Time to Go Treasure Hunting

Treasure Hunting in the Mississippi

Secrets beneath the River revealed by receding waters

Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

The Mississippi River has always been a storyteller— carrying narratives of trade, of civilization, of adven ture; of histories remarkable and histories dreadful. Over the past month and a half, though, the River’s very lack has unveiled stories long forgotten, hidden—until now—beneath her great waters.

The drought affecting most of the continental United States this fall has wrought its effects on the river, shrink ing it back to record-low levels in several places along its two-thousand-mile path. Louisiana’s stretch is the river’s deepest point, and still—starved for runoff—the body of water has constricted farther and farther from its usual banks.

This has wrought havoc on the nation’s shipping industry (the river carries over half of the country’s grain exports alone), causing barge groundings and initiating emergency dredging operations. In New Orleans, the low river has caused concern for New Orleans’ drinking water supply as saltwater moves upstream from the Gulf.

So, we continue to pray for rain. But in the meantime, locals up and down the river have not wasted the opportunity to take advantage of the rare access to the Mississippi’s underbelly, and the things that she’s hidden there. Photos have emerged of people hiking the sandy dunes, more reminiscent of some West ern desert than the Southern swamps— the dried bottom of the river a mysterious, ephemeral playground. And, as you might expect, people have found things there—fossils, sunken ships, even human remains.

One of the first, and most exciting, of these discoveries was that of the Brookhill Ferry in Baton Rouge—a night ferry that had carried traffic in between Port Allen and Baton Rouge from 1895 to 1915, when a September hurricane sank her in place. Local treasure hunter Pat rick Ford came across the boat’s corpse while hiking the banks in early October, instantly capturing the interest of local archaeologists and the imagination of Baton Rouge residents. “My first visit [to the site] was a bit of a shock to see how much of her was exposed,” said Louisiana’s State Archaeologist Chip McGimsey of the S.S. Brookhill. “I did not anticipate the very strong public interest that the initial TV and newspaper reports generated. I figured there would be a few curious visitors, but wasn’t expecting to see literally thousands of people make their way down to see her.”

Since then, two more boats have emerged from the retreating waters. On October 16, five miles south from the fer ry site, eleven-year-old Boy Scout Aaron Bencaz was exploring the sandbar with his friend Jason and his dog Cash when he discovered yet another shipwreck. With a backstory more elusive than the S.S. Brookhill, the boat is believed to have been built sometime after 1880, and was likely some sort of barge. The official name of the shipwreck has been regis tered as “Aaron’s Shipwreck”. “We need the river to fall another couple of feet to really expose it,” said McGimsey.

And just down the river, the unveiling of the 1980s replica of French explor er Sieur d’Iberville’s vessel Le Pelican reminded Donaldsonville residents of a doomed tourism venture embarked upon in the early 2000s. After spending a fortune on bringing the ship, built in Canada, to South Louisiana as a tourist attraction in 2002—then having to raise it after it sank on the journey—the town had no choice but to anchor the vessel when it went under for a final time in March 2004.

Higher up in Mississippi, discoveries included the remains of Biloxi’s first casino boat, the 1990-built Diamond Lady—with her 640 slot machines; an extremely rare ice age fossil of the American lion, which went extinct 11,000 years ago; and portions of one human skeleton, currently being studied by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations.

McGimsey said he is actually surprised that there haven’t been more artifacts found since the River’s recession. “I think the challenge has been that most parts of the river are really not accessible to the general public to go exploring—land is blocked off, you have to cross private land to get to the river. The two wrecks that have been found [in Baton Rouge] are lo cated in some of the few areas where the public can easily visit.”

The archaeologist expressed encouragement at the way the public has shown interest and excitement around the history revealed by the things coming out of the river. “Hopefully, for everyone, but especially for the younger folks, it will spark an interest in history broadly,” he said. “This is certainly not what most people think of when they think of archaeology.”