Hidden away in Jackson, MS lies the World’s largest model of the Mississippi River. This Mississippi River Basin Model details the Mississippi River watershed with incredible accuracy! You can find the model tucked away inside of Buddy Butts Park, right outside Clinton’s city limits.
I have visited the abandoned model before, but I recently the DJI Mavic Mini drone, and wanted to see what I could view from the air! Plus it sounded like a great place to practice my piloting skills.
So what is the abandoned Mississippi River Basin Model? Why was it created and why was it abandoned?
The 1927 Flood
To understand why it was built, we only need to look back at a catastrophic event before its construction. In 1927, the United States faced the worst river flood in its recorded history. The Mississippi River’s flood left 700,000 Americans homeless, most of whom resided in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. A total of 10 states were affected. 27,000 square miles were covered in floodwaters. At one point, part of the river reached 80 miles in width! 14% of Arkansas was covered by the floodwaters!
President Herbert Hoover said it was “the greatest peace-time calamity in the history of the country”. Damages equaled one-third of the federal budget at the time, so the need to prevent another disaster like this was great, and so Congress and the Army Corps of Engineers took action. Levees were repaired, new ones were built, and new laws were passed. Prevention measures were in place, and the problem was solved, or so they thought. In 1937, the Ohio River, another portion of the Mississippi River watershed, experienced a devastating flood.
Their solutions to the flooding potentially created new problems of flooding in other areas. The Mississippi River Basin is a complicated system of rivers and waterways, not easy to predict, and not easy to tame. With today’s technology, it’s as easy as simulating a flood with an advanced piece of software. At that time, they needed those same simulations to help prevent and predict more flooding, but they did not have the digital technology to do so. Instead, Major Eugene Reybold proposed the idea of an interactive replica of the Mississippi River Basin.
The Model’s Construction
Reybold’s proposal was approved and the land was purchased near Clinton, Mississippi. There was already a Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, but the Mississippi River Basin Model project needed a larger area of flat land.
In 1943 the construction began of the Model. The history buffs out there should recognize that this was toward the end of World War II. At this point, the US spent most of its focus and manpower on the war. Still, the Army Corps project set its expected completion date to 1948.
To compensate for lack of manpower, Reybold got the approval for the Army Corps to us prisoners of war. These were captured Italian and Germans who were used as laborers and even engineers for the project. Many of the laborers were Germans from the Afrika Korps, a German expeditionary force deployed in North Africa.
The model was skewed to a horizontal scale of 1:2000 and a vertical scale of 1:100. As a comparison, the Rocky Mountains would be only 50 feet tall. This project was incredibly ambitious for the Army Corps and they underestimated the completion time. The project was not fully completed until as late as 1966.
Usage
While the model wasn’t fully completed, it did see around 79 simulations. These simulations were very in-depth and took from weeks to months to finish. That hard work and in-depth research resulted in success as the information gathered from these tests did help to prevent flooding. Its largest success was using the information to prevent major flooding in Omaha during 1952. This research information saved at least 65 million in estimated flood damages.
At some point, the model got enough attention to become a tourist attraction. The model saw around 5,000 visitors a year until usage of the model began to decrease. Computer modeling began in the early 1970s which over time rendered the model useless. It was costing the Army Corps too much to maintain and in the 1990s the site was transferred to the city of Jackson. Unfortunately, it was also too expensive for Jackson to maintain so the simple solution was to abandon it.
Life of the Model Today
Today, the Mississippi River Basin Model sits hidden within Buddy Butts Park right outside of Clinton, Mississippi. The park is located at 6180 McRaven Rd, in Jackson, and is only an eight-minute drive from the Mississippi College campus.
Entering the park you will drive past the driving range on the left and head straight where you will see a dilapidated building and water tower. The entrance to the park is gated off, but you’re free to cross it and explore.
The model is overgrown and full of hazards. So as a warning to those who choose to explore it, please watch your step! There are many open holes, metallic objects, and exposed rebar. Plus nature has taken over the model and may have hidden dangers such as snakes.
Hope is not all lost for the river model though. A volunteer group called the Friends of the Mississippi River Basin Model has made it their goal to restore the model and renew Buddy Butts Park as much as possible. They have made some progress around the entrance of the model and included a signpost with a QR code that takes you to a map of the model. With their handy map, you can explore from Omaha to Baton Rouge from a giant’s perspective. While the model may be in bad shape, it is still an impressive sight to see and includes a few hidden points of interest to find like the observation tower.
I love exploring and seeing the world, but I have a special place for the lesser-known sites in my home state of Mississippi. If you know of any area I need to check out, please let me know by emailing me at [email protected] or contacting me on social media.
