# Brazeau Bottom > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Brazeau_Bottom > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Brazeau_Bottom.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazeau_Bottom > Source revision: 1348839823 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) The **Brazeau Bottom** is an [alluvial](/source/Alluvial) [floodplain](/source/Floodplain), also called a 'flat', extending along the [Mississippi River](/source/Mississippi_River) in [Perry County, Missouri](/source/Perry_County,_Missouri). The Brazeau Bottom lies below the [American](/source/American_Bottom) and [Bois Brule](/source/Bois_Brule_Bottom) 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.[1][2][3] ## 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.[4] ## 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](/source/New_Madrid,_Missouri) and received permission from Spanish authorities to settle in the Brazeau Bottom in 1797.[5] 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](/source/New_Bourbon,_Missouri), David L. Johnson (1802), William Johnson from Kentucky who settled in 1802, Charles Duncaster, and Samuel Hinch.[5] In 1803, Joseph Fenwick and twenty other Kentucky Catholics established the [Fenwick Settlement](/source/Fenwick_Settlement,_Missouri) at the mouth of the Brazeau Creek. The [German Saxon Lutheran immigration of 1838-39](/source/Saxon_Lutheran_immigration_of_1838%E2%80%9339) brought numerous German settlers to the area and the establishment of [Wittenberg](/source/Wittenberg,_Missouri). ## Flooding A number of floods have struck over the centuries, with the floods of [1927](/source/Great_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927) and [1973](/source/Mississippi_Flood_of_1973) causing immense damage. The Flood of 1973 destroyed most of the businesses in Wittenberg and drove out most of the residents.[6] ## Geography The Brazeau Bottom is located in the southeast corner of Perry County, Missouri and has an elevation of 368 ft. (109 m.).[7][8][9] [Brazeau Creek](/source/Brazeau_Creek) flows through Brazeau Bottom and empties into the Mississippi near Wittenberg. The 2,161 foot long [Grand Tower Pipeline Bridge](/source/Grand_Tower_Pipeline_Bridge) carries a [natural gas](/source/Natural_gas) [pipeline](/source/Pipeline_transport) across the Mississippi River at Wittenberg to [Grand Tower, Illinois](/source/Grand_Tower,_Illinois). At the southern end of Brazeau Bottom lies the rock formation [Tower Rock](/source/Tower_Rock). To the east just across the Mississippi River lies [Grand Tower Island](/source/Grand_Tower_Island), which although lying east of the Mississippi River, nonetheless is part of Perry County, Missouri. ## Communities in Brazeau Bottom - [Fenwick Settlement](/source/Fenwick_Settlement,_Missouri) - [Wittenberg](/source/Wittenberg,_Missouri) ## See also - [Perry County, Missouri](/source/Perry_County,_Missouri) - [American Bottom](/source/American_Bottom) - [Bois Brule Bottom](/source/Bois_Brule_Bottom) - [Le Grand Champ Bottom](/source/Le_Grand_Champ_Bottom) ## References 1. Louis Houck (1908). ["A History of Missouri: From the Earliest Explorations and Settlements Until the Admission of the State Into the Union"](https://archive.org/details/ahistorymissour01houcgoog). R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company. p. [385](https://archive.org/details/ahistorymissour01houcgoog/page/n419) brazeau-bottom missouri. 1. Carl Ortwin Sauer (1920). [*The geography of the Ozark highland of Missouri*](https://books.google.com/books?id=kJFwAAAAIAAJ&dq=brazeau+bottom+perry+county+missouri+department&pg=PA105). ISBN 9780722207680. 1. ["The American Bottom"](https://web.archive.org/web/20131203012555/http://www.lib.niu.edu/2002/ihy020221.html). Archived from [the original](http://www.lib.niu.edu/2002/ihy020221.html) on 2013-12-03. Retrieved 2013-08-18. 1. State Historical Society of Missouri: Perry County Place Names [http://shs.umsystem.edu/manuscripts/ramsay/ramsay_perry.html](http://shs.umsystem.edu/manuscripts/ramsay/ramsay_perry.html) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20160331203235/http://shs.umsystem.edu/manuscripts/ramsay/ramsay_perry.html) 2016-03-31 at the Wayback Machine 1. Louis Houck (1908). ["A History of Missouri: From the Earliest Explorations and Settlements Until the Admission of the State Into the Union"](https://archive.org/details/ahistorymissour01houcgoog). R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company. p. [385](https://archive.org/details/ahistorymissour01houcgoog/page/n419) brazeau. 1. ["Wittenberg: Nothing left but relics and memories"](http://www.semissourian.com/story/1129896.html). The Southeast Missourian newspaper website. 10 December 2005. Retrieved 24 September 2012. 1. [US Cartographic.info](http://cartographic.info/usa/map.php?id=736428) 1. [Mytopo.com](http://www.mytopo.com/locations/index.cfm?fid=736428) 1. [Usa.indettaglio](http://usa.indettaglio.it/eng/29/157/736428.html) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Brazeau Bottom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazeau_Bottom) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazeau_Bottom?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.