual amount of about five.
• 32:44
  Speaker B: Wow.
• 32:46
  Speaker A: And by the end of March 19, twelve, the water level in Memphis had risen to 3ft above what they call flood stage. So, like, there's flood stage and then there was. What was happening?
• 32:57
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 32:58
  Speaker A: Uh huh. Okay, right. And by the way, when you're talking about flood stage, you're talking about. That is the critical threshold when moving water is now a threat to people's lives and people's property. So we are well above that in the spring of 1912.
• 33:17
  Speaker B: Okay, so I'm picturing it. What you're describing seems like it's gradually getting to a point of like, oh, fuck.
• 33:30
  Speaker A: Right, right, okay. We're not oh, fuck yet, but we're getting there. We're setting up for oh, fuck.
• 33:36
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 33:36
  Speaker A: Okay. So the snow is melting, and that is, of course, saturating the greatest river system on the continent. And then you have on top of it the substantial rains hitting the country. And in April, as the floodwaters made their way to the lower Mississippi river basin, it started raining more in southern Illinois, in Arkansas, in Kentucky, in Missouri, in Mississippi and Louisiana. And this rainfall was about four to eight inches above normal expected levels. So now we're getting to that oh, shit period.
• 34:14
  Speaker B: Uh huh. Now we're about seven inches above, like, flexibility. Like the oh, fuck meter is oh, fuckity fuck like it is there.
• 34:25
  Speaker A: So the federal government, like, recognizes we should look into this. And the US Army Corps at that point had put together a series of dikes and levees all along the Mississippi river to help with commercial navigation. Because, of course, that was its main concern, that people could still go up and down the Mississippi with their goods. Plus local levee districts, local levee boards had built some pretty basic earthen embankments or levees to keep the plantations and the people living in the flood prone areas safe from the high water. But, Jill, the levees just weren't able to handle the massive flow of 1 million cubic feet per second, at least three times the usual amount of water rushing down the river.
• 35:18
  Speaker B: I mean, how do you, how do you prepare for that? There is no preparing for it like, you wanted double protection, but now, you would need triple all of a sudden, like, in no in no record, in nobody's mind, this could happen.
• 35:33
  Speaker A: Well, there's nothing you can do now. There's not. You know what I mean? There's.
• 35:37
  Speaker B: You can haul ass out of there.
• 35:38
  Speaker A: You can haul ass. So, of course, the levees start to fail up and down the Mississippi river. And the first reported breach in the levee happened near Hickman, Kentucky, and it only took a few hours for the floodwaters to reach the rooftops of the homes.
• 36:02
  Speaker B: Oh, my God.
• 36:04
  Speaker A: In Hickman, 310 sq mi were submerged. And even though this massive break, this breach in the levee, which my sources are calling a crevasse or a big crack, even though the crevasse relieved some of the pressure on the river, the floodwaters continued to surge downstream with relentless force.
• 36:32
  Speaker B: It's. What's fascinating is the timeline. If I'm a person on the ground in this area, and it's just taking hours to cover the rooftops within 310 miles.
• 36:45
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 36:45
  Speaker B: The opportunity to get out and get safe. You had a plan yesterday, correct?
• 36:51
  Speaker A: That's exactly right.
• 36:53
  Speaker B: There is no, like, evacuation plan. It's. It's a. Oh, fuck.
• 36:59
  Speaker A: Right? And by the way, it's hard to move a wagon through water. It's hard to run through water. Children are small. It's hard to carry that, like, you're.
• 37:10
  Speaker B: Looking at, oh, I'm not bringing my kids.
• 37:13
  Speaker A: Water rising very quickly.
• 37:16
  Speaker B: Yeah. I'm putting them in, like, a bowl and being like, good. Stay here.
• 37:20
  Speaker A: Right.
• 37:21
  Speaker B: Hope to see you when I see you.
• 37:22
  Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I suppose I. If you had a boat, you were one of the lucky ones. If you just had a boat, like, ready to get into, you'd be better off.
• 37:31
  Speaker B: Yeah. But even still, you're rising among the houses like, you're pretty much still fucked.
• 37:38
  Speaker A: Now, when the floodwaters reached Carruthersville, Missouri, about 1000 men, half the town's population, teamed up, organized, and they stacked sandbags on the railroad embankment protecting the town from the Mississippi river. That's awesome. I love that teamwork. That makes me happy.
• 37:57
  Speaker B: I love it. It makes me very happy. And, yes, you can picture them working hard to save their town. Good for them.
• 38:05
  Speaker A: Even with all their hard work, though, a huge chunk of the embankment fell apart, and the town was inundated and crops were wiped out and thousands of livestock were lost, unfortunately.
• 38:18
  Speaker B: Makes me so sad.
• 38:20
  Speaker A: In Mississippi County, Missouri, a farming area in the southeastern part of the state bordered on three sides by the Mississippi river. By the way, some families managed to save their livestock by keeping them on top of an ancient indian mound. So they went to the high, and there's probably, like. It's probably not coincidental that. That those mounds were there. Yes.
• 38:48
  Speaker B: Yeah. They buried their loved ones in a place that would kind of not be affected by the flooding that they anticipated.
• 38:56
  Speaker A: But many of those townspeople in Mississippi county ultimately lost much of their. Their horses, their cattle, and their hogs. Witnesses described the unbearable smell of bloated, rotting carcasses stuck in treetops and washed up against fences and buildings.
• 39:24
  Speaker B: I did not need that.
• 39:25
  Speaker A: Can you even imagine that?
• 39:27
  Speaker B: Didn't need you to go there. Didn't need to bring in the smells. Didn't need to bring in the smells. Wow.
• 39:33
  Speaker A: Next, the floodwaters hit the state of Mississippi. And here, a dark side of America from the post reconstruction days emerges because there, with the backing of the Ku Klux Klan and lynch mobs, Jim crow laws were thriving, and black people were often stuck in economic servitude to the more wealthy planters who acted like slavery was still the norm, by the way. Okay, so this is the culture that we still have. 1912.
• 40:11
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 40:12
  Speaker A: Yeah. So during this flood, an enterprising young engineer who ran out of sandbags near Greenville had, what he thought was a, quote, brilliant idea. According to the New York Times, he had several hundred black convicts lie down on the levee while water rushed over them, creating a, quote, human dike to hold back the water.
• 40:48
  Speaker B: Wow.
• 40:49
  Speaker A: After all, he figured they were just standing idle anyway, so why not put them to use? Can I just read you this from the New York Times? This is an actual quote that I want to read.
• 41:04
  Speaker B: Oh.
• 41:07
  Speaker A: Can you handle this?
• 41:09
  Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, okay, we'll talk about it. Just give me a minute.
• 41:13
  Speaker A: The Times reported, quote, human dike used to hold back flood. It's from New York Times, April 11, 1912. Negroes save the day. For an hour and a half, the Negroes uncomplainingly stuck to their posts until additional sandbags arrived. Then the human wall was replaced and the capping was pronounced sufficiently strong. The feat was somewhat similar to that performed at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1852, when a levee broke and 3000 negro slaves were ordered into this breach and held back the waters for 24 hours, saving the levee and preventing a heavy loss of life. That's hard. I almost didn't put this in because it's so ugly. It's hard to even contemplate. I'm speechless at the tone that the New York Times takes and drawing the parallel to slavery and what happened in 1852 in Louisiana, like, what they're basically saying is, yeah, they're still our slaves.
• 42:33
  Speaker B: The more we do this research into our country's history, it feels like my understanding of slavery is evolving in, like, real time of how when I was younger and before I started doing this research, I would be like, oh. But, you know, they treated them like, well, love, like, oh, my God, you know, tools, right? And now it's like, no, they're not parts of the family. They're not. They're not even cared for the way that you would care for livestock. They're literally just things to prevent, exploit. Exactly.
• 43:14
  Speaker A: Yeah. Well, on the other hand, in, in New Orleans, New Orleans efforts to fortify the levees saw a diverse group of workers, including lawyers, doctors, and businessmen, laboring right alongside african american roustabouts and convicts, as reported by the New York Times. So I follow this up with an example of a community that regardless of race or class, they worked together against the flood. However, again, their efforts proved insufficient against the, the power of the Mississippi river. Now, on the night of May 10, the river in New Orleans reached eight inches in just 2 hours and reached over 21ft by 10:00 p.m. surpassing the maximum flood stage predicted by the weather bureau. High winds caused severe flooding in New Orleans, with the New York Times noting unprecedented water levels. Sidewalks were nearly seven inches deep, and strong currents affected the French Quarter and Canal Street. Louisiana Governor Sanders reported 350,000 people were left homeless, and there were $6 million in property damage. Overall, the floodwaters rushed through 22 crevasses and covered nearly 7000 sq. Mi, about 30% of the entire floodplain land behind the levees. At 17 out of the 18 gauging stations south of Cairo, Illinois, the 1912 flood broke records, going beyond the highest readings ever recorded since they were set up in the year 1871.
• 45:13
  Speaker B: Wow.
• 45:14
  Speaker A: Many smaller communities in the floodplain were hit hard in the 1912 flood, of course, including park in Arkansas, where we stopped, located in the lower St. Francis river district on the west side of the Mississippi river in Arkansas.
• 45:31
  Speaker B: Was there any kind of analysis? Did anyone look at these events and put something together to be like, hey, you know, moving forward, we should?
• 45:42
  Speaker A: Absolutely. In fact, in 1912, there was an analysis published in the Bulletin of American Geographical Society, volume 44. According to that article, 80%, or about 2500 sq mi of the lower St. Francis district was inundated with floodwaters. So 80% of the area where park in Arkansas is, was like totally flooded and local. Here's the thing. Local newspaper articles in that district, the St. Francis district in Arkansas were peppered with these editorials with people writing in criticizing the local levee board for mismanagement of the flood situation that spring of 1912.
• 46:33
  Speaker B: What does that mean? Like, what were they criticizing for mismanagement?
• 46:38
  Speaker A: Well, they were asking, like, why are the levees more secure in areas adjacent to the properties of wealthy farmers and less secure in other areas where maybe poor people are subject to the flooding? Wow. Uh huh. And they also questioned the actions of the board members in the face of the rising floodwaters. And one of them wrote in saying that the president of the board was hiding on top of the local high point, Crowley's Ridge, while the townspeople were suffering.
• 47:14
  Speaker B: Oh, my God.
• 47:15
  Speaker A: Yeah. And actually, the board was formally accused of improper management of funding. They were. There was actually a lawsuit. Now, the board members were officially acquitted of this charge, but people were taking this seriously. And by the way, and this is important, the St. Francis levies in the area where Parkin is located were not complete at the time of the flood of 1912. In fact, they were only about 82% completed. Now, according to this article, this analysis in the American Geographical Society, the only district along the Mississippi that was not inundated by water, and the only levee that actually withstood the 1912 flood without a break was the upper Yazoo district on the upper Yazoo river. And by the way, that is the only levy district that had a completed levy.
• 48:26
  Speaker B: Oh, my God.
• 48:29
  Speaker A: Uh huh. And so this, this analysis lists all of the river districts, and the only one that had a completed levy. Like, the levee was patched. The levy was, like, up to where it should be. The board was taking care of it and, like, managed the, the whole, like, levy system in that area. And that's the one place where they didn't flood. I. Everybody else, the levees weren't done.
• 48:56
  Speaker B: That makes me even more mad, because this was something that they were planning for. So they had resources, they had the means to protect these areas. They just didn't.
• 49:09
  Speaker A: Yeah. Huh huh. Indeed.
• 49:12
  Speaker B: Ain't that some shit?
• 49:14
  Speaker A: For sure. So, yeah, the flood of 1912, the great Mississippi flood, kind of a big deal, wouldn't you say?
• 49:23
  Speaker B: It's a huge deal. A huge deal and a huge shit show. I mean, it seems like a huge corruption of power, and it feels like maybe we should be looking into this a little bit more.
• 49:38
  Speaker A: Well, and that's why taxpayers were like, okay, where is our money going if our levies aren't repaired, if our levees aren't at the level that, you know, the US Corps of engineers is saying they should be like, why? Why is that the case? Like, where is our money going? Kind of thing. Right.
• 49:54
  Speaker B: They're not wrong.
• 49:55
  Speaker A: Aside from that, remarkably, Jill, even though this was a huge catastrophe and it impacted so many communities along this, you know, major, major area of the United States, there was not much news coverage about the flood of 1912.
• 50:14
  Speaker B: You took the research on this story, and we were looking at the sign and trying to research what floods and disasters that that historical marker was naming, and you were like, literally like, Jill, there's nothing.
• 50:30
  Speaker A: Right? In fact, if you look up, there's a Wikipedia article called list of Mississippi river floods. The flood of 1912 is not even listed there.
• 50:40
  Speaker B: Oh, my gosh.
• 50:41
  Speaker A: Uh huh. And newspapers. I was all over newspapers.com, comma, not a sponsor, but we're open, and it's really hard to find information about the flood.
• 50:53
  Speaker B: Why is that? Like, why? What was going on during April 1912? That would have been huge media coverage event.
• 51:05
  Speaker A: Excellent question, Jill. Do you remember hearing about a situation involving the Titanic?
• 51:12
  Speaker B: Oh, my God. Just recently, like, I think last summer, there was a pod that went down there, and they were trying to view it, and then it was ran by, like, a remote control, and then it just imploded.
• 51:25
  Speaker A: Wow. Okay. Yeah. So the actual Titanic sank in April of 1912, and this dramatic event monopolized the press all over the entire country and world for weeks. Like, people were not looking at the suffering that was happening on the Mississippi river floodplain. They were all looking at the tragic and dramatic loss of life that had happened in the Atlantic when the Titanic sunk.
• 51:55
  Speaker B: Because the Titanic was supposed to be unsinkable, and a lot of rich folks perished.
• 52:01
  Speaker A: So it's tough to get an exact count of how many lives were actually lost in the great Mississippi flood of 1912. But experts estimate that several hundred people died from drowning, disease, exposure, and starvation in the aftermath of the flood. And some say that about three fourths of those who drowned were black. Yeah. So who do you think our voiceless are?
• 52:37
  Speaker B: I know you hate when I say this, but the whole town of Parkin really is, like, really needs a voice. Just saying. But also those poor, poor people, the black people, the black convicts that were used as a human barrier. And I just find it so deta. Like, when they talk about in other areas that this worked, that the slaves were used as human barriers, then they're like, they did it brilliantly. It's like they had no choice. Like, I. Oh, God. It just is so annoying, the lack of humanity. People viewed actual human beings with.
• 53:23
  Speaker A: Yeah. Also that idea that they were convicts. I just want to circle back to that because we're talking about post reconstruction in the south when Jim Crow laws made it illegal for a black person to, like, whistle on a Tuesday. Right. So we're not talk. These weren't. The vast majority of these people were, quote, criminals because they did some stupid shit. You know what I mean? It's not like we're not talking about bad people. We're talking about people who were locked up because of some stupid ass laws in the south for the most part. So I think that the fact that they were convicts, like, yeah, I'm doing the whole bunny quotes. You guys can't see me if you're listening. But, yeah, keep that in perspective. We're not talking about, like, a bunch of murderers that they laid down against the river.
• 54:13
  Speaker B: I also find it really distasteful because the whole town, like, people were giving their resources to the government for basic infrastructure and they just didn't do it.
• 54:29
  Speaker A: That's true.
• 54:30
  Speaker B: That is really disturbing to me as well.
• 54:34
  Speaker A: I didn't want to talk about the black convicts, but I felt like I had to bring it up, especially because your KKK reference in the car, like, that hit, I think, led me to say, okay, we're going to include this, even though it feels like it's a tangent. It's not a tangent. So I had to include it here. But when you brought up Parkin, like, the. The whole city of Parkin needing a voice, the whole town. The fact that spirit led us to the town of Parkin, Arkansas, and showed us that sign memorializing the 1912 flood, like, is significant because if you try to research that online, it's nowhere. Even if you look at, like, official parkin, like, websites, nowhere did they mention the tragedy of the flood of 1912. It's like it didn't happen. And if we hadn't been there and seen that sign, we never would have known it.
• 55:26
  Speaker B: Not only that, we actively tried to stay away from. We were like, yeah, no, yeah, we got pulled there. Spirit was like, nope, you guys, we're here.
• 55:35
  Speaker A: So on one hand, it's Parkin, but on the other hand, Jill, I feel like Parkin is just an example of all the towns and all the people who suffered in 1912 because of the great Mississippi Mississippi flood that went completely unnoticed at the time because it happened in the shadow of the Titanic tragedy.
• 55:56
  Speaker B: Oh, that's deep.
• 55:57
  Speaker A: Right? So I do think that Parkin is an analogy like this happened. Not only did was nobody talking about it at the time, but there are very few records about all of the suffering and devastation that occurred. Yeah, yeah.
• 56:12
  Speaker B: What do you think spirit was trying to tell us?
• 56:15
  Speaker A: Well, in addition to that, you know, the fact that we spent the night in Marion, Arkansas. Yeah, yeah. That was kind of random. Like, we just are like, hey, let's just get a room now we're getting tired kind of thing. Right?
• 56:26
  Speaker B: Absolutely. That's how it goes.
• 56:28
  Speaker A: Well, through my research, I found that the St. Francis levee board was actually located at Marion, Arkansas.
• 56:39
  Speaker B: Why?
• 56:40
  Speaker A: We stayed in the town. I know we stayed in the town where the board was located. That's insane. So that could not have been a coincidence to me. So I really think that spirit is trying to highlight the malfeasance of the St. Francis levee board because they didn't take care of the levees the way they were supposed to. They were, I think, guilty of malfeasance. Right. But so were all of the other local boards who didn't take care of the levees the way they were supposed to.
• 57:12
  Speaker B: And that brings us to your hit with mom.
• 57:15
  Speaker A: I do think so. Mom with those with money coming out of her hands, like, you know, that whole idea that when, you know your hand itches, money comes into it. Have you ever heard that? Like, if your right hand is. Yeah, exactly. It's like they made decisions to bring money to them, not to, like, do their work and take care of people.
• 57:36
  Speaker B: Mom's whole perspective on corruption and greed and bureaucracy, it's like, this would have hit mom hard. She would have been pissed.
• 57:45
  Speaker A: Exactly. And also, like, that whole park and archaeological site, we were like, we're not going there.
• 57:52
  Speaker B: And then we are actively avoiding there.
• 57:55
  Speaker A: And spirit frickin led us there anyway.
• 57:58
  Speaker B: Why do you think so?
• 58:00
  Speaker A: Well, you know, I had to think about this because it wasn't obvious to me at first, but the more I sat with it, I think that spirit was highlighting the difference between the mentality of the indigenous peoples that lived there and in the Mississippi river valley and the Europeans who ultimately settled that land. Because in, like we said, the indigenous peoples, they worked with the land. They didn't try to control it. They were like, okay, this is. These are the rhythms of the land. Here's how we're going to live our lives in accordance with the rhythms of the land. But the Europeans, and in modern times, we try to control nature, hubris, and we get in trouble. The. The true irony here, the true irony is that the more levees we build against the river to hold it back, the higher the water is on the river, and the higher the water is on the river, the worse the destruction occurs when there's a break. So we are creating this cycle of making it worse. And so it's almost fitting, Jill, it's almost fitting if something, if some event had to steal the headlines from the Mississippi flood of 1912, it should be the sinking of the Titanic because both have similar lessons. Both tell the tale of humans challenging nature and losing.
• 59:49
  Speaker B: Well done, Jennifer. Very nice. Seriously, I think we should leave it there.
• 59:56
  Speaker A: You think so?
• 59:58
  Speaker B: Yes. It's wonderful. Thank you so much.
• 59:59
  Speaker A: Well, why don't we tell the people where to find us?
• 1:00:02
  Speaker B: Well, please check out our very new website, commonmystics.net. it has a facelift and we're really excited about it. Check us out on all our socialsommonmysticspod. And I will do better on posting because I haven't been lately. So sorry about that.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker A: Thank you so much. Hey, meet us on detours because I have something to tell you about DeSoto and his interactions with the people in the Mississippi river valley. Like, it is, like, insane.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker B: Love it.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker A: Meet me there. All right, love you.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker B: Bye bye. This has been a common mystics media production.