Grenada Lake

Grenada Lake is a reservoir on the Yalobusha River in the U.S. state of Mississippi. It is one of four flood control lakes in North Mississippi constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Grenada Lake was constructed to help control flooding along the Yazoo River Basin. The dam is located on the Yalobusha River approximately 3 miles (5 km) northeast of Grenada, Mississippi.

The operation of Grenada Lake began in 1954 after a cost of $32 million to construct. The elevation of the top of the earthen-filled dam is 256 feet (78 m) NGVD. The Grenada Project encompasses 90,427 acres (366 km²) with 35,000 acres (140 km²) of this in water during the recreation season (215 NGVD). At this elevation the lake has approximately 48 mi (77 km) of shoreline.

Flood control is the primary purpose of the Grenada Lake Project. The Mississippi River Basin Flood Control Project was the direct result of the Great Flood of 1927. The levees which were the only protection against flooding at the time, broke along the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers, literally swamping thousands of acres of land in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas.

Grenada

Coordinates: 12°07′N 61°40′W / 12.117°N 61.667°W / 12.117; -61.667

Grenada (ⁱ/ɡrᵻˈneɪdə/; French: La Grenade) is an island country consisting of Grenada itself and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. Grenada is located northwest of Trinidad and Tobago, northeast of Venezuela, and southwest of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Grenada is also known as the "Island of Spice" because of the production of nutmeg and mace crops, of which it is one of the world's largest exporters. Its size is 344 square kilometres (133 sq mi), with an estimated population of 110,000. Its capital is St. George's. The national bird of Grenada is the critically endangered Grenada dove.

History

French colony (1649–1763)

In 1649 a French expedition of 203 men from Martinique led by Jacques du Parquet founded a permanent settlement on Grenada. Within months this led to conflict with the local islanders which lasted until 1654 when the island was completely subjugated by the French. Those indigenous islanders who survived either left for neighbouring islands or retreated to remoter parts of Grenada where they were marginalised—the last distinct communities disappeared during the 1700s.