November 8, 2011

Before the creation of the St. Francis Levee/Drainage District in 1893 and the delivery of massive dredge equipment such as the dredgeboat shown here in 1912, Mississippi County was described as a “hopeless permanent mosquito and malaria infested swamp.” Perhaps as much as ninety percent of the county was such a swamp with only about ten percent cultivatable. With the land drained, farm acreage increased considerably, and the instances of malaria sharply dropped almost immediately.