The Brazeau Bottom is an

alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

, also called a 'flat', extending along the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

Perry County, Missouri Perry County is a county located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Missouri. As of the 2020 census, the population was 18,956. Its county seat is Perryville. The county was officially organized on November 16, 1820 (effective ...

. The Brazeau Bottom lies below the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

and Bois Brule bottoms along the Mississippi River. The flat bottomland on the western bank of the Mississippi River is broken by a series of rocky bluffs, including the Red Rock Landing Conservation Area and the Seventy-Six Conservation Area, which stretch for about 10 miles. Brazeau Bottom runs for about 3 miles below this series of rocky bluffs. Brazeau Creek forms the southernmost border of the Brazeau Bottom.

Etymology

The bottom is named for the nearby Brazeau Creek, which in turn was named for Joseph Brazeau (also spelled Obrazo) a merchant from St. Louis, Missouri in the years 1791–1799, or a member of his family.State Historical Society of Missouri: Perry County Place Names http://shs.umsystem.edu/manuscripts/ramsay/ramsay_perry.html

History

The area was first granted by the Spanish colonial authorities to Joseph Manning, with the first European settler in the Brazeau Bottom was George A. Hamilton, a Catholic from Maryland. Hamilton had lived in New Madrid and received permission from Spanish authorities to settle in the Brazeau Bottom in 1797. Other early settlers in the Brazeau Bottom were Hinckson who settled in 1800; Joseph James who settled in 1801, under the verbal permission of the De Luziere, the colonial commandant of New Bourbon, David L. Johnson (1802), William Johnson from Kentucky who settled in 1802, Charles Duncaster, and Samuel Hinch. In 1803, Joseph Fenwick and twenty other Kentucky Catholics established the Fenwick Settlement at the mouth of the Brazeau Creek. The German Saxon Lutheran immigration of 1938-39 brought numerous German settlers to the area and the establishment of

Wittenberg Wittenberg ( , ; Low Saxon language, Low Saxon: ''Wittenbarg''; meaning ''White Mountain''; officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg (''Luther City Wittenberg'')), is the fourth largest town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Wittenberg is situated on the Ri ...

Flooding

A number of floods have struck over the centuries, with the floods of

1927 Events January * January 1 – The British Broadcasting ''Company'' becomes the British Broadcasting ''Corporation'', when its Royal Charter of incorporation takes effect. John Reith becomes the first Director-General. * January 7 * ...

and

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

causing immense damage. The Flood of 1973 destroyed most of the businesses in Wittenberg and drove out most of the residents.

Geography

The Brazeau Bottom is located in the southeast corner of Perry County, Missouri and has an elevation of 368 ft. (109 m.).Usa.indettaglio
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Brazeau Creek Brazeau Creek is a stream flowing through Perry County, Missouri and emptying into the Mississippi River. Name Brazeau Creek was named for Joseph (Jean) Brazeau (also spelled Obrazo) a merchant from St. Louis, Missouri in the years 1791–179 ...

flows through Brazeau Bottom and empties into the Mississippi near Wittenberg. The 2,161 foot long

Grand Tower Pipeline Bridge The Grand Tower Pipeline Bridge is a suspension bridge carrying a natural gas pipeline across the Mississippi River between Wittenberg, Missouri and Grand Tower, Illinois. Construction Although construction of a natural gas pipeline under the M ...

carries a

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

pipeline Pipeline may refer to: Electronics, computers and computing * Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on ** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...

across the Mississippi River at Wittenberg to

Grand Tower, Illinois Grand Tower is a city in Jackson County, Illinois, United States. The population was 605 at the 2010 census. The town gets its name from Tower Rock, a landmark island in the Mississippi River. History Former names of this town include ''La To ...

. At the southern end of Brazeau Bottom lies the rock formation

Tower Rock Tower Rock, also known as Grand Tower, is a rock formation and landmark island in the Mississippi River, in Brazeau Township, Perry County, Missouri, near the town of Wittenberg, Missouri, and across the river from Grand Tower, Illinois. It ...

. To the east just across the Mississippi River lies

Grand Tower Island Grand Tower Island is a river island in the Mississippi River in the midwestern United States, within the state of Missouri on its border with the state of Illinois. Formed within recorded history by the Avulsion (river), movement of the river ...

, which although lying east of the Mississippi River, nonetheless is part of Perry County, Missouri.

Communities in Brazeau Bottom

* Fenwick Settlement *

Gallery

File:Brazeau Bottoms, Perry County, Missouri, Old Barn.jpg, Old Barn in the bottoms File:Brazeau Bottoms, Perry County, Missouri, Bottomland 1.jpg, Bottomland with power plant in background File:Brazeau Bottoms, Perry County, Missouri, Bridge over Brazeau Creek.jpg, Bridge over Brazeau Creek

References

{{Geographical features of Perry County, Missouri Middle Mississippian culture Floodplains of the United States Landforms of Missouri Landforms of Perry County, Missouri Geology of Missouri