PICAYUNE — “Not a whole lot of people recognized what an asset of nature we have right within our own city limits, but things are changing,” said Friends of Boley President Keith Kingery during a short chat with the press before getting things organized Saturday morning for another cleanup of the bucolic West Hobolochitto Creek and the main stream, Hobolochitto Creek.

West Hobolochitto and East Hobolochitto creeks run together behind the Hermitage in Northwest Picayune to form Hobolochitto Creek, which flows out of the city and into East Pearl River. The creeks drain almost the entire Pearl River County watershed.

The Hermitage bluff, where the two creeks join to form the main stream, is where the history of Picayune, and what would later become southwestern Pearl River County, began. It was the site of a Choctaw Indian village, and Scottish trapper and trader Stephen Jarrell in about 1810 traded the Indians for the bluff and established a trading post there, which would later become Picayune.

“I became aware of its significance after floating the stream one time. I was real active in the Scouts, and we had to travel a long way off to find a stream to float, and then I realized, ‘My goodness, we have one right in our own city limits, actually one of the best anywhere.’ All it needed was a little help, and I hope we have helped clean it up so our residents can enjoy it,” says Kingery.

On Saturday, the cleanup was held in conjunction with the City of Picayune’s Great American Cleanup, a cleanup sponsored by the city each Spring during which residents can volunteer to cleanup their yards, neighborhoods, business fronts, parks, picnic areas and city property.

Dumpsters were spread throughout Picayune in order to receive trash picked up by volunteers, said city maintenance supervisor Daryl Smith, who is in charge of the city-wide cleanup. “Volunteers are furnished trash bags, too,” said Smith.

Smith and Friends of Boley officials were on hand, along with city council members Larry Breland and Lynn Bogan-Bumpers, to kickoff the cleanup on Saturday on Beech Street near where it crosses Hobolochitto Creek at a place called Long Bridge, about a mile north of the current city hall.

Breland and Kingery welcomed the volunteers, and Breland blessed the crowd with a short prayer before a safety briefing by Kingery. Then, one group of volunteers set out to cleanup the creeks, and other volunteers spread out through Picayune to cleanup areas inside the city. A number of local churches participated in the citywide cleanup, too.

The Friends of Boley gave away a canoe in a raffle to raise money for the organization, and Keith Prestige of Carriere won it. Other prizes were given away, too, to best trash pickers in several categories.

Friends of Boley volunteers put in at the Mississippi Highway 43 bridge and West Hobolochitto Creek and floated to the Long Bridge gathering trash, and another group launched at the Long Bridge and floated to the Burnt Bridge on Palestine Road collecting trash and litter.

Kingery says Friends of Boley continues to grow, and more people are becoming aware of the natural asset Picayune has with the streams flowing through the city limits.

“How many cities do you know which has this large a stream flowing through their city, with recreation possibilities right at their doorstep. It is a quality of life issue, and makes Picayune a more family friendly place to settle,” said Kingery. “And we not only have one, we have two streams, that join together to form one big stream, right in the northwestern sector of the city. We have to preserve and protect and revitalize this stream.”

Kingery said that the organization also plans to refurbish and clean out East Hobolochitto Creek. “We have not done anything with it so far because it is not amenable to just voluntary cleanup crews. It is so clogged with debris that in some spots it will take heavy equipment to clear it. That is in our long-run plans, however,” Kingery said.

He said East Hobolochitto is smaller than West Hobolochitto. The streams are called “Boley” for short. The streams were named after the Choctaw Indian chief who ruled over the village, Chief A’bola. Historians say he might have been the one who traded the bluff to Jarrell, or he could have been an earlier chief who founded the village.

The streams have been declared navigable under state law and floating and fishing them is allowed. However, the streams’ banks are private property and use of the banks can only be done with a property owner’s permission, according to officials familiar with state laws.