The Fisk channels and the De Soto crossing (A.D. 1541): A clarification

Abstract

Students of the Hernando De Soto expedition are in general agreement that he crossed the Mississippi River at Quizquiz on June 18, 1541. There has been considerable debate about the location of Quizquiz, but not a great deal about the location of the Mississippi River when De Soto crossed it. Following the conclusion of Phillips in the Phillips, Ford, and Griffin volume it was generally assumed that Fisk’s River Stage 15 approximated the location of the river in 1541. This conclusion is questioned and more appropriate channel correlations are suggested.

Multiproxy evidence for rapid and enduring anthropogenic vegetation change during the Late Holocene from an abandoned channel of the Mississippi River, Wapanocca Bayou, Arkansas, USA

“…It is on the far eastern edge of Wapanocca Bayou, and it extends for nearly 2 km along the bayou. It is a possible location of Pacaha the capital of a powerful kingdom visited in the 1541 by Hernando de Soto (Dye, ; Morse, ), although there is considerable debate as to this attribution (Childs & McNutt, ; C. McNutt, ). Even if it is not Pacaha , the cultural landscape of the Bradley Site during the Late Mississippi period likely resembled what was described during de Soto's expedition—a town and a series of stockade villages on open plains cleared for corn agriculture bisected by a flowing channel rich in fish that connected to the Mississippi River (Hudson, , p. 297).…”

“…It is on the far eastern edge of Wapanocca Bayou, and it extends for nearly 2 km along the bayou. It is a possible location of Pacaha the capital of a powerful kingdom visited in the 1541 by Hernando de Soto (Dye, 1993;Morse, 1990), although there is considerable debate as to this attribution (Childs & McNutt, 2009;C. McNutt, 2016 (Hudson, 1997, p. 297).…”