Donivan Slough, at milepost 283.3 of the Natchez Trace Parkway in Itawamba County, is a natural swampy depression, about 350 feet above sea level, in the watershed of Donivan Creek in the Upper Tombigbee basin. Its rich, wet bottomland supports large water-tolerant trees, tulip poplar, sycamore and water oak, while bald cypress grows in the wettest backwaters of the slough channel itself. A 1,600-foot nature trail runs through the hardwoods to the slough, and a Park Service description updated in 2024 says the channel drains excess water from the fields beside it.
The soil mapped at the site is Mantachie loam, 0 to 2 percent slopes, occasionally flooded. Mantachie soils are somewhat poorly drained and form in loamy alluvium on the flood plains of streams draining the Southern Coastal Plain. The series was established in Prentiss County in 1950, its type location is in Lee County about 14 miles northeast of Tupelo, and it is mapped across ten Southern states. Its official description lists green ash, eastern cottonwood, cherrybark oak, water oak, willow oak, sweetgum and yellow-poplar as common trees, and notes that many Mantachie areas have been cleared for cotton, soybeans and corn.
The Park Service says it appears a deeper trough was dug along the slough at some point to drain the fields faster, so farmers could work the ground without horses, plows or tractors bogging down.
Getting there
34.4620, -88.4769
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
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