Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway

Natchez Trace: A Road Through the Wilderness

"Today we visit where the TENNESSEE-TOMBIGBEE WATERWAY crosses the Natchez Trace Parkway about 30 miles north of Tupelo, Mississippi.

"The Tombigbee River was known as the "River of the Chickasaw" -- Desoto crossed it when he came through the Chickasaw land in 1540. Bienville traveled with his troops up the Tombigbee from Mobile in 1736 with visions of destroying the Chickasaw Nation, before being routed by the Chickasaw at the Battle of Ackia. But Bienville saw the advantage of a waterway connecting the Tombigbee and the Tennessee Rivers and recommended it to Louis XIV. It would allow a more direct water route to the Gulf of Mexico for much of the territory East of the Mississippi River. Frontier settlers also recognized the advantage such a waterway would bring, and in 1810 residents along the

"Tennessee River in the Knoxville Tennessee area proposed to Congress that the two rivers be connected. The Army Corps of Engineers made the first survey in 1827. Transportation by steam power and fossil fuel and a growing railway and highway system delayed further discussion of the waterway for quite sometime, but the economics of water transportation finally brought this project to the nations attention once again.

"Join us on our next program when we will continue our discussion of the Waterway and visit the nearby Bay Springs Lock and Dam. For Natchez Trace a road through the wilderness, I'm Frank Thomas."

For more about Natchez Trace: A Road Through the Wilderness, visit eddieandfrank.com