The Tennessee is the wild child of America's rivers. She begins her life in the mountains of East Tennessee, east of Knoxville and from that point on she flows where she pleases and does as she likes. She is unique in that she is one of the few rivers that leaves a state at one point and then enters it again at a totally different local, flowing across the state of Tennessee and dividing the eastern and western parts of the state. Eventually she enters Kentucky.
Another case in point is the fact she is one of the few rivers in the country that flows north instead of south. She refuses to flow directly into the Mississippi, the great river that drains the eastern half of the United States. She does her own thing one more time and flows into the Ohio River at Paducah, Kentucky, which ultimately flows into the Mississippi.
The only way this delinquent daughter could be controlled at all was with a series of lock downs known as dams that traverse the states of Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky. The formation of a United States agency to control this wild child was know as the Tennessee Valley Authority, which was formed after the great depression of the nineteen thirties. It had a duel role. It's primary purpose was to control the river and the great flooding that took place every spring, but it also provided an opportunity for young men to find employment in a country that desperately needed to put much of it's half starved and desperate population back to work. It accomplished it purpose on both accounts and also in the bargain provided some of the lowest utility rates in the county because of the hydro-electric power generated by the various dams along the river.
Tishomingo County would benefit much from this agency. Cheap electricity would be available to her citizens, but she would also reap a secondary benefit. The area would receive lakes and recreations areas that would make her popular to the entire surrounding areas.
The waters that were formed when the Tennessee was dammed at Pickwick were called backwaters, and Tishomingo County was perfectly located to receive those in the form of lakes and reservoirs. One of the primary ones formed the lake at J.P. Coleman State Park. Another was known as Eastport and still another was called Yellow Creek. These lakes provided wonderful boating and fishing and picnicking opportunities for Tishomingo County, but not for the county alone. It wasn't long before the city stifled inhabitants of Memphis who had money and boats would discover Tishomingo County, many of them building cabins and summer homes on her lakes and country vistas. Any given Sunday if you were traveling late in the afternoon on Highway Seventy Two, heading out of Mississippi into Tennessee, you would be surrounded on that narrow, hilly two lane highway by large pickup trucks and vans pulling boats going home to Memphis. When it came to those who had time and the means to stay the summer, entire communities grew up around such places as Eastport and Mill Creek. Down a narrow county road one would mistake for perhaps a field road at it's beginning, in the backwoods on the lake at Eastport, an entire community of beautiful summer homes existed, completely separate and totally undetected from the ordinary citizens of Tishomingo County.
My dad's grandparents on his mother's side had owned and farmed land in the area where J.P. Coleman State Park is located today. When the government stepped in and bought the land they were dispossessed and had to move, so what was progress for the county as a whole was totally unsettling for a few.*
My dad used to tell the story of his uncle and his mother having to hoe corn in what was then the river bottom. My dad's uncle stood up on his hoe handle and said, "Pa, what do you have to do to be President".
According to the story, Great Grandpa had said, "President, my foot. You ain't ever gonna amount to nothing. Get off that hoe handle and go back to work".
"No, Pa, I'm going to be President".
He never did make it to President but he did become a United States Congressman from Tishomingo County during the nineteen thirties. During his first term he put forth the legislation to have the Natchez Trace made into a National Parkway, and during his second term the legislation was passed. He was rewarded with a State Park on the Parkway that bears his name. In large part, the county owes a debt of gratitude to him for this National Treasure.
The Tennessee and her tributaries remind me of the scripture at Ecclesiastes 1:7 which states "all the rivers run to the sea and yet the sea is not full. To the place the rivers go to they go over again". What a great truth! The water cycle was explained in the Bible thousands of years before man became aware of just exactly what happens. The rivers do run, ebb and flow, end up in the sea, and then return by means of the rain, to the place where they begin. How blessed are those of us who grew up in Tishomingo County, being intimately acquainted with a great river like the Tennessee.
*some may enjoy an old movie, 'Wild River,' starring Montgomery Cliff and Lee Remick. It is the story of a government agent who comes to a small Tennessee town to relocate the people when the Tennessee Valley Authority plans to build a dam.
**The picture above is the Tennessee River cliffs at J.P. Coleman State Park.
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