In the South, catfish ponds were big business for a while, and to the 72-year-old Cortez Sharp, this plan represents a dream of new prosperity and, at his age, a triumphant adventure.
In this role he supervised construction and stocking of 35 catfish ponds in an effort to provide youth employment.
Only recently, however, has a new breed of traveler turned off onto Highway 82 and driven past billowy cotton fields and glistening catfish ponds to the small town of Greenwood.
A unique opportunity for intensive moist-soil management occurred when the refuge purchased 240 acres (0.97 km2) of abandoned catfish ponds known today as the Cox Ponds.
Pretoria also has a catfish pond which one can fish for $1.00, a deer processing shop, and a realty office.
From the commercial catfish ponds of Arkansas and Mississippi, the carp have swum-and leaped-nearly to Lake Michigan.
The former cotton fields were gradually converted to pastures for cattle and horses, woodlands for timber, and commercial catfish ponds for grain fed catfish.
He spun the car out of the dirt parking lot onto the highway and drove a few hundred yards to a dirt road that led to Fletcher's catfish pond.
He lovingly peoples his Carolina landscape of trailer parks, catfish ponds and Pentecostal churches with profane oddballs, and the narrative's digressions are lively and vivid.
Elliot Falkland and Jerry minded the catfish ponds downriver.