The American Bottom is a great floodplain that lies along the Mississippi across from St. Louis. It stretches from Alton, Illinois clear south to Chester. The Flood of 1993 inundated most of the bottoms. Long before the flood I haunted this place and learned to be a photographer.
While the flood did not effect Cahokia Mounds, I made a lot of images of it, including one on a snowy day.
On a January day, I came upon a corn field at Stringtown, where water had pooled against a levee and sat for weeks. The corn in the field, next to a flooded house, broke off at the water level.
During the flood, the National Guard restricted access to the bottoms. But I knew the ins and outs so well that could find a way in. I called Herbert Mueller and asked him about this flooded grove of cypress. He told me he had planted it in a place he couldn't dry out. The trees survived the flood; his corn did not.
Moredock Lake, the local's call it "Modcock." It's an old channel of the Mississippi. During the spring, summer, and fall its a favorite fishing lake. During the fall duck hunters hide in the shallows. Late January, when the lake freezes over, marks the end of fishing and hunting, unless of course, someone ventures out on the ice, cuts a hole, and tries reeling in a catch. |
