I don't know how to get this info to the right people but I have an idea that would at least slow this down. I belong to a local hunting club and anytime the timber companies "clear cut" an area that is likely to cause erosion problems they lay down what looks like a plastic net on the ground. It comes in rolls like visqueen and I think is fairly cheap. This is followed by planting (scattering) grass seed. It also sometimes has hay laid under the netting. It seems the grass grows back pretty quick. That would at least buy them some time fairly cheaply.




Down here in Louisiana we are too familiar with erosion. Our coastal waterways are constantly shrinking. The Army Corps of Engineers has a constant battle with that. The major concern here is the fear that the Mississippi is gonna change course again. The A.o.C.E. predicts this will happen within 12-15 years unless they can continue their battle. This would leave, they claim, New Orleans high and dry and would wash Morgan City into the Gulf of Mexico. During the civil war Morgan City was named Brashear City and saw a good bit of action.




On a lighter note there is an old joke that says "if you worry about dead relatives floating into your yard during a rain storm, you might be from Louisiana"

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Replying to:

State Park Status Not Enough to Protect Grand Gulf Graveyard




July 9, 2002--The town of Grand Gulf, Mississippi, barely exists any more. Its name lives on in a graveyard, some of the occupants of which were buried there when they fell in the Vicksburg Campaign.




In honor of the cemetery, as well as rifle pits and other Civil War earthworks that still exist nearby, the state designated the area as Grand Gulf Military Park. It is used for recreation by local residents and camping by Boy Scout troops and others.




The graves and the earthworks are both in danger from ongoing erosion that has created a massive gully behind the cemetery. Park officials know that some graves have already been lost. The last resting place of Jackson Ross, a member of the 47th U.S. Colored Infantry, will be the next.




Ross' headstone juts out on a small peninsula of earth overhanging the gully. Decade after decade, the unforgiving Mississippi rains are spiriting away the hallowed ground, the Jackson (MS) Clarion-Ledger reports.




Claire May, the business manager at Grand Gulf Military Park, said she is nearly certain that in years past, remains and headstones have been lost in the pit below. With every rainstorm, their concern grows that Ross' grave and others nearby might also be washed away.




"We have no idea how many of them have been lost," May said. "We'll probably never know."




The earthworks were built where the 6th Missouri Infantry helped drive back Union forces and delayed the fall of Vicksburg.




Local engineer Jeff Knight, who donated some time to assess Grand Gulf's erosion problems, said the solution is a series of pipes throughout the cemetery to channel stormwater into drainage ditches. Dirt also needs to be brought in to refill the areas that have washed away, and grass planted on top to hold the soil in place, Knight said.




"It's a relatively easy fix, you just have to have the money to do it," he said. Knight estimates that cost at about $85,000.




Park Director Bud Ross said that the park has applied to the legislature for the needed money for several years, to no avail. This year, Grand Gulf Military Park's state funding wasn't even enough to pay its small maintenance crew and professional staff.




"As far as getting money through (the Legislature), you can hang that up," the director said. "But unless we get some help, that soldier is going and we can't stop it."




Ross said the park is looking for financial help from any quarter, whether government, private or non-profit. Park Director Bud Ross can be reached at 437-5911 or by e-mail at park@grandgulf.state.ms.us .




Lee Jones, the leader of Boy Scout Troop 275 in Brandon, said it would be a shame if the graves cannot be saved. Jones' Scouts have always enjoyed camping at Grand Gulf and have done service projects fixing up the cemetery, he said.




"There's a lot of history they can get real close to down there," Jones said. "Once something like (the soldier's grave) is gone, you lose it forever."




Raymond Joyner, the district conservationist for the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, said his agency has programs to help fight erosion, but they are targeted only at fighting natural disasters, not steady deterioration over the years.




The Legislature might be the park's only hope, Joyner said. "Once it goes beyond our normal program, it's in their ballpark," he said.




Sen. Mike Chaney, R-Vicksburg, told the Clarion-Ledger that this is the first he has heard of problems, but the Legislature has appropriated money in the past four years for the park. "I'm going down there tomorrow and see what's happening," he said Sunday afternoon.




The town of Grand Gulf was a thriving port until a series of natural and man-made disasters struck. Inhabitants were stricken by yellow fever and a vicious tornado. Erosion caused by the Mississippi River ate away most of the business district just before the Civil War, and federal troops burned what was left.




The town is still noted on maps, as the site where state highway 462 dead-ends at the Mississippi River.