Rodney Cutoff/Bayou Pierre

Rodney Cutoff/Bayou Pierre. Mississippi River Walk. , A) Rodney Cutoff , Mile 388.0 AHP , Opened in 1936 the Rodney Cutoff bypassed an old river bend and the ghost town that once was the busy river town of Rodney. Over 4,000 people lived in the town of Rodney in the 1850’s and its bustling port rivaled Natchez and Vicksburg, MS when the Civil War intervened. The town began to fade when the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad opened in 1886, taking away its steamboat trade. A few years later, the river moved west, leaving Rodney trapped behind swamps and sandbars. When the Rodney Cutoff was made in 1935, the town was practically deserted and its abandoned buildings were left to crumble., B) Bayou Pierre , Mile 394.3 AHP , When the Spanish took over this region, their generous land grants attracted many settlers to the Bayou Pierre. Among the first were the Bruin family from Virginia, who established a plantation called Bruinsburg here at the mouth of the bayou in 1788. Aaron Burr stopped here on his way to New Orleans in 1807. Burr had been Thomas Jefferson’s Vice-President but had resigned after killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel and was in political disfavor. He claimed he was going to Louisiana to settle on land he owned, but there were rumors of a plot to seize New Orleans and attack Mexico. At Brunsburg, Burr learned that Jefferson had ordered his arrest on charges of treason, and he turned himself in. He was later acquitted.