80th anniversary event planned for Mississippi River Basin Model

By Clinton Courier | October 18, 2023 |

Special to The Clinton Courier

The world’s largest hydraulic model is eighty years old this year, and the Friends of the Mississippi River Basin Model (FMRBM) are hosting an event to celebrate the occasion.

Set for October 14 from 2 until 6 p.m. at Buddy Butts Park, the day will celebrate the sprawling 200+ acre site whose first initial three years of construction were conducted using German prisoners-of-war from neighboring Camp Clinton, under direction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station.

The model, the largest small-scale working model in the world, reproduces the entire drainage basin of the Mississippi River and its tributary system to a horizontal scale of 12,000 and a vertical scale of 1,100. The model has the appearance of a gigantic relief map, with the streams and floodplains molded in concrete in their correct geographic locations.

Photo from 1943, when construction began on the model

Construction of the model was begun by German prisoners of war in the fall of 1943, was continued by civilian personnel of the U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station WES after the prisoners were transferred in 1946, and was completed in 1966.

However, as time went on, computer modelling became a more cost-effective tool, and the facility’s last use was in 1973.

The Mississippi Basin Model Board, the group charged with determining policies and programs for development and operation of the model, unanimously agreed that the model has been a very valuable tool in solving many flood-control problems and in providing the answers to many of the questions with regard to the coordinated operation of reservoirs within the basin.
The model was designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2018.

Special to The Clinton Courier
The model attracts visitors from across the world. Pictured is Gregor Holzinger, an architect and photographer from Vienna, Austria, who recently visited the historic landmark at Buddy Butts Park.

Thanks to volunteers over the past year from not only FMRBM but also local Scout Troop 88 Clinton, Morrison Heights Baptist Church, Clinton Chamber Youth Leadership, AmeriCorps and Hinds Community College’s Honors Institute, the model has been made more accessible to the public.

The event is free and open to the public to the public. The model/Buddy Butts Park is located at 6180 McRaven Road. For more information, visit the Friends of the Mississippi River Basin Model Facebook page.