Profit Island, originally known as Island No. 123 and Island No. 124, then Prophet Island,[1] and also known as Browns Island and Isle de Iberville, is a 2300acres island of the Mississippi River in North America. The island is part of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, United States, and is located "just off the mouth of Thompson Creek, which breaks through the Tunica Hills from the uplands of southern Mississippi and the northern Florida parishes."[2] Along with Middle Ground Island, Choctaw Island, Big Island, and Island No. 8, Profit is one of the "first-order islands" of the Mississippi that host 2,000 acres or more of forest.[3]
According to a Mississippi River guide published in 1859, the name Prophet Island was connected to a prophet of the Natchez people:[4]
The island is the approximate location of the steamboat Monmouth disaster that killed 300 or more Muscogee being transported to the Indian Territory by the U.S. Army.[5] A dredging boat called Lavacca sank near the island in 1849.[6] [7] The same year steamer Thomas Jefferson crashed into the levee in heavy fog and sank at Lobdell's plantation near Prophet Island.[8] There were no casualties. The ironclad narrowly escaped an underwater explosive tripwire at Profit Island during the American Civil War.
There was a gravel quarry on Profit Island. A natural gas processing plant was built on Profit Island in the 1980s.[9] the island has been used for grazing cattle.[10] The island supports hunting camps. Four hunters and their dogs drowned while returning from a trip to Profit Island in December 1975.[11] [12]