Tallahatchie River
TheTallahatchie Riveris a river inMississippiwhich flows 230 miles (370 km)[1]fromTippah County,throughTallahatchie County,toLeflore County,where it joins theYalobusha Riverto form theYazoo River,[2][3]which ultimately meets theMississippi RiveratVicksburg, Mississippi.The river is navigable for about 100 miles (160 km).[4] AtMoney, Mississippi,the river's flow measures approximately 7,861 cubic feet per second.[5]
Tallahatchieis aChoctawname meaning "rock of waters."[6]The sources of the Tallahatchie River have outcrops of iron sandstone.[7]
As part of theFlood Control Act of 1936,the federal government built an earth-filled flood control dam on the Tallahatchie near the town ofSardis, Mississippi,creatingSardis Lake.
Tributaries
[edit]- Coldwater River
- Old Yocona River
- Yocona River Canal[8]
- Little Tallahatchie River
- Old Little Tallahatchie River
- Panola Quitman Floodway[9]
- McIvor Drainage Canal
- Tippah River
- Cassidy Bayou
- Black Bayou
- Ascalmore Creek
- Tillatoba Creek
In popular culture
[edit]The river is mentioned in "Tallahatchie River Blues," recorded byMattie Delaneyin 1930. This blues song laments the devastation caused in the local African-American community by a flood on the normally shallow river. The river is 50 ft (15 m) deep with very sharp rocks.
The river has historical significance due to the 1955 murder ofEmmett Till,an African-American boy visiting from Chicago, who was brutally murdered by white men inMoney, Mississippi,for allegedly whistling at a white woman. In 2017, Till's accuser, Carolyn Bryant Donham, spoke to Timothy B. Tyson, a Duke University professor who has written a book, “The Blood of Emmett Till." In it, he wrote that Donham said of her long-ago allegations that Till grabbed her and was menacing and sexually crude toward her, “that part is not true.” Till was beaten, shot, and sunk in the river with acotton ginfan tied around his neck by barbed wire.
This event is mentioned in the song, "Freedom Highway" byThe Staple Singers,in the lines, "Found dead people in the forests, Tallahatchie River and lakes... whole world is wondering, what's wrong with the United States?"[10]Till’s badly mutilated body was found near the river by two boys who were fishing.
The eponymous wooden bridge over the river was popularized inBobbie Gentry's 1967 hit song "Ode to Billie Joe,"which has the refrain," Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie bridge. "A film was titledOde to Billy Joe.The wooden bridge collapsed in 1972 after being set alight by vandals.[11]It crossed the Tallahatchie River atMoney,about ten miles north ofGreenwood, Mississippi.The bridge has since been replaced.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^Hopkins, Daniel J., editor (1997). Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary. (Third Edition). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc. Publishers. p.1155.ISBN0-87779-546-0
- ^"The National Map".U.S. Geological Survey.RetrievedFeb 9,2011.
- ^"Tallahatchie River".Geographic Names Information System.United States Geological Survey,United States Department of the Interior.
- ^Hopkins. Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary.
- ^"USGS Surface Water data for Mississippi: USGS Surface-Water Annual Statistics".
- ^Stafford, James Douglas. (16 November 1975). "The Way of the River". The Commercial Appeal. Mid-South Magazine. (Memphis, Tennessee).
- ^Rowland, Dunbar. (1925). History of Mississippi: the Heart of the South. 1. Chicago, IL-Jackson, MS: S.J. Clarke Publishing Co. pp. 38-39.
- ^Mississippi State Highway Department. General Highway Map Panola County Mississippi. (Map) 1981.
- ^Mississippi State Highway Department. General Highway Map Tallahatchie County Mississippi. (Map) 1979.
- ^""Freedom Highway" by The Staple Singers ".Our Daily Lyric.Retrieved2017-03-30.
- ^Tobler, John (1992).NME Rock 'N' Roll Years(1st ed.). London: Reed International Books Ltd. p. 239. CN 5585.
External links
[edit]
- .The American Cyclopædia.1879.