Golddust, Tennessee/Daniel's Point, Arkansas/Ashport, Tennessee/Canadian Reach

Golddust, Tennessee/Daniel's Point, Arkansas/Ashport, Tennessee/Canadian Reach. Mississippi River Walk. , A) Golddust, Tennessee , Mile 793.4 AHP, Golddust is a tiny faring community with barge facilities for shipping the area's produce. It may have been named for the old sternwheeler, Gold Dust, on which Mark Twain traveled in 1882 to gather material for his book Life on the Mississippi., B) Daniel's Point, Arkansas , Mile 796.3 AHP, In the late 1800s, some of the first experiments in river control were carried out at Daniels Point. Revetments made of willow mats were placed along the banks to protect them from the harsh current of Canadian Reach. The river now bypasses Daniels Point, and the current rushes against the Tennessee banks. There, a revetment of flexible concrete mattresses demonstrates the modern results of those early experiments., C) Ashport, Tennessee , Mile 796.4 AHP, Ashport was founded in 1836, and vigorously promoted as a river port. A 200-acre townsite was laid out, warehouses and a large steam-powered sawmill were built, and work began on a highway. The town was then located on a large bend just below Canadian Reach, and the river current gradually washed Ashport downstream. All 200 acres of the original town eventually disappeared. , D) Canadian Reach , Mile 797.6 AHP, The Canadian Reach was long one of the most difficult stretches of the river, filled with sandbars, snags and several small islands called the Canadian Isles. Two of the larger ones, Islands No. 26 and No. 27, joined together and were named Forked Deer Island. In the early 1900s, the Mississippi carved a new channel through the chute behind the islands, and Canadian Reach became an oxbow lake.