Skip to content

Bordeaux Point RV Park

Click to Call (662) 357-8521

Click to Call (662) 357-8521

  • Home
  • Great Rates
  • Blog
    • History
      • Nathan Bedford Forrest in Tunica County
      • When Paw Was A Putting Maw
      • Mats For All The Fishies
      • Bait Shop Tales
      • Walking Home From School
      • The Mule Train
      • Discovery Of Ole Man River
      • The Cutoff Airstrip
      • Big Bard, My Dad
      • The Weir Dam
      • The Wildlife League
      • Looking Back
      • Hickie’s Place
      • Casinos for Tunica
    • Tait Tate
      • Follow The Red Clover
      • AD Applies for a Job at Tunica Manufacturing
      • The Hollywood
      • The Big Roy Buddha
      • The Timber Cruise
      • The Big Swamp Rabbit Hunt
      • Big Bard Growing Up
      • Cousin Simp And His Hammer
      • The Tattletale
      • The Cutoff, In The Beginning
      • Cajun Pap
      • Grabblin or Noodlin’
      • The Cutoff’s Burial At Sea
      • Droughts of the 80s
      • Morning at Bordeaux Point RV Park
    • News
      • Bordeaux Point Security Staff
      • Big Changes on the Cutoff
    • Specials
      • The Snowbird Special
      • Happy New Year – 2022 Annual Boat Ramp Pass Special
  • Area Map
  • Park Rules
  • Rental Agreement
  • Register/Login
Menu
  • Home
  • Great Rates
  • Blog
    • History
      • Nathan Bedford Forrest in Tunica County
      • When Paw Was A Putting Maw
      • Mats For All The Fishies
      • Bait Shop Tales
      • Walking Home From School
      • The Mule Train
      • Discovery Of Ole Man River
      • The Cutoff Airstrip
      • Big Bard, My Dad
      • The Weir Dam
      • The Wildlife League
      • Looking Back
      • Hickie’s Place
      • Casinos for Tunica
    • Tait Tate
      • Follow The Red Clover
      • AD Applies for a Job at Tunica Manufacturing
      • The Hollywood
      • The Big Roy Buddha
      • The Timber Cruise
      • The Big Swamp Rabbit Hunt
      • Big Bard Growing Up
      • Cousin Simp And His Hammer
      • The Tattletale
      • The Cutoff, In The Beginning
      • Cajun Pap
      • Grabblin or Noodlin’
      • The Cutoff’s Burial At Sea
      • Droughts of the 80s
      • Morning at Bordeaux Point RV Park
    • News
      • Bordeaux Point Security Staff
      • Big Changes on the Cutoff
    • Specials
      • The Snowbird Special
      • Happy New Year – 2022 Annual Boat Ramp Pass Special
  • Area Map
  • Park Rules
  • Rental Agreement
  • Register/Login
  • Home
  • Great Rates
  • Blog
    • History
      • Nathan Bedford Forrest in Tunica County
      • When Paw Was A Putting Maw
      • Mats For All The Fishies
      • Bait Shop Tales
      • Walking Home From School
      • The Mule Train
      • Discovery Of Ole Man River
      • The Cutoff Airstrip
      • Big Bard, My Dad
      • The Weir Dam
      • The Wildlife League
      • Looking Back
      • Hickie’s Place
      • Casinos for Tunica
    • Tait Tate
      • Follow The Red Clover
      • AD Applies for a Job at Tunica Manufacturing
      • The Hollywood
      • The Big Roy Buddha
      • The Timber Cruise
      • The Big Swamp Rabbit Hunt
      • Big Bard Growing Up
      • Cousin Simp And His Hammer
      • The Tattletale
      • The Cutoff, In The Beginning
      • Cajun Pap
      • Grabblin or Noodlin’
      • The Cutoff’s Burial At Sea
      • Droughts of the 80s
      • Morning at Bordeaux Point RV Park
    • News
      • Bordeaux Point Security Staff
      • Big Changes on the Cutoff
    • Specials
      • The Snowbird Special
      • Happy New Year – 2022 Annual Boat Ramp Pass Special
  • Area Map
  • Park Rules
  • Rental Agreement
  • Register/Login

Bordeaux Point RV Park Blog

Big Bard, My Dad

Subscribe for Specials, News
and Tait Tate Stories

Subscribe

Image © by Kathy Kreise

Written by

  • Tait Seldon
  • November 20, 2021
Growing up on Hollywood Plantation, my dad was a seed breeder for Cokes seed company and he wrote a book on growing soybeans.  He was the first farmer in Tunica county to grow rice in this part of the Delta.  He had a seed cleaning business, and a grain storage, the first 12 row equipment in 1959, and the first 16” irrigation well, that to this day will pump 3000 gallons a minute. It takes 15000 gallons of water to put one inch of water on one acre. That well had a 60 horse powered motor. The well ran off natural gas and the transmission line was 100 yard away from the well with an endless supply of fuel.

The ground water was and is 65 degrees year round.  We had a swimming hole that the well discharged into where my brothers and our friends would cool off during the hot delta summers.  The water was too cold for snakes, but not for us.  Big Bard would throw watermelons in the swimming hole and they would float until we’d cut it open after a swim.  My dad would always challenge other men to wrestle on the end of the pipe.  The loser would fall in the ice water but no one ever took him up on it.

My Pop was a big man, full of mischief.  He was raised in Memphis and he said on the river he was known as Fish Selden.  Riverboats would have to dodge him swimming under the Harahan Bridge which sat at the end of Crump Blvd. in Memphis.  Captain Tom Meanly, owner of the Memphis Queen Lines, and his son Capt. Jake aged 25, the youngest river boat pilot on the river, said we’re at awe at Big Bard’s stories of the river pirate’s in the early years on Mud Island.

Mud Island had an airport on it in the early 30s, until the mid 60s, and on the west side – the Mississippi River side of Mud Island – when I was a kid the banks were lined with wrecked river boats. Dad said that’s where the river pirates lived in the cabins on those wrecked river boats.  Most of the wrecked river boats belong to Mr. W.C. Ellis, who had a machine shop at the end of Beale Street, right at the ICG Railroad across River Side Drive at Tom Lee Park, where the mouth of the Wolf River ran into the Mississippi River.  On a cold winter day smoke would be bellowing up just beyond the RR trestle from the pirate’s stills there.

My Grandmother, Ms. Connie, was a Tate and owned Hollywood Plantation at Hollywood, just north of Tunica on Hwy 61.  My dad was told that he would have to move to the farm that spring to run it.  So the next clear day he went to Mud Island, took 3 flying lessons, and that Friday morning soloed in a Piper Cub.  Big Bard took off Saturday morning from Mud Island, flying under the bridge as a prank to Cousin Johnny, who was an Engineer on the ICG RR. heading west out of Memphis, to Hughes and points West.

Big Bard My Dad

It was all the talk.  Some nut had flown under the bridge and vanished in the river fog south of President’s island.  Dad took the river south to Lake View on the state line.  That’s where the city of Memphis’ street cars had a turn-around, and Hwy 61 came right past that turnaround.  Dad said old man Duke Perry waved as he went by.  Mr. Duke was the straw boss for what is now the Perry Plantation at Hollywood.

Well, Dad followed Hwy 61 South past Walls, Lake Cormorant, Clack, Robinsonville, Bowdre and New Store to Hollywood.  He had a map of the farm and recognized it, he landed on Tate St. and pulled into the farm commissary.  Dad talked with Cousin Simp, rode around the place on a Mule, clumb the water tower to get his bearings and check on the plane, then headed back to Mud Island.

When he landed he went to the office to check the plane in.  They tried to give him some lip about flying under the bridge but none of them fellers wanted to wrestle Big Bard, so, back across Market Street Bridge to 1390 Venton Ave., and Mona’ s house, he went.

By the way, if you ask an old timer around the Cutoff they can still show you the old Bordeaux Point airstrip, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.  Maybe I’ll tell it to ya one day.

Share on facebook
Share on Facebook
Share on twitter
Share on Twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on LinkedIn
Share on telegram
Share on Telegram
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on whatsapp

Our Posts

The Snowbird Special
Specials
Bill Frankell

The Snowbird Special

Escaping from the North for the winter? Heading South? Well stop by Bordeaux Point RV Park where the prices are tolerably low and the average temperature for the year is 56 degrees. Five major casinos are close and one even has a fine golf course. And if you are just trying to escape the insanity of the Northern cities, this is a wonderful destination which you will not be disappointed with.

Read More »
July 30, 2022 No Comments
History
Bill Frankell

Nathan Bedford Forrest in Tunica County

I read an awful lot of history. Thirty-some years ago when I moved from Illinois to the South I knew very little about the South, especially the Civil War. However, I have since corrected that. Recently I read “Bust Hell Wide Open; The Life Of Nathan Bedford Forrest” by Samuel W. Mitchum Jr. The saddest part of reading that book was when I finished it.

Read More »
July 16, 2022 No Comments
Follow The Red Clover
Tait Tate
Tait Seldon

Follow The Red Clover

An awful lot of times folks have had problems finding Bordeaux Point RV Park, at least for the very first time. We have done our best to make it easy with signs, billboards, and we even have a map on the bottom of the website to help ya out.

Read More »
May 7, 2022 No Comments
Bordeaux Point Security Staff
News
Bill Frankell

Bordeaux Point Security Staff

Bordeaux Point RV Park is rather secluded, from most humans at least.  Seven miles from town, the camp is so peaceful – just the way we like it.  But it doesn’t stay that way all by itself. So we thought it would be a good idea to introduce everyone to our security staff

Read More »
April 30, 2022 No Comments
Big Changes on the Cutoff
News
Bill Frankell

Big Changes on the Cutoff

Before we say anything else we would like to thank Ed and PK, our friends and the creators of the Levee Commissary, and say they will both be dearly missed. At the same time, we would like congratulate PK on her much deserved retirement, which seems to be arriving for her in April.

PK has been a perfectionist as she ran the Commissary, and often times she was a blur as she oversaw the daily operations of our little oasis on the “dry” side of the levee. However, it is now official, the Levee Commissary has been sold to our neighbors, and good friends, Tracy and Tara Mallet. This promises to make the adjustment for the locals a very easy transition.

Read More »
April 9, 2022 No Comments
Bordeaux RV Park | AD Applies for a Job at Tunica Manufacturing
Tait Tate
Tait Seldon

AD Applies for a Job at Tunica Manufacturing

Tunica manufacturing was a quilting plant which made furniture pads.  AD was headed there from the Lula pulp yard.  It was run by a man known as Pickerwood. He drove the lift that loaded the train cars with pulp wood.  Pickerwood lived and worked out of a green Dodge motor home parked next to an old garage.
AD was his apprentice and every Saturday afternoon they’d go to the woods and cut trees to drive stakes in the ground. They’d do this by felling the trunks on the stakes and betting who could come closest to hitting their stakes.

Read More »
April 2, 2022 No Comments
The Hollywood
Tait Tate
Tait Seldon

The Hollywood

In 1969 both of my brothers were in college while I was in high school, living at home with my dad.  He had a heart condition and sugar-poor health.  Bard came home from college for the summer.  He decided he would stay out a semester and help with dad.

Read More »
March 26, 2022 No Comments
The Hollywood
History
Tait Seldon

When Paw Was A Putting Maw

Back up to 67 years ago, our folks lived in a two story plantation house. It was the Tate brothers, my dad moved here in 1937 from Memphis to oversee the Plantation.

Read More »
March 5, 2022 No Comments
Big Roy Buddha
Tait Tate
Tait Seldon

The Big Roy Buddha

There once was a man called Big Roy, who had the gift of gab.  He ran the bait shop and think-tank here at Bordeaux Point.

Read More »
February 26, 2022 No Comments
The Timber Cruise | The Pink Bunkadoo
Tait Tate
Tait Seldon

The Timber Cruise

In Tait Tate’s early years, at age of 19, he went to work as a forester for the Mississippi Forestry Commission. He sent us this story.

Read More »
February 19, 2022 No Comments
Mats For All The Fishies - Bordeaux Point RV Park
History
Tait Seldon

Mats For All The Fishies

Back in time, December 1985 preparing for my first up-coming Crappie season.  That’s mat building time.  All fish need structure to feed and not to be a bigger fish’s meal.

Read More »
February 5, 2022 No Comments
Bait Shop Tales | Bordeaux Point RV Parkales
History
Tait Seldon

Bait Shop Tales

Most fisherman dream of owning a bait shop. You get to tell fishing stories all day long. The big ones you caught and the monster you lost. The hot spots on the lake. What colored gigs, different baits that are producing. Bait shopping is hard work 4 am – 6pm. But I had a hammock that stretched over the minnow tanks, for naps. These naps would give you think tank time, ways to attract more customers.

Read More »
January 29, 2022 No Comments

$250

Per Month

$15.00 City Water/Sewer

130 Lots

Free Boatramp Usage

Levee Commissary

Call Now

$200

Per Week

All Utillities Included

City Water and Sewer

Free Boatramp Usage

Levee Commissary

Call Now

$35

Per Night

All Utillities Included

City Water and Sewer

Free Boatramp Usage

Levee Commissary

Call Now

$250

Per Month

$15.00 City Water/Sewer

130 Lots

Free Boatramp Usage

Levee Commissary

Call Now

$200

Per Week

All Utillities Included

City Water and Sewer

Free Boatramp Usage

Levee Commissary

Call Now

$35

Per Night

All Utillities Included

City Water and Sewer

Free Boatramp Usage

Levee Commissary

Call Now

Area Map

Green markers indicate Casinos,

Blue signifies Restaurants,

Purple are County facilities of interest,

while the Red marker is, of course, Bordeaux Point RV Park.

Area Map

Green markers indicate Casinos,

Blue signifies Restaurants,

Purple are County facilities of interest,

while the Red marker is, of course, Bordeaux Point RV Park.

Fish Report by Tait Tate

Well, we hain’t heard from Tait Tate for some time now, obviously.

But not to worry.  He usually does a kind of hibernation during the winter.  We reckon some-wheres on the peninsula but we jes’ cain’t be sure.

He’ll be back tellin’ us about the fishin’.  He always comes back.

We kinda think it has somethin’ to do with that gold coin he wears.

© 1983 - 2023 - Bordeaux Point RV Park - All Rights Reserved - Privacy Policy

By continuing to use this website, you consent to the use of cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy.

Accept