Bar-pits, as anybody who has ever ridden the levee knows, are dark, snake infested pond-like, small bodies of water, not much bigger than the floor of the high school gym. Usually they're surrounded by weeping willows, cypress trees and assorted other greenery and long-dead stumps and trunks. You know one's got fish in it when you see pickup truck ruts running down the side of the levee towards it or when you see an old woman sitting on an upside down bucket with a cane pole with a red cork laid out about 15 feet toward the middle. The Levee runs pretty much all the way from Memphis to south of Vicksburg and was built by the Corps of Engineers in response to the flood of '27. One of Mississippi's best-kept secrets is riding the top of the levee, just looking around. Don't cost a dime.

But back to bar-pits. As far as I ever knew, driving down and fishing a bar-pit is not illegal or trespassing. Most people never gave any thought to how these little ponds got there or why. But they're alongside the Mississippi River side of the levee, everywhere. If you already know, there's no need to read any further; but, if you don't, here's the answer to the mystery.

A bar-pit, more correctly, is a Borrow Pit. That's where the dirt that forms the levee came from many years ago. The dirt was 'borrowed' and a pit resulted, thus borrow pits, bar-pits. Several years in the making, many belching pieces of heavy machinery and hundreds of laborers sweated long days and half into the nights to scoop out earth, rock, clay, roots and turtles and piled it up in accordance with drawings and blueprints from The Corps. The result was the levee and hundreds of bar-pits, borrow pits.

Now for a lesson on tree lines and bobwire fence lines. Of course I know bobwire is actually barbwire or barbed wire, but those are yankee (not capitalized) pronunciations. Ever thought about why in the world so many bobwire fence lines running everywhere through the South are running pretty much exactly along a tree line? Or why would anybody actually decide to build a fence along a tree line as difficult as that must have been, weaving your bobwire and posts all through and among thousands of trees?

You can suppose, pretty accurately I guess, that fences were often constructed along ditches and creeks, but trees? Especially cedar trees. Ever notice the proliferation of lush, fat, green cedars along a bobwire fence line? Do, next time you're driving out in the country, which is pretty much anywhere in the Mississippi Delta.

So, which came first, the fence line or the tree line?

The answer to this riddle is that the fence line came first. Here's a clue: Cedar seeds/berries are especially prolific, germinate easily and bring along baby cedars rather quickly. Picture a nice new silver-colored bobwire fence erected along four miles of pasture, then going 2 miles in another direction. No trees in sight except for some out in the pasture, or maybe beside a bar-pit. Now picture all manner of birds sitting along the top strand of bobwire, day after day, year after year. Now picture bird poop. If you already know the answer to this riddle, you don't need to read any further. If you've ever wondered or have any curiosity about it, here's your answer. And you'll smack your forehead with the flat heel of your palm when you realize it!

The main solid food that keeps birds alive is seed, seed of every description, but primarily seeds from trees. Birds eat seeds. Birds sit on bobwire fences. Birds poop. Poop falls straight down, according to Newton's law, except in a strong wind. Poop contains undigested seeds. Undigested seeds lodge themselves in the ground precisely under the bottom strand of bobwire. Seeds germinate. Germinated seeds grow into the trees of the same species the bird got them from in the first place. The bird's happy, the seed's happy, the tree's happy.

Knowing that cedar berries/seeds germinate and survive easily in hot climates, a warm, half-germinated cedar seed 'inside' a pooping, chirping bird sitting on a fence line has a head start already. VOILA! You have thousands of cedars popping up through strands of bobwire, tricking one into thinking the farmer actually built his fence there so he could tack it to the cedar trees. Ain't no farmer that stupid.

Bar pits, cedar trees, rusted bobwire fences, miles of pasture, birds of all descriptions--things of beauty, all over the South.

____________________________


Don Drane, a native of the Mississippi Delta, now resides in the Jackson area.
Write him by clicking here: Don’s address.

Want to read more of Don’s USADS stories?
Bottletree: Out Of Nowhere
Deep-Fried Turkey
A Not-so-fond Memory
Mulberry Street
January Soup
And for more of Don’s tales, please check the USADS article archives.

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