In summer, 1993, a massive low pressure system sat over the upper Missouri River region. Week after week rains poured down. The Missouri and upper Mississippi Rivers reached flood stage. The levees became sodden; many gave way, overflowing vast reaches of the flood plain.

The Big Muddy River, which flows into the Mississippi some 60 miles above the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, backed up. These snags remain, stark reminders of the river's, and the weather's, unpredictablity.

In an earlier era, the dead trees would undoubtedly have been harvested for fuel.

More on flood:
Remnants of 1993 Flood, Big Muddy River, Union County © D. Gorton 2001
D. Gorton's Home Page
Jane Adams' Home Page
Memory and Judgment: Mississippi
The White South
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