Page 6A Carroll County NEWS-LEADER, Wednesday, May 18, 2022

LOCAL
Tennessee’s western boundary
is not where you think
by billCAREY

There’s a story behind every

boundary – why it’s here and not
over there, why it shifts this way
and then that way.
Take Tennessee’s western bor-
der, for instance. Many people
assume that Tennessee’s west-
ern boundary is the Mississippi
River, but they are wrong. Over
the years, the river has moved,
causing confusion about where
the border is.
According to the U.S. Su-
preme Court, the western border
of Tennessee cannot be moved
because of the movement of the
river. Therefore, Tennessee’s
boundary with Arkansas lies
where the channel of the Mis-
sissippi River was in 1836, when
Arkansas became a state. Ten-
nessee’s boundary with Missouri
is where the river was when Mis-
souri became a state in 1821.
Because of this rather unusual
situation, there are many stories
and legends about places where
the Mississippi River has moved,
but the border has not. The best
source of this material is a U.S. WHICH STATE IS IT? - You can see Kentucky Bend, a contested area, on the official Tennessee high-
way map. The natural shifts in the bed of the Mississippi River resulting from currents and erosion over
Army Corps of Engineers’ book time have made the western boundary of Tennessee appear to move.
called Historic Names and
Places of the Lower Mississippi
River by Marion Bragg.
I’ll start in Tennessee’s north-
west corner and work my way
south.
Kentucky Bend is a part of
Fulton County, Ky., surrounded
on three sides by the Missis-
sippi River and one side by
Lake County. Few people live
there today. Mark Twain, in his
book Life on the Mississippi,
described a feud between two
families who lived there and at-
tended the same church.
“Half the church and half the
aisle was in Kentucky, the other
half in Tennessee,” he wrote.
“Sundays you’d see the fami-
lies drive up, all in their Sunday
clothes, men, women, and chil-
dren, and fill up the aisle, and
set down, quiet and orderly, one
lot on the Tennessee side of the
church and the other on the Ken-
tucky side,” Twain wrote.
Moving downstream, the
Lake County seat of Tiptonville
used to be along the river, but
the river has moved. Now Tip-
tonville is more than a mile from
the river.
Shifting south, there was a
busy river town called Ashport
in Lauderdale County with “sev-
eral small warehouses and a big
steam-powered sawmill,” Bragg
wrote. However, the river even-
tually washed away most of the
original 200-acre town.
Downstream and around the
bend from Ashport is Plum
Point, once one of the most dan- TENNESSEE BEYOND THE RIVER - As you can see on the official Tennessee highway map, the
gerous places on the Mississippi. Mississippi River is not the western boundary of Tennessee through large parts of West Tennessee.
“A multitude of snags, half-con- The Supreme Court says that the Western boundary of Tennessee is not bound to the movements of
the Mississippi River.
cealed tree trunks, and sandbars
gave even the most adventurous
pilot cold chills, and the cur- economic boon. Elbow” and created a new island ruled that the piece of land then
rents that foamed around the Continuing southward, there known as Island 37. Because known as Island 37 was still
point were enough to frighten a are many places in Tipton and of confusion about which state part of Tennessee. Today the
timid flatboatman half to death,” Shelby counties where the river owned the island, it became a river has completely shifted to
Bragg wrote. Over the years, the has straightened itself over the harbor for lawbreakers, which is the east side of what was once
Army Corps of Engineers made years, leaving much Tennessee why the Arkansas militia raided known as Island 37, and the land
Plum Point safe for boats. land west of the river. One of it in July 1915. is attached to the Arkansas side
Just downstream from Plum these places is Centennial Cut- That raid led to one of the but is still part of Tennessee.
Point was a 1800’s fort called off, where the river made the U.S. Supreme Court decisions Bill Carey is the founder of
Fort Pillow. As any Civil War shift during a single day in the regarding the location of the bor- Tennessee History for Kids, a
buff will tell you, Fort Pillow year 1876. der. In the 1918 case known as non-profit organization that
fell to Confederate cavalry led Centennial Cutoff removed a State of Arkansas v. State of Ten- helps teachers cover social stud-
by Nathan Bedford Forrest in bend in the river called “Devil’s nessee, the U.S. Supreme Court ies.
April 1864, in one of the Civil
War’s most controversial battles
(that’s another column). Since
Contactless consultations, installations and delivery available!
then, the river has moved so
much that you can hardly see it

Don’t let the stairs

from Fort Pillow State Historic
Park today.
Continuing southward, the
Mississippi River passes the
former site of the town of Ran-
dolph. Once a rival to Memphis,
limit your mobility.
Randolph declined because of Discover the safe and affordable
(among other things) a shift way to regain access to all of your
in the river current. Once big home and allow you to use your
enough to have hotels and a stairs safely.
newspaper, Randolph now con-
sists of a few houses and a his- The Rave 2 stair lift is the ideal
toric marker. solution for anyone:
Just downstream and across Who struggles using the stairs
the river from the former site of
That is worried about risking
Randolph is the community of
a fall on the stairs
Reverie. Due to the movement
of the river, this Tipton County Who wants to access all of
town has the distinction of be- their home
ing the most populous Tennes-
see community on the west side
of the Mississippi River. How-
Call now to save
ever, let’s to put this in context: on a Rave 2 stair lift!
Wikipedia claims that in 2001,
Reverie’s population was 11. So 1-866-405-1781
we can safely say that Reverie’s
status as the only Tennessee
community on the wrong side of
the river has not proven to be an