Bald cypress trees, like the one shown in this photograph, are common in low-lying, swampy areas of the flat Mississippi Delta land that extends from far southern Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico. This tree was photographed at Horseshoe Lake State Park in Alexander County, Illniois. Horseshoe Lake is a former channel of the Mississippi River, called an oxbow, which had long ago been cut off from the shifting river channel.
This photograph is one of three on the cover of the book Side Channels: A Collection of Nature Writing and Memoir. For more information on Side Channels, see the author's web site (http://www.side-channels.com/).
[Photograph by Thomas V. Lerczak.]
