The Big Black River passes within about 500 meters of the Natchez Trace Parkway near milepost 207 in Webster County, less than three miles north of Mathiston, where it is a small stream close to its source. The channel the U.S. Geological Survey maps as the Big Black River begins in northeastern Webster County and winds south about 14 miles to the stretch beside the parkway, where it becomes the straightened Big Black River Canal and turns west, passing south of Eupora. In all, the river runs about 330 miles southwest to the Mississippi River, 25 miles below Vicksburg.
The Mississippi State Geological Survey's 1952 report on Webster County described the east wall of the Big Black valley about a mile northwest of Mathiston as typical of the Naheola Formation: laminated fine sand and thin layers of dark gray to light gray silty shale, with concretions of siderite and limonite. It recorded that lengths of three to four miles of the Big Black and of Spring Creek had been canalized in the southeastern part of the county, and that floods could submerge Highway 9 where it crosses the valley.
The Big Black River basin covers about 3,400 square miles, and most of its small tributaries are in the upper part of the basin and flow only part of the year.
Getting there
33.5765, -89.1294
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
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