The Beech River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed June 8, 2011 stream draining the east-central portion of

West Tennessee West Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee that roughly comprises the western quarter of the state. The region includes 21 counties between the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers, delineated by state law. Its geography consists ...

in the United States. The Beech rises about northwest of

Lexington, Tennessee Lexington is a city in Henderson County, Tennessee, United States. It is midway between Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, lying south of Interstate 40, which connects the two cities. Its population was 7,956 at the ...

. In the same area are the headwaters of two other West Tennessee rivers, the Big Sandy River and the Middle Fork of the Forked Deer River. The Big Sandy, like the Beech, is part of the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is a long river located in the Southern United States, southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. Flowing through the states of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, it begins at the confluence of Fren ...

system, whereas the Forked Deer system drains into the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

. The Beech River was named for the

beech Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...

timber along its course.

Hydrography

The Beech flows southeast into the town of Lexington and then primarily eastward. As is typical of most major streams in West Tennessee, much of the lower course was the subject of a channelization project in the mid-20th century conducted largely for agricultural purposes; this has resulted in a considerable loss of

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

. The stream crosses into

Decatur County Decatur County is the name of various past and present counties in the United States, all named for Stephen Decatur Commodore (United States), Commodore Stephen Decatur Jr. (; January 5, 1779 – March 22, 1820) was a United States Navy of ...

, flowing in between Parsons and Decaturville. The large

embayment A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

formed at the mouth of the Beech is the result of the backwaters of the

Kentucky Dam Kentucky Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River on the county line between Livingston County, Kentucky, Livingston and Marshall County, Kentucky, Marshall counties in the U.S. state of Kentucky. The dam is the lowermost of nine dams on ...

project many miles downstream on the Tennessee; the embayment reaches the outskirts of both towns.

Dams

The Beech River system is somewhat unusual in that it and all of its major tributaries (a total of eight) are impounded, one of them twice, primarily by dams built in the mid 20th century as part of the

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolin ...

's Beech River Project—Beech, Cedar, Dogwood, Lost Creek (which has no permanent reservoir), Pin Oak, Pine, Redbud, and Sycamore.TVA's Sycamore Reservoir page
Tva.gov. Retrieved on November 20, 2011. The dams are purely for purposes of

flood control Flood management or flood control are methods used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters. Flooding can be caused by a mix of both natural processes, such as extreme weather upstream, and human changes to waterbodies and ru ...

and

recreation Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for happiness, enjoyment, amusement, ...

, though it is possible that the relatively small volume of water they store could result in some minimal aid to

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the motion, movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navig ...

on the Tennessee under some conditions. Unlike most other TVA dams, none of the Beech River dams are used for

hydropower Hydropower (from Ancient Greek -, "water"), also known as water power or water energy, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by energy transformation, ...

, since the small size of the streams impounded and their relative lack of fall would make power generation impractical. Some of the lakes created are located in Natchez Trace State Park, the largest of the

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "Federated state, state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on accou ...

s; though located many miles west of both the Natchez Trace Parkway and the historic

Natchez Trace The Natchez Trace, also known as the Old Natchez Trace, is a historic forest trail within the United States which extends roughly from Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi, linking the Cumberland River, Cumberland, Tennessee River, ...

, this area is named for a branch of the historic Trace that bore that name in the area.

Notes

External links

TVA's Tennessee River system main page
{{authority control Rivers of Tennessee Tennessee Valley Authority Rivers of Decatur County, Tennessee Rivers of Henderson County, Tennessee

Hydrography

Dams

See also

Notes

External links