Mississippi
Mississippi River Basin Model in Jackson to celebrate 80th anniversary. Details here
The 80th Anniversary Celebration of the Mississippi River Basin Model will give visitors a rare opportunity to see what has been described as the largest hydraulic model in the world from 2 until 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14, at Buddy Butts Park, 6180 McRaven Road in Jackson.
The event will feature STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) activities and demonstrations from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m. with guided tours of the model beginning at 3:45 p.m. and 5 p.m.
The event also will feature a movie screening of “Dream Big,” which celebrates the human ingenuity behind engineering marvels ranging from the Great Wall of China to the world’s largest buildings.
Food and beverage trucks will be on hand all afternoon offering a variety of menu items for sale.
The 210-acre river model, which is now owned by the City of Jackson, was developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a way to study and control flooding along the Mississippi River and the rivers that feed into it following the Great Flood of 1937 in which the Ohio River tributary flooded a decade after the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927.
Essentially designed as a giant, three-dimensional topographic map, the site features the hills, rivers, lakes and valleys of roughly 41% of the entire continental United States, all molded into concrete.
Over the years, the facility was credited for saving lives and preventing millions of dollars in damages. But with the advent of computer modeling, operations at the facility were eventually abandoned.
Destructive forces of nature, neglect and vandalism began to take hold by the early 2000s, and the model would likely have been all but forgotten today were it not for the efforts of a small, all-volunteer group which has taken on the Herculean task of trying to restore it.
The group, called Friends of the Mississippi River Basin Model, which is sponsoring Saturday’s event, is headed by President Aaron Morris.
Morris, who last weekend was leading a clean-up crew making preparations for this Saturday, said he hopes the anniversary celebration will increase public awareness and support for what he believes could again become a top educational and tourist attraction.
“We have recently secured a designation of the site as a National Historic Engineering Landmark,” he said.
Alysia Hanks, a Hinds Community College student who was among the volunteers pitching in for the clean-up, described the site as “very rich in history.” She said, “It’s kind of sad to see how it has regressed but it would be amazing to see it restored.”
Brandon Copeland, another Hinds student who spoke over the roar of AmeriCorps volunteers feeding thousands of limbs into a wood chipper donated by Vermeer MidSouth Inc., agreed.
“It’s a shame to see it has gotten to this point,” Copeland said. “It would be a really neat thing to be able to restore.”
Construction first began in 1943, initially using labor from World War II prisoners of war being held at a nearby camp in Clinton.
Built to precise scale, a mile on the Mississippi River (and other rivers including the Missouri, Ohio and Arkansas that feed into it) equals 2.64 feet on the model. A cubic foot per second of water pumped through the model would represent 1.5 million cubic feet of water passing through an actual river per second.
Operations made it possible to determine how the height of levees at given points could protect lower lands and how reservoirs could similarly protect communities downstream.
The value of such information was proven as early as 1952 when a major flood impacted the Missouri River near Omaha. By running the model around the clock for 16 days, engineers were able to simulate conditions faster than the actual flood waters would rise, allowing officials in the affected areas to make emergency preparations in advance.
As a result it was estimated that data from the model helped to prevent over $65 million in damages.
At the height of operations in the 1950s and ’60s the model maintained a staff of about 28 people including seven full-time engineers. But by the early 1970s the Corps of Engineers believed much of the data being obtained was duplicative and not worth the expense.
The story of how the City of Jackson obtained title to the facility is somewhat convoluted. When the Corps first announced plans to phase out the model in 1974, the city applied to take ownership through a federal program administered through the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Then-Jackson Mayor Russell C. Davis pledged to keep the facility open as a tourist attraction, which at the time was attracting some 20,000 visitors annually.
But the Corps reversed course at the 11th hour when a major flood hit the Mississippi River in early 1975 and they discovered then-emerging computer models of the time left some questions unanswered.
They decided they wanted to keep the facility open after all.
By one newspaper account, the city then agreed to lease the land back to the Corps of Engineers for 20 years at a nominal price of $1 per year. Though details of that agreement remain sketchy, it is known that the Corps continued to operate the facility full time for another 10 years and later maintained a skeleton staff at the site into the early 1990s.
“The final test was conducted in 1993,” Morris said. Soon thereafter the city finally took control.
For about a decade Jackson officials took some steps to cut the grass and maintain the river model grounds at what was by then known as Buddy Butts Park. But the primary focus in those days was maintaining soccer fields, hiking trails and other recreational facilities at the park.
It eventually became evident that the city had neither the money nor the expertise to properly maintain the Mississippi River Basin Model. By 2004 the city stopped maintenance altogether. Hundreds of trees started popping up throughout the fields, and the facility was simply fenced off, presumably to be forgotten.
When the Clarion Ledger last visited the model in June, 2015, reporter C. Todd Sherman wrote: “Beyond a rusty chain link fence of a Jackson park lies a piece of national history in ruin.”
So what has changed now eight years later?
Quite a lot, says Morris. Since the all-volunteer Friends group was formed in 2016, “we have cleared nearly 7 acres of trees and made numerous walkways and paths accessible again.”
Additionally, over 18,000 cubic feet of “hydraulic mesh,” a type of wire once used to replicate forests and vegetation during model experiments, has been removed to expose the concrete model for better visibility.
Morris believes that represents “a great stride in providing access.” He particularly credits troops from the local area Andrew Jackson Council of the Boy Scouts, honor students from the Raymond and Rankin County branches of Hinds Community College, and AmeriCorps volunteers for their hard work in making the progress during monthly clean-up days.
Long term plans, if funds become available, are to make a portion of the model once again functional and to build a new Education and Science Center to allow future generations of students to learn about engineering and the sciences.
Additional volunteers are always encouraged to get involved. You may visit friendsofmrbm.org or email the group at friendsofmrbm@gmail.com for more information.
Admission to Saturday’s activities are free. To reach the Mississippi River Basin Model take Springridge Road south from Interstate 20 in Clinton then turn left onto McRaven Road headed east toward Jackson. Buddy Butts Park will be your first entrance to the left.
Author’s note: I first became aware of the Mississippi River Basin Model as a small child in 1969 when my mother took me to visit, allowing me to bring a Super 8 movie camera. The resulting hand-held footage, though amateurish, can be seen by visiting vimeo.com/26039372 for anyone wanting a rare glimpse of how the model appeared while still in full-scale operation.)
Outside of Mississippi State, Arkansas and Auburn, the SEC had a very successful Week Two of the college football season. The latest AP Top 25 poll reflects the strength of the SEC with 6 of the top 7 spots belonging to SEC teams.
Here’s a recap of how the ranked SEC teams fared in the second full week of the college football season:
Click here for a recap of the unranked SEC teams.
With the exception of giving up three points, this was probably exactly how Georgia expected this game to go. Carson Beck threw five touchdowns and the defense held Tennessee Tech to less than 150 yards of total offense. Anything less would be a surprise.
More than 100,000 people saw Texas come into Ann Arbor, Mich. and leave with a huge win. The Longhorns looked like the better team from the first drive of the game where they easily marched down the field. That Oct. 19 game in Austin against Georgia is looking better and better.
It was a lot closer than Alabama would’ve liked, but it’s a win that will fend off the “Nick Saban is gone, we’re doomed” crowd. At the same time, though, there were some things that crowd could point to at a later time.
Two games against inferior competition and Ole Miss has outscored its opponents 129-3. They’ll take a slight step up in competition next week against Wake Forest, but the Rebels are still about a month away from playing a team that will truly test them.
Missouri’s schedule just took an unexpected bump in its level of difficulty with No. 24 Boston College joining the top 25. Bill O’Brien is brilliant at game planning and calling plays (not so much with making trades, but that hasn’t reached the college ranks yet). Missouri needs to be on upset alert (and ready to stop the run).
This happens every year. Tennessee looks really good to start the season and by the end Volunteer fans are saying next year is their year. But maybe this year is their year with the way Nico Iamaleava has been playing.
Of the two SEC newcomers, Texas is getting most of the attention which makes sense based on the current teams. But folks, don’t sleep on the Sooners. They ruined many of my own childhood memories growing up in Texas. This week’s way-too close game doesn’t help that argument, but think long term.
LSU was one of three SEC teams to play FCS schools after playing top 25 teams last week. The Tigers and Texas A&M both lost, while Georgia won. So, it’s not surprising to see each of them play FCS teams and neither were any of the results.
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Mississippi
Arizona State RB Cam Skattebo ‘disrespected’ by Mississippi State football’s defensive game plan
Cam Skattebo slammed Mississippi State on the football field on Saturday night and also took another jab afterward in his postgame press conference.
The Arizona State running back, following a 30-23 Sun Devils win at Mountain America Stadium, took exception to MSU only utilizing three defenders on the line of scrimmage. The results were damning.
Arizona State (2-0) rushed for 346 yards. It was the most allowed by Mississippi State (1-1) in a game since Arkansas in 2016. Skattebo’s 262 rushing yards on 33 carries were the second-most in ASU history.
“They couldn’t stop us in that three-down front,” Skattebo said when asked what made ASU’s run game successful. “Honestly, we all felt disrespected with them in a three-down front. You can’t come in here and put five guys in the box and expect to stop six. I don’t know. We took that a little disrespectful, and we rushed for what over 300 yards? Something around there. It is what it is.”
Skattebo, a 5-foot-11, 215-pound junior, also led Arizona State with 35 receiving yards on three catches.
“I knew these dudes were big and heavy,” he said. “We knew going into the game they weren’t as physical as most other teams but they’re heavy. So when they hit you, it hurts, no matter how hard they’re coming — 300 pounds at 10 miles per hour or 16 miles per hour hurts the same. I just kept my feet moving.”
Mississippi State trailed 30-3 in the third quarter but scored 20 unanswered points to cut the score to 30-23 with 5:27 to play. The Bulldogs never touched the ball again, with the Sun Devils running out the clock on 12 plays.
Skattebo had a game-sealing 39-yard rush that allowed ASU to kneel down.
“Until the end, we had our ups and downs there, but that was fun,” he said. “You can ask these guys up front, bullying dudes, grown men that are 300 pounds, that’s fun to us. That’s fun to the front-five, the front-seven and the running back. The quarterback probably hates it. He probably likes watching, but he didn’t complain one time the whole game.”
Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.
Mississippi
Why Mississippi State football loss to Arizona State revealed a strong Jeff Lebby culture
It was 11:10 p.m. Saturday in Starkville when Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt barreled into the end zone for his second touchdown of the game.
At that point, it would’ve been fair for Mississippi State football fans to call it a night. The Bulldogs (1-1) trailed 27-3 at ASU in the final minute of the second quarter. They were dominated in just about every statistical category. New coach Jeff Lebby looked like he was headed toward his first loss, and an embarrassing one.
And even if you gave the second half a chance, eyes just a crack open, that wasn’t encouraging either. Arizona State (2-0) took the opening drive of the third quarter for a field goal while eating 8 minutes, 27 seconds of game time. That just about decided the game before Mississippi State touched the ball in the second half.
Wrong.
Instead, MSU scored touchdowns on three of its next four drives and cut the score to 30-23 with 5:27 to play. The defense, which was torched for 346 rushing yards, needed one more stop to let the offense try to tie it. It would’ve been the largest comeback in program history.
Mississippi State’s path to a bowl game seems murkier than it was a week ago. But in the long-term, there’s still encouragement after the 30-23 loss.
“Our guys battled in an incredible way in the second half, and we’re going to hold on to that,” Lebby said in his postgame radio interview. “We’re going to find ways to get back in the building, get back to work and be able to walk into Davis Wade (Stadium) with a ton of confidence and ready to go win a football game.”
The encouragement from Mississippi State’s comeback effort
Lebby said after beating Eastern Kentucky 56-7 in Week 1 that there is an abundance of teachable moments in wins, just like losses.
There is plenty to point to after losing to Arizona State.
Mississippi State came out incredibly flat. The Sun Devils scored on their first five possessions. The MSU offense had one field goal, two punts, a fumble returned for a touchdown and a turnover-on-downs in the first half. MSU had -13 rushing yards in the first half.
There were concerns entering the game about the travel distance, late kickoff and high temperature. But let’s be real, Mississippi State was playing so poorly at the start that it was hard to judge if those were factors.
“I got to do a better job getting these guys ready to go play out of the gate,” Lebby said. “I thought our energy, our effort and our emotion was really good, but then we did not play clean there in the first quarter, so that part was frustrating.”
The Bulldogs outscored the Sun Devils 20-0 in the final quarter and a half. It was a surprise. Arizona State was rolling. Mississippi State was not.
MORE: Introducing Sam Sklar, the Clarion Ledger’s new Mississippi State beat reporter
For Lebby, a first-time head coach at any level, let it be a learning moment for him. It was his first time getting pinned in a corner. The Bulldogs adjusted correctly in the second half like good coaches do.
The rushing offense and defense both need to improve. Badly. Quarterback Blake Shapen has been impressive in his first two Mississippi State games and the wide receiver room is deep and talented as ever, but they can’t be the only answer.
That’s just for this season.
Mississippi State has its first tally in the loss column. But it isn’t a strike against Lebby leading the future of the program.
Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.
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