FOR STATEWIDE RELEASE ‘Rising High Water Blues’ exhibit underway; reception set August 22 HELENA-WEST HELENA – Delta Cultural Center revisits the Mississippi River Flood of 1927 with a new exhibit now on display at the DCC Visitors Center at 141 Cherry Street in historic downtown Helena-West Helena.

A reception celebrating the opening of “Rising High Water Blues: The 1927 Flood in the Arkansas Delta” will be held Friday, August 22, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Admission is free; light refreshments will be served. The public is invited.

Representatives of the Greater Arkansas Chapter of the American Red Cross will also participate in the August 22 reception. During the Flood of 1927, the American Red Cross supervised 154 Delta relief camps that sheltered and fed more than 325,000 refugees.

“Our last exhibit on the Flood of 1927 was six years ago, and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the Mississippi River flooding earlier this year, we’re reminded that the 1927 Flood was major historical event which interjects itself into our national consciousness again and again,” said Debra Smith, DCC historic sites manager, who is serving as guest curator for the exhibit. “We decided that it was time to take another look at the impact of the flood, using materials from past exhibits, our archives, and other partnering sources.” In the spring of 1927, he Mississippi River broke through levees in seven states (Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee), creating more than 42 major crevasses and flooding an area of approximately 26,000 square miles. When waters finally receded, throughout the Mississippi River Valley more than 500 people would be dead and 700,000 homeless. Countless structures throughout the Delta lands were destroyed. Its crops were ruined; its industries and transportation paralyzed.

The Flood of 1927 had begun with heavy rains in the summer of 1926; rains that would continue throughout spring 1927, producing three separate flood waves on the lower Mississippi -- in January, February, and April. Each was greater in magnitude than the one before. In Arkansas, the swollen White and Little Red Rivers flooded more than 100,000 acres in February 1927 with 10-15 feet of water. More than 5,000 people would be without shelter. By April 9, flood waters covered more than a million acres of land, and the rain continued to fall. When the waters finally began to recede in July, 1.5 million acres of America’s rich Delta land was under water. The DCC last examined the Flood of 1927 in 2002 when it commemorated the 75th anniversary of the great natural disaster with “Water Steals the Land.” Pete Daniel, curator of the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of American History and author of “Deep’n As It Come: The 1927 Mississippi River Flood,” was the guest curator for that exhibit. In addition, the museum premiered a video documentary, also entitled “Water Steals the Land,” which was broadcast on Arkansas Educational Television Network, and shown at the DCC. Some panels from the earlier exhibit, as well as the video presentation, are to be included in “Rising High Water Blues.”

For the new exhibit, artifacts were gathered from a number of volunteer sources, including the Red Cross, the Mississippi Levee Commission, David and Wilma Lovell of Helena-West Helena, and James Ambrose of Lake View.

“We’re grateful to everyone who has aided in the development of this exhibit,” Smith said. “The artifacts we’ve collected go a long way in telling the story of the flood, its devastation, and the rescue efforts.”

Gallery hours at the DCC Visitors Center at 141 Cherry Street and the nearby DCC Depot at 95 Missouri Street are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. “King Biscuit Time,” the nation’s longest-running blues radio program, is hosted each weekday at the DCC Visitor’s Center by “Sunshine” Sonny Payne, from 12:15 to 12:45 p.m. “Delta Sounds,” hosted by DCC Assistant Director Terry Buckalew and Payne, is broadcast each Friday from 1 to 1:30 p.m.

For more information, interested persons can call the Delta Cultural Center at (870)-338-4350 or toll free at (800)-358-0972 or visit the DCC online at www.deltaculturalcenter.com.

The Delta Cultural Center shares the vision of all seven agencies of the Department of Arkansas Heritage -- to preserve and promote Arkansas heritage as a source of pride. Other agencies include the Historic Arkansas Museum, the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, the Old State House Museum, the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, the Arkansas Arts Council, and the Natural Heritage Commission.

Press Room