My June Vacation in September - The Final Chapter!

The last thing my sister and I did in Memphis was to visit Mud Island Park.  Not a super impressive-sounding name, is it?

One of the headwater walls.

I had read an article many many moons ago about the park not long after it first opened and thought it sounded fascinating.  The main attraction (to my geeky mind) is the outdoor scale model of the Mississippi River.  There are walls that depict the headwaters of each tributary of the Mississippi, and channels (in concrete) of the great river itself.

An example of oxbow bends in the model channel. 

You can see where the river is deeper or shallower, wider or narrower.  Water flows through the river model, first cascading down the headwater walls, then through the river model, and exiting into the delta and Gulf of Mexico!  Cities show up as slate-colored slabs along the riverbanks and are labeled so you know where you are.

This is Memphis!

 A bridge!

It's a dam!

We were amazed by the intricacy of the model.  The entire display stretches about 0.7 mile along the river.  There's an actual indoor museum at the north end of the park, but we didn't go inside.

The delta end of the "river" is kind of overgrown in places, but according to a sign along the way, the park is undergoing renovations, and we saw evidence of that - some new bricks along the walkway, some newer concrete here and there, some areas where cattails had been removed.  The park opened on July 4, 1982, so it's about time.

The delta end of the "river."

We spent quite a bit of time at Mud Island.  Just think, you can walk from one end of the Mississippi River to the other in just an hour or two, depending on how many of the descriptive signs you stop to read.  Who dreamed up this crazy miniature Mississippi?  And how did they convince the city to build it?  It's an amazing endeavor, and worth seeing.

Here we are!  Farewell to Memphis!