A rising tide raises an innovative idea.

When the 1927 Mississippi River flood submerged the Mississippi Delta as well as millions of acres in surrounding states, it not only caused untold suffering and death, it also changed the face of America, spurring a large black migration from the South in general (the Delta in particular), shifting voter patterns and leaving the nation faced with an urgent question: How can we avoid another disaster?

The answer came in the federal Flood Control Act of 1936, which authorized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct four dams with impoundment lakes in North Mississippi, three of them stacked like stair steps along the Hills Highway (now Interstate 55). Construction on the first of the dams at Sardis began immediately, with a crew of thousands using mules and brush hooks, crosscut saws, axes, and a lot of sweat to clear 14 miles along the Little Tallahatchie River. While clearing methods were primitive, the dam, nearly 100 feet high, was filled hydraulically with earth dredged from a site below, making it one of the largest earth-filled dams in the nation. Operational by 1940, Sardis Dam and Sardis Lake, with its more than 30,000-acre recreational pool was an instant hit with sportsmen, fishermen and nature enthusiasts. William Faulkner, whose short story Old Man was inspired by the 1927 flood, became a Sardis regular, taking to its waters on his sailboat and on a houseboat he built with friends.

Construction on Enid Lake to the south was begun in 1947 and completed in 1952, extending 18 miles up the Yocona River Valley, spreading out 28,000 acres, with 220 miles of shoreline. Finally, in 1954, the Grenada Dam and Lake on the Yalobusha River became operational, adding another recreational pool of approximately 35,000 acres.

Where man and nature had once lived in wary co-existence, with man often seeking total domination, the Tri Lakes inaugurated a new era of preservation and habitat in the Mississippi Hills. Today, the Tri Lakes aren’t just saving lives and property, they aren’t just saving people’s sanity—they’re also saving the world, one animal at a time, as you’ll discover when you take to the lakes yourself.