2 BULLETIN 198, U. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
prevent drainage. The conditions in the Cypress Creek drainage dis- .i 
trict of Desha and Chicot Counties, Arkansas, are typical. 
It has long been apparent that an interior drainage system is needed || 
to supplement the sixty-odd miles of levee built to protect this district 
from the floods of the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers. In 1906, 
John T. Stewart, drainage engineer of the Office of Experiment 
Stations of the United States Department of Agriculture, made a 
survey for the relief of the wet land in the neighborhood of Arkansas 
City, that project being known as Desha County Drainage District 
No. 1. The improvements constructed in that district were, however, 
of only local benefit. The first active step in the direction of a com- 
prehensive drainage system for the county was taken in 1907, when 
engineers of the Mississippi River Commission made a survey which 
had among its objects the location of a feasible line for the diversion 
of Cypress Creek. The report on that survey stated that the project 
was entirely feasible, but recommended that further surveys be made 
before construction was undertaken, in order that other routes might 
be compared with the one laid out. 
No further action was taken until early in 1911, when further 
assistance was requested from Drainage Investigations, Office of 
Experiment Stations, United States Department of Agriculture. 
An agreement was ultimately reached whereby Drainage Investiga- 
tions undertook to make the survey, one-half the cost to be paid by 
the Cypress Creek drainage district, which had in the meantime been 
created by the Arkansas Legislature. 1 The survey was begun in 
September, 1911, and completed in March of the following year. 
GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 
LOCATION AND AREA. 
The Cypress Creek drainage district borders the Mississippi River 
in southeastern Arkansas (see fig. 1), including about 65 per cent of the 
total area of Desha County and extending 2 miles into ChiGot County, 
which is in the southeast corner of the State. Memphis is about 110 
miles northeast and Little Rock about 85 miles northwest of the 
center of Desha County. Arkansas City, the county seat, and Mc- 
Gehee are the most important towns in the district; Pine Bluff, on 
the Arkansas River about midway between Desha County and Little 
Rock, and Helena, 60 miles north on the Mississippi River, are cities 
of local prominence. 
As defined by the legislative act, the district is roughly triangular 
in shape, with an apex to the south. Its greatest width east and west 
is about 23 miles, near the north end, and its extreme length north 
and south is approximately 36 miles. The total area is 466 square 
miles. 
1 Thirty-eighth General Assembly of Arkansas, Acts 110 and 445. 
