Story and photos by Rory Doyle
Sleeping under the stars, rising with the sun to the sounds of the Mississippi River, paddling daily in a handcrafted canoe — Boyce Upholt, a graduate student at Delta State University, spent six weeks on the Mighty Mississippi this spring.
Upholt, a candidate for a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (geography), is documenting the “batture,” the woods between the levee and the river, as a part of his thesis.
He calls this important and little-known landscape the “walled-in wild.”
“In a way it’s the leftovers,” said Upholt. “It’s half domesticated, contained by the levee wall, with concrete lining much of the river’s edge, too. But it’s half wild, too — maybe more than half.”
Upholt notes that many scientists are suggesting the current era should be known as the Anthropocene, since human impact is now clear in the geological record.
“In such an age, places like the batture have much to teach us,” he said. “Wildness is resilient in some ways, fragile in others. You see that out there.”
Upholt is taking part in Delta State’s Teach For America Graduate Fellows Program and traveled on the six-week Rivergator Celebratory Expedition, organized by John Ruskey, owner of the Quapaw Canoe Company in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and executive director of the Lower Mississippi River Foundation.
Ruskey led the trip following the completion of his guide, “Rivergator: Paddler’s Guide to the Lower Mississippi River.” The book details the 1,155-mile trail of free-flowing water between St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico. It includes advice for navigating the Middle and Lower Mississippi River, photos, text and easy-to-read Google maps.
Upholt started on the expedition on March 20 in St. Louis, Missouri. Traveling in a 29-foot cedar canoe built by Quapaw, the crew’s goal was to reach the Gulf of Mexico in early May.
“As a student, Boyce is based in Cleveland in the Mississippi Delta, which was created by the annual flooding of the Mississippi River,” said Ruskey. “This trip has been a great opportunity for him, because obviously, he needed to spend time over the levee since he’s writing a book about it.”
“Because of his research and his keen mind, he knows a lot about the different places we’ve been paddling by,” added Ruskey. “He’s become a good voyager and a strong paddler capable of handling just about any situation. The river is a very challenging and demanding landscape — the biggest river on the face of North America. I’ve seen him become more focused and sharp as a person during this journey.”
Ruskey said it was very fulfilling to have Upholt along for the ride as he ties up the large endeavor of his Rivergator project.
Upholt, who also works as a freelance journalist, is researching a book on the Mississippi River and the batture, tentatively titled “Between the Levees.” His thesis, to be completed in spring 2018, will be the book’s initial chapters.
The Lower Mississippi River Foundation is a fiscal sponsor for the book.
“The opportunity to be out here and really feel and know the river is invaluable,” Upholt said. “I can’t thank the foundation enough for this opportunity, and their support.”
His previous research and writing on the river, which can be found at www.betweenthelevees.com, has been sponsored by the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area, which is administered by the Delta Center for Culture and Learning at Delta State. Forthcoming research is being sponsored by the 11th Hour Food and Farming Journalism Fellowship at the University of California-Berkeley.
Harrison Wood, coordinator of the TFA Graduate Fellows Program, said Upholt’s trip perfectly aligns with the program’s effort to cultivate next generation change makers and social entrepreneurs in the Delta.
“When we started this program, we were extremely hopeful that our students would be exposed to unique learning opportunities,” said Wood. “Boyce’s participation in the Rivergator expedition is just that, and we are all looking forward to absorbing what he learns on the Mississippi River — a landmark that is imperative to understanding the past, present and future of the Delta.”
Learn more about the program at http://www.tfafellows.com.
“Delta State, and this fellowship, have given me such a great opportunity. A tent for my bedroom, a sandbar for my kitchen, a nook under a cottonwood tree as my office — there can’t be a better way to go to school,” Upholt said.
Due to consecutive days of stormy and windy weather, the crew came up just a couple days short of exiting to the Gulf of Mexico. While facing a difficult end to the expedition, Upholt said he’s looking forward to completing the journey later this year.
