Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas

Episode 548 / 23 November 2024 / 71 min / express

Kill And Let Live

"We're going to Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas, in north-eastern Arkansas, about 40 minutes outside of Memphis, and this is in Crittenden County." about 0:03:33

The case: Murders of Sally McKay and Lee Baker (September 10, 1996); Murder of Martha McKay (March 25, 2020). Read the case file.

The figures, as told in 2024

Population

384

Median household income

$48,827

Median home value

$98,200

History, in brief

• The town is named after Horseshoe Lake, an oxbow lake at whose eastern tip it sits, in the Mississippi River flood plain. about 0:05:22
• The lake was a summer recreation spot for people from Memphis, who kept vacation cabins there. about 0:05:40
• The first visitors faced mosquito-borne diseases in the swamps. about 0:05:51
• Soon after the War of 1812 the land was surveyed and given to soldiers who fought in the war as payment. about 0:06:03
• In 1825 Crittenden County was carved out of another county and townships were made. about 0:06:15
• Levees were built to drain the swamp and make the land more inhabitable. about 0:06:28
• In the 20th century hunters and lumbermen arrived and dammed the lake, raising the water level by over six feet so timber could be floated to the Mississippi. about 0:06:33
• The floods of 1927 and 1937 wrecked the whole lake area, after which a canal was dug for drainage. about 0:06:45
• Two centuries ago the lake was a tight bend in the Mississippi; the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811 and 1812 shifted the main channel eastward and left the oxbow. about 0:43:02
• Cotton plantations were established in the area; the Snowden family bought up land and came to hold about a thousand acres. about 0:43:35
• The Snowden house, a 6,000-square-foot three-storey home, was used as a location for the film The Client in 1994. about 0:16:37
• The Snowden house later functioned as a bed and breakfast and as Memphis's premier wedding venue. about 0:46:49

The reviews read out

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