Deer Creek (Mississippi)

Deer Creek
Bridge of abandoned Illinois Central Railroad line across Deer Creek in Scott
Location
Country	United States
State	Mississippi
Physical characteristics
Source	Lake Boliver
• location	Scott, Bolivar County, Mississippi
• coordinates	33°35′56″N91°04′50″W / 33.59889°N 91.08056°W / 33.59889; -91.08056
Mouth	Yazoo River
• location	Warren County, Mississippi
• coordinates	32°32′44″N90°47′43″W / 32.54556°N 90.79528°W / 32.54556; -90.79528

Deer Creek (also Issaquena Creek or Lower Deer Creek) is a creek in Mississippi, United States. Its source is Lake Bolivar, in Scott, Bolivar County, Mississippi.

Course

Route of US Navy attempting to access Yazoo River by the way of Steels Bayou and Deer Creek, during American Civil War.

As Deer Creek flows south through the Mississippi Delta, it passes through the following counties: Bolivar, Washington, Sharkey, Issaquena, and Warren; and through the following communities: Metcalfe, Stoneville, Leland, Burdett, Arcola, Hollandale, Panther Burn, Nitta Yuma, Anguilla, Rolling Fork, Cary, Onward, and Valley Park.

Prior to the Civil War the stream was navigable and accessible to the Mississippi River at Lake Bolivar. ^[1] The Deer Creek watershed is connected to the Big Sunflower River via the Rolling Fork Creek, a connection that occurs only at high water stages and can flow either way. ^[2]

During the Civil War, a battery of field guns was shipped up the stream to be carried to positions on the Mississippi River at "Greenville Bends" to fire on the U.S. Navy. ^[3]

Name

Deer Creek's name is an accurate preservation of its native Choctaw name isi okhina, meaning "deer river". ^[4]

Muddy Waters nickname

Muddy Waters got his nickname "Muddy Waters" by playing in the river. ^[5]

See also

• List of rivers of Mississippi

References

1. Mrs. Henry Vick Phelps (Dorothy Cole) and Henry Vick Phelps II. (1974). Nitta Yuma King Cotton. Nitta Yuma, Ms: D.C. Phelps. p. 22 f.
2. Golden, Harold G. (1960). Bulletin 60-2 "Low-flow characteristics Sunflower Basin, Mississippi." Jackson: U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with Mississippi Board of Water Commissioners. p. 4.
3. Doyle, Daniel R. “The Civil War in the Greenville Bends.” The Arkansas Historical Quarterly., vol. 70, no. 2, 2011, pp. 131–61. JSTOR website Retrieved 10 July 2023.
4. Baca, Keith A. (2007). Native American Place Names in Mississippi. University Press of Mississippi. p. 44. ISBN   978-1-60473-483-6.
5. Chilton, Martin (2016-04-03). "Muddy Waters: celebrating a great blues musician". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 2023-06-28.