Tunica Hills, Southern Mississippi & Louisiana - PowerPoint Presentation

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Tunica Hills, Southern Mississippi & Louisiana

2–5 May 2008Slide2

AMNH REVSYS volunteer Kari J. McWest and 10-year-old daughter, Malea, traveled about 900 miles to reach the historic Natchez and Washington area of Mississippi for a family reunion. Since we were to be in the area, we were given the mission of finding specimens of the disjunct “Tunica Hills” population of

Vaejovis carolinianus

.Slide3

The Tunica Hills/Feliciana Hill Country is a small, narrow region of hills and ravines (hollows) sculpted from loess—aeolian silt deposited along the eastern banks of the Mississippi River during the interglacial periods of the Pleistocene and Holocene from 10,000 to 80,000 years ago. Loblolly and longleaf pine, hickory, beech, live oak, red oak, yaupon, Virginia redcedar, hackberry, and southern magnolia and other increasingly uncommon hardwood trees and shrubs, comprise the Southern Mesophytic Forest botanical community here.

This community is the smallest ecoregion in Louisiana, represented solely in West Feliciana Parish as a narrow stretch between the Mississippi River and Thompson Creek, up to 20 miles wide with elevations from 40 to 400 feet. The Tunica Hills Wildlife Management Area preserves a portion of this ecosystem along with other state and private agencies, The Nature Conservancy, and private historical plantations. Well over 7,000 acres of this unique and beautiful area are preserved. Over twenty species of plants are found here and nowhere else in Louisiana.

In Mississippi, it extends along the Mississippi River as far north as Vicksburg and includes the beautiful Clark Creek Natural Area. The unique mixture of flora and fauna, however, are restricted to Wilkinson and Adams counties in the southwesternmost corner of the state.

The ravines are cooler than the neighboring “flatlands”. Many species of flora and fauna are found here that only occur in the cooler Ozarks and Appalachian Highlands. This is the largest region where northern and southern forests are intermixed, making it the most species-rich of all southern forests. The closest populations of many species, including our scorpion,

Vaejovis carolinianus

, are over 200 miles to the east and northeast. It is this distance and the disjunct nature of the population that made collecting this species for REVSYS a priority.

So far,

Vaejovis carolinianus

in this ecoregion has only been collected in Wilkinson County, Mississippi and West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana.Slide4

Upon entering Louisiana, we decided to visit Natchitoches, which dates back to 1714. The reason: Malea didn’t believe it is pronounced “Nakka-dish”.

I lived in its sister city, nearby Nacogdoches (Nakka-DOE-chess), Texas, for my undergraduate years at Stephen F. Austin State University, so of course I knew how it was pronounced. She didn’t believe me, so I decided we should pay the old town a visit, particularly the replica of 1732 Fort St. Jean Baptiste on the Cane River Lake, formed by a log jam on the Red River.

We just happened to show up at the same time as a local school tour.

In the museum, we made a new jumper friend we found on the barrel of an original musket!Slide5

The Mississippi River was recovering from recent flooding. Several roads were closed as was the Saint Francisville, Louisiana, ferry, where we originally wanted to cross. Luckily, our friends at the Louisiana Dept. of Wildlife & Fisheries told us to check before our trip, so we had to detour through historic Natchez.

On the way to find sampling areas south to St. Francisville, we encountered some of these closings and unfortunate situations, even though the river had receded considerably.Slide6

Woodville, Wilkinson County, Mississippi

Unfortunately, rain blanketed the area. Since we were also there on a genealogy tour, we decided to get out of the rain by stopping at the Wilkinson County Courthouse and search records for information we didn’t have in our genealogy. Nut fun looking for scorpions in the rain.

We found something very interesting! A probate “permission slip” from my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother for her daughter to marry! Of course, the young couple became my great-great-great-great-great grandparents. In April 1823, the groom, John C. Foster, was 20 years old, while the bride, Jane A. Nugent, was not yet 15! (Marriage at these ages were not very uncommon.) Their first child was born 5 years later.

We also found land records of his father’s (John Foster) land before he moved to Texas in 1824 as one of the first settlers in Stephen F. Austin’s Colony.Slide7

After the rain died down, we drove toward historic Ft. Adams, MS, on the banks of the Mississippi River. The French founded a mission there in 1698 among the Tunica Indians, then the British settled in 1764. Finally, in 1798, the Americans established a fort at this strategic point on the Mississippi and made it the district capitol, later moved to Natchez. We had to turn around because the road was flooded at the town at the base of high bluffs at the NW edge of the Tunica Hills loess, where we wanted to sample. We drove back to Woodville and took another road to Tunica, LA. We sampled several spots along this road before we came upon a driveway up above the highway. I spotted the logs (right) and thought we might have some luck….Slide8

Success! We found two females here. I found the first one under the small log in the foreground….Slide9

…Malea—an experienced scorpion hunter—found a plump female

Vaejovis carolinianus

in damp, rotted oak debris near the car. Sometimes the best first place to look is the closest place.Slide10

Vaejovis carolinianus

(Palisot de Beauvois, 1805), the southern unstriped scorpion, was first described from South Carolina. Today in the Carolinas it is known from only a small portion of western North and South Carolina along the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains. It is widespread in the Appalachian Mountains and associated hills in Kentucky, Tennessee, southwestern Virginia, northern Georgia, Alabama, and the northeastern and eastern edge of Mississippi. In 1979, Rossman first reported its occurrence in the Tunica Hills, subsequently noted by Shelley (1994) and Shelley and Sissom (1995).Slide11

As we entered West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, just a few miles south, we found the burned remains of an old gas station and decided to have a look around to try to find more scorpions or other wildlife. No scorpions, but we did find some interesting wildlife! We didn’t get very far due to the thicket of poison ivy behind it and cloud of mosquitos. I don’t think I miss living in Houston!

Broadhead skink,

Eumeces laticeps

. Notice his burnt toes; apparently the fire was recent.

Malea found this

Dasypus novemcinctus

just sort of hanging around.Slide12

It was dark by the time we reached St. Francisville, Louisiana. We were going to camp in the Homochitto National Forest in Mississippi, but the threat of more rain and storms prompted us to stay here. This is the wall of the hotel as we drove up!Slide13

Ah, Mediterranean geckos!

Hemidactylus turcicus

.Slide14

Malea did a great job, so I treated her to a real Louisiana Cajun dining experience at the Cypress Grill in St. Francisville. She discovered she loves frog legs! The next day we explored the sights and sites of the old town, settled around a monastery in the 1770s.Slide15

Can you find the dragonfly?Slide16

On the way to the reunion in Washington, Mississippi, we turned off famous blues Highway 61 into the heart of the Tunica Hills and found Greenwood Plantation (1828), where “North and South” was filmed with Patrick Swayze. Slide17

Just before we reentered Mississippi, I caught sight of these logs and found one more

Vaejovis carolinianus

in this very damp wood.Slide18
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The remainder of the trip was spent at the Foster family reunion in Washington, MS, just east of Natchez. John Foster, my ancestor, co-founded Washington, surveyed the town, and donated the land for Jefferson College before relocating to Wilkinson County and then later to Texas in 1824. His brothers were also prominent citizens in the area, including Thomas Foster who was featured in the recent PBS documentary “Prince Among Slaves”. His cemetery had only two marked graves, so my cousin from Texas got his “divinin’” or “witchin’” rods and found several other graves. Another cousin was curious and the rods worked for her, too! We asked around and no one had recalled seeing scorpions in the area, but I did find a Webtser’s salamander along St. Catherine’s Creek behind Jefferson College!Slide20

On our way home, we toured Natchez, MS, founded in 1716.Slide21

Thanks to Lorenzo Prendini, David Sissom, Jeremy Huff, and Rowland Shelley. Thanks also to the unnamed people in the communities of Woodville, Pond, and Pinckneyville, MS, and Tunica, LA, who told us where we might find some scorpions, and the many considerate folks who stopped to ask if we were having car trouble.

Special thanks to Michael Seymour of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries, and Michael Olinde and Chris Davis of the Tunica Hills Wildlife Management Area.

Supported in part by NSF/REVSYS.