The Mississippi Delta 32b: Satartia (revisited spring 2020)

Satartia is a handsome little town next to the Yazoo River, partway between Redwood and Yazoo City, Mississippi. I visited in 2019 during the great flood that year. This year, the water came up again, and residents of the lower Delta were semi-inundated for months once again. I revisited Satartia one day in April when I needed a change of scene and opportunity to do some photography.

Satartia, Mississippi, at the edge of the loess hills (map from ESRI ArcGIS Online)

Levees line the Yazoo River and prevent flooding in low areas, such as the town of Satartia. This broad, flat agricultural region is the famous Mississippi Delta. However streams flow down from the loess hills to the east. If the Yazoo River is low (non-flood conditions), the streams drain into the river via culverts that run through the levee. But when the Yazoo rises above a certain level, flood gates across the culverts must be closed to prevent backflow. Then the local water has nowhere to go other than spread out into the fields, making them soggy. It is difficult for the farmers.

The little Satartia Grocery on Plum Street formerly served lunches, but it has been closed for at least a year. I saw an electric light burning inside.

Shed behind Satartia Grocery (Fuji X-E1 digital file, in-camera jpeg)

This little shed was on the side street. Did someone live in it at one time? Maybe it was a tiny home long before their time.

Former grist mill, Satartia (4×5" Tri-X Prof film, 135mm ƒ/4.5 Xenar lens, yellow-green filter)

Plum Street goes up and over the Yazoo River levee. A group of houses are on the river side of the levee. Most are up on stilts or on elevated mounds. A local gent told me that this little building was a former grist mill. As you can see, water was almost up to the base of the steps. Last year (2019), the water was just a bit higher higher and under the porch.

Shed (4×5" Tri-X Prof film, 135mm ƒ/4.5 Xenar lens, yellow-green filter)

This is a shed at the Satartia Gin. Rain was beginning to fall, and I had to photograph in a hurry and pack up. Using a 4×5 inch camera in the rain is difficult, but I like the soft non-directional light.

Fina on MS Rte 3 (4×5" Tri-X Prof film, 90mm ƒ6.8 Angulon lens)

The Fina station on Rte 3 has been closed for years. Status: unknown.

I will show more 2020 flood photos in future articles. Most of these photographs are from 4×5"Tri-X Professional (ISO 320) film taken with a Tachihara wood field camera. I scanned the negatives on an Epson 3200 Photo flat bed scanner using the Epson scan software.

The Mississippi Delta 32: Satartia

Lift bridge, Yazoo River, Satartia Road (photograph taken from levee)

Satartia is a charming little town (village) on the east bank of the Yazoo City in Yazoo County, about 32 miles north of Vicksburg. According to Wikipedia, "It is Mississippi's smallest incorporated municipality by population. Located on the east bank of the Yazoo River, Satartia was once a thriving river port, and is one of the oldest non-Native settlements in Yazoo County." Although the 2017 population was only about 54, the village has a number of well-preserved historical cottages and homes.

Satartia Grocery, 304 Plum St., Satartia (Ektar 25 film, 35mm Super-Takumar lens)

Satartia Grocery (35mm Super-Takumar lens). The Fordice sticker on the door refers to the former governor, whose administration was marked by racial discord, scandal, corruption, and drinking.

Satartia Grocery photographed through glass (Fuji X-E1 digital file)

Shed behind Satartia Grocery

Not too hot - yet (digital file)

The Satartia Grocery must have once provided supplies and food staples to the town's residents. I could not tell how long it has been closed. I assume residents now must drive to Yazoo City or Vicksburg to buy groceries.

Some of the houses in town are occupied; others are empty but not abandoned. This part of the town is east of the Yazoo River levee and is therefore out of the flood zone.

On Old Hickory Street, not far from the junction with Rte 3, I saw this old Sears Roebuck trailer.

Former grist mill (Ektar 25 film, 35mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Takumar lens)

West of the levee, the land drops and was pretty wet as of May 27, 2019. This shed's contents (if any) likely stayed dry this year. A gent from a house nearby said this was once the grist mill.

I crossed the lift bridge and headed west on Satartia Road but could only drive a couple of miles before the road dropped under the water. If the road were open, it would take you to Holly Bluff, another small agricultural Mississippi Delta town which I photographed in 2016 (click the link).

This ends out short visit to Satartia. Most of the photographs are from long-expired Kodak Ektar 25 film, taken with a Pentax Spotmatic camera and various Pentax Takumar lenses. The Ektar 25 had odd color shifts, but I was able to partly correct them with the automatic color function in Photoshop CS3.

Update March 2021: A friend sent me some 120 size Ektar 25, which I used in and around Vicksburg (please click the link)

The 2019 Flood of Mississippi and Testing Kodak Ektar 25 Film

Introduction

Dear WorldofDecay readers, I am a dreamer. I keep hoping I will be able to buy some Kodak Ektar 25 (or Royal Gold 25 – the same emulsion) which has been frozen all these years and will respond perfectly, as if it was fresh. In previous posts, you have seen examples of 120-size Ektar 25. but I concluded that it was too late and was time to move on. Ha, I can’t keep my own advice. A seller on eBay claimed that three rolls of 135 Ektar 25 had been stored frozen in an old photography studio. The price was reasonable, so I bought them.

Expired Ektar 25 film - was it really stored frozen all these years?

The Flood of 2019 - More Examples

As of spring and early summer of 2019, much of west central Mississippi was inundated by Mississippi River floodwaters and local runoff, making for plenty of interesting photographic subjects. I have posted photographs before, but here are some examples that I took with our 1971-vintage Pentax Spotmatic Camera. My wife bought it new in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Inundated houses off US 61 near Floweree Road,Redwood, Mississippi (135mm Super Multi Coated Takumar, tripod-mounted). Click any picture to enlarge to 1600 pixels wide.

Farm road, US 61 near Floweree Road

Tar paper shack, US 61 near Floweree Road, Redwood, Mississippi (55mm Super-Takumar). This is in the area that would be drained by the Steele Bayou pumps if they are ever installed.

Dead dogs, US 61 near Floweree Road. 55mm ƒ/1.8 Super-Takumar lens

Trump sign, US 61, Vicksburg, Mississippi (135mm, tripod-mounted). The pumps refer to massive units that Congress authorized in 1941 to be installed near the Steele Bayou flood gates to pump water out of the lower Delta and into the Yazoo River. These would be some of the largest pumps on earth and would now cost over $300 million. The US Army Corps of Engineers, farmers, and environmentalists have been arguing over the pumps for 75 years.

Flood waters north of Haining Road, Vicksburg (35mm Super-Takumar lens)

Trees north of Haining Road, Vicksburg (35mm Super-Takumar lens)

Big River Shipbuilders, 404 Port Terminal Cir,. Vicksburg (35mm Super-Takumar)

Summary

This first roll of expired 135 Ektar 25 surprised me:

The good: some of the frames are superb, like the poster of Trump Finish the Pumps.

The bad: On many frames, the colors are definitely off. Blue was not recording correctly, and many scenes were too green. However, that is not completely unexpected because here in summer, there is so much forest and wetland, the green light bounces back down from the humid summer sky. I noted this many years ago when I started a roll of Kodachrome in Greece and finished it in Mississippi. The Greek scenes were quintessential blue and glowing with light; the Mississippi scenes were green and muted – same roll of film, same Leica and lenses. Regardless, I was able to partly correct most frames with the auto color correction function in Photoshop CS3.

Scanner issue: I scanned this Ektar 25 with a Plustek 7600i scanner controlled by Silverfast Ai software. The Ai does not have an Ektar 25 profile. The closest appears to be the Ektar 100 profile (the modern emulsion), so this may account for some of the color issues. But I am sure the Ektar 25 is just too old now. I corrected the color on some frames by using the neutral grey dropper on pavement, concrete, or metal roofing, but afterwards, I needed Photoshop CS3 for further correction.

Camera motion: I also experienced some camera movement, so I am not being quite stable enough when hand-holding. And I slightly mis-focussed the 35mm Super-Takumar several times. The old Spotmatic has a rather grainy finder screen. I have had excellent results from this 35mm lens before, so my copy is not damaged.

Grain: This Ektar 25 seemed to be coarser grain than I remember. Possibly something happens to the emulsion when it is old, but I am not sure. Maybe I am romantically remembering how fine-grain it was in the old days.

All in all, it was a fun experiment, but realistically I should concentrate my efforts on contemporary films, such as Ektar 100. This old Ektar 25 seemed lower contrast than when it was new, so I may try another roll in an environment with bright hard sun (such as my upcoming trip to the US southwest - Route 66, here I come again).

This is Abandoned Films 02f (the 02 series pertains to Ektar 25).

Here is a March 2021 test of 120 Ektar 25 in and around Vicksburg.

The Mississippi Delta 30: Lee's Cotton Picker Art Gallery, Rolling Fork, Mississippi

Lee's Cotton Picker Art Gallery, Rolling Fork, Mississippi (Fuji Acros film, Voigtländer Vito BL camera, 50mm f/3.5 Color-Skopar lens). Click any picture to expand to 1600 pixels wide.

Rolling Fork is a typical Mississippi Delta agricultural town only about an hour north of Vicksburg. I had not been to downtown Rolling Fork in several years and was surprised to see a new art gallery on Walnut Street.

I stopped and met Mr. Lee Washington, a friendly gent who was doing some welding in his shop. He uses the spindles from cotton harvesting machines as well as other metal bits for his art. Mr. Washington graciously let me take some photographs.

The porch is a wealth of neat stuff, bottle trees, and contraptions.

The inside of the gallery is especially interesting. My Vito BL camera has a fixed 50mm lens, so there was no way to capture the entire scene in one frame. These are 1 second exposures with the camera mounted on a tripod.

Across the street: a Highway 61 mural on the side of the Sharkey-Issaquena Library. Well done!!

All photographs are from Fuji Acros 100 black and white film, exposed with my 1957-vintage Voigtländer Vito BL camera with a 50mm ƒ/3.5 Color-Skopar lens. This is an impressive unit-focussing 4-element Tessar-type lens. As you can see in frame 3 above, there is only the slightest amount of flare or blooming around the fluorescent lamps. The lens is coated with a blue-purple coating. If you are interested in details, I wrote about this camera on the 35MMC blog.

The Flood of 2019 (Part 3), the Yazoo Backwater near Onward and Yazoo City, Mississippi

We will continue our review of the flooding in the southern part of the Mississippi Delta, the area known as the Yazoo Backwater. The last article was about the area near the town of Redwood. Here we continue north a few miles to Onward and briefly jump east to Yazoo City.

Onward is an unincorporated farming community near US 61 south of Rolling Fork. Onward is known for two historical notes:

1. This is near the site where president Teddy Roosevelt refused to shoot a baby bear that had been tied to a tree as a target for the president. A toy company picked up on the refusal to shoot, started making stuffed bears, and the rest is history - one of the most successful children's toys ever. It became an international toy, as well; my Steiff bear was from Germany.
2. The Onward Country Store has been in business since 1913. It is (or was) a popular stop with European tourists who travel on US 61, the Blues Highway. But there is bad news: the Onward store may have closed as of April 2019, according to an article in The Vicksburg Daily News. I will write about the Onward Store soon. 

Onward Store, 1996, before removal of gasoline pump canopy (4×5" Tri-X film, 75mm ƒ/8 Supar-Angulon lens)

This is the front of the Onward Store as of 1996. The store faces US 61 (the Blues Highway) and is just south of the intersection with Rte 1. Residents of Eagle Lake need to drive on Rte 1, then turn south on 465 and access the mainline levee. The levee road eventually gets them to Eagle Lake.

Farm north of Rte 1, April 11, 2019 (Panatomic-X film, Fuji GW690II camera, yellow filter)

Farm fields north of Rte 1 near 465 junction, March 29, 2019 (Ektar 25 film, Hasselblad 501CM, 250mm Sonnar lens)

Some of the fields north of Rte 1 were semi-dry, but heading west and closer to the mainline levees, the road dipped down, and the surrounding fields were inundated.

Flooded woods, Hwy 465, March 29, 2019 (Fuji Acros film, Vito BL camera, 50mm ƒ/3.5 Color-Skopar lens, GGr filter)

Flooded woods, Rte 1 near levee, April 11, 2019 (Panatomic-X film, Fuji GW690II camera, 90mm lens, ½ sec ƒ/16½) 

Rte 465 takes off south from Rte 1. The day I drove on it, a short section was underwater, but people were driving through, so I did the same carefully. The road runs through forest, much of which was flooded. What struck me was the number of snakes. I saw numerous ones that were squashed and hit at least one when it slithered across the road just in time for my tires. It appears that they cross from the woods on one side of the highway to the other. Most looked like black water moccasins, but one nicely patterned fellow sitting quietly in the middle of the pavement looked like a rattlesnake. (I decided to not get out and check in person.)

Unoccupied house, US 61, Onward (Fuji acros film, Vito BL camera, GGr filter, 1/30 sec ƒ/11½) 

Back in Onward, the fields just east of 61 were dry. I saw this unused mid-century house slowly being engulfed with vines.

Dusk at Egremont, view west, March 29, 2019 (Vito BL camera, 50mm Color-Skopar lens, GGr filter) 

Egremont is a small community south of Rolling Fork. I have more Egremont photographs to share in the future.

Hwy 16 west of Yazoo City, March 13, 2019 (Ektar 25, Hasselblad 501CM, 250mm Sonnar lens)

Hwy 16 west of Yazoo City, March 13, 2019 (Ektar 25, Hasselblad 501CM, 250mm Sonnar lens)

To the east, Yazoo City (the "Gateway to the Delta") sits on the edge of the loess bluffs. But to the west lies the flat Mississippi Delta and the Yazoo River. The fields along Hwy 16 were inundated as of mid-March when I took these pictures with my Hasselblad camera.

This concludes a short look at the flooding in the Yazoo Backwater. As of mid-June, much of this area is still under water. Depending on water conditions, I may do some more exploring and photographing.

Click the link for Part 1 of this series.
Click the link for Part 2 of this series.

Wandering around Eagle Lake, Mississippi

Background

Eagle Lake is an oxbow lake northwest of Vicksburg. A short geology explanation: When a river flows through a wide alluvial valley (a geologic depression filled with riverine-deposited sediment), the river usually meanders, meaning it develops into tightly curved S-shaped channels. Often the channel almost curves back on itself. Over time, some of the curves are breached and the river rushes through the new opening to flow through the lower part of the S. The former bend of the river is abandoned, forming an oxbow lake. Eagle Lake, Lake Chicot, and Lake Washington are examples of oxbow lakes. These lakes become valuable habitat for fish and numerous bird species. Gradually (over hundreds of years) the lakes fill with organic debris and silt. The Mississippi valley between Cape Girardeau and the delta in the Gulf of Mexico shows evidence of hundreds of changes in these meanders as well as buried former channels throughout the alluvial valley (Fisk, 1944).

Eagle Lake, Mississippi. Map from ESRI ArcGIS online based on US Geological Survey topographic maps.

The town of Eagle Lake lies along the eastern shore and consists of mostly vacation and retirement homes, although some residents commute daily to Vicksburg for their jobs. I have not photographed in the town itself, but MS 465 has some interesting sights. (Warning, "pretty" pictures below.)

Some Sights near Town

Mt. Zion Church, near Laney Camp Road, Mississippi. Hasselblad, 50mm Distagon lens.

Lightning-struck tree at Mt. Zion Church, near Laney Camp Road, Mississippi.

North of Eagle Lake, MS 465 runs along the top of the levee. This is an unusual opportunity to drive along the levee top on a public road and watch wildlife in the ponds and hardwood bottomlands below. In many areas, levees are not open to the general public (they are restricted to hunters with permits, employees of levee boards, or the US Army Corps of Engineers). The Mount Zion Church is on a dirt road south of the levee, adjacent to where the Laney Camp Road joins 465.

This little church is east of 465 south of where the highway joins the levee. I do not know the name, but the modest little church had been deteriorating for at least 4 or 5 years. A few graves are located on the grounds south of the building.

In late December of 2017, I helped with the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count. The early morning light was misty and soft, perfect for tree pictures. These are on Kodak Panatomic-X film from a Hasselblad 501CM camera (tripod-mounted).

This is a store I photographed in 1997. It faced 465 but I cannot recall the exact location. This was a frame from Agfa Scala 200 black and white positive film (meaning black and white slides), taken with a Leica M3. The Scala scans really well. Of course, now I wish I had used more of it in the past.

Beaches and forest

Beach near Tara Wildlife Center with non-native rock in the foreground.

This is an example of a beach near Eagle Lake with access via a dirt path only during low water. The sand is carried naturally down the river from the central North American continent, but the rocks in the foreground were artificially placed. No rock of this size is carried by the Mississippi’s flow in this region.

Access like this to the river is relatively rare. Many visitors to the region are surprised that normally they can only see the river from high towns, like Vicksburg or Natchez, or from an occasional commercial loading facility. The reason is the placement of the flood-control levees. The main stem levees of the Mississippi River extend from Cape Girardeau in Missouri to the mouth of the river at the Gulf of Mexico. The levees are usually built some distance from the low water river channel, sometimes as much as one or two miles away (see Figure 1). The low terrain between the main channel and the levees is usually forested and subject to inundation whenever there is a high water event. The purpose of the forest is to provide friction to reduce the velocity of the water during high water. In effect, the forest helps protect the levees by preventing high currents from washing directly against the flanks of the earthen structures.

Example of pond and vegetation found in hardwood bottomland.

This is a pond in the hardwood bottomland that naturally forms on the river side of the levees. Note that up through the 1800s, much of the delta was hardwood bottomland, but the land was laboriously cleared and drained in the late 1800s and early 1900s to form the farmland that we see now. These bottomlands are characterized by being periodically inundated or saturated by surface or groundwater during the growing season. Common tree species in the area are adapted to survive, reach maturity, and reproduce in an environment where the soils within the root zone may be saturated or anaerobic (lacking oxygen) during part of the growing season (Clark and Benforado, 1980).

References

Clark, J.R., and Benforado, J. (Eds.), 1980. Wetlands of Bottomland Hardwood Forests: Proceedings of a Workshop on Bottomland Hardwood Forest Wetlands of the Southeastern United States. Developments in Agricultural and Managed-Forest Ecology, 11, Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, 401p.

Fisk, H.N., 1944. Geological investigation of the alluvial valley of the lower Mississippi River. U.S. Department of the Army, Mississippi River Commission, 78p. Online:  http://lmvmapping.erdc.usace.army.mil/index.htm  Accessed Sep. 13, 2018.

Camera notes

The square photographs were taken with a Hasselblad 501CM camera on Kodak Panatomic-X film. I used Zeiss 80mm CB and 50mm Distagon lenses. Praus Productions in Rochester, NY, developed the film in Xtol. The two rectangle frames are from a Fujifilm X-E1 digital camera.

End-of-year salutation

Dear Readers, this is the last article of 2018. Thank you for reading and occasionally commenting. If you have ideas on places to photograph or comments of any type, please feel free to forward them to kodachromeguy - at - gmail - dot - com. A prosperous 2019 to you all. Stay well and explore your world.