Excerpts from “Western Rivermen, 1763 – 1861” , by Michael R. Allen:

1)  Real River pirates operated in the Spanish territory during the 1780’s, in the bayous south of New Orleans, on the Mississippi River, north of the mouth of the Ohio at Grand Tower Rock, and at Stack Island on the Lower Miss. River, near the mouth of the Arkansas.

2)  Travelers and rivermen mentioned robbers and counterfeiters at the ”Crow’s Nest”, and Stack Island—both near the Walnut Hills—in 1809 and 1811.  By 1817, however, traveler J. G. Flugel could describe Stack Island, the “former seat of counterfeiters, murders, and thieves,” as being now “only a bar with a few willows”,

Interestingly, the Arkansas Territory near Stack Island