Rutherford Fork Of The Obion River on:
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The Obion River system is the primary
The Obion has four major forks, the North Fork, Middle Fork, South Fork and Rutherford Fork (which is named after Henry Rutherford an early surveyor of the area). The confluences of these forks are a few miles above the mouth of the Obion's discharge into the
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surface water
Surface water is water located on top of land, forming terrestrial (surrounding by land on all sides) waterbodies, and may also be referred to as ''blue water'', opposed to the seawater and waterbodies like the ocean.
The vast majority of surfac ...
drainage system of northwestern 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 ...
, United States.
Description
The Obion has four major forks, the North Fork, Middle Fork, South Fork and Rutherford Fork (which is named after Henry Rutherford an early surveyor of the area). The confluences of these forks are a few miles above the mouth of the Obion's discharge 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 ...
. For the greater parts of their lengths, the forks exist as separate streams
A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long, large stream ...
.
In the mid-20th century, the Obion system was largely channelized for agricultural
Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...
purposes, under the auspices of the ''Obion-Forked Deer Basin Authority'', a Tennessee state agency that coordinated this work with the United States Army Corps of Engineers
The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wo ...
. Some of the adverse effects of channelization included increasing erosion of land, loss of wildlife habitat, and increased flooding downstream. But with the restoration of wetlands
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 ...
along the river in the 21st century, this process has now been halted and – in a few places – somewhat reversed.
The origin of the name "Obion" is obscure. Some say that it is derived from a Native American word and others that it represents a corruption of the name of an Irish fur trapper, O'Bion or, perhaps, O'Brien.
Obion County, Tennessee, is named after the Obion River.
After the 1818 Chickasaw
The Chickasaw ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, United States. Their traditional territory was in northern Mississippi, northwestern and northern Alabama, western Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky. Their language is ...
cession 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 ...
(known in Kentucky as Jackson Purchase
The Jackson Purchase, also known as the Purchase Region or simply the Purchase, is a region in the U.S. state of Kentucky bounded by the Mississippi River to the west, the Ohio River to the north, and the Tennessee River to the east.
Jackson's P ...
), explorer Davy Crockett
Colonel (United States), Colonel David Crockett (August 17, 1786 – March 6, 1836) was an American politician, militia officer and frontiersman. Often referred to in popular culture as the "King of the Wild Frontier", he represented Tennesse ...
moved to the South Fork Obion River in Weakley County (present-day Gibson County after restructuring of the county in 1837). There he built a log cabin along the River, where he and his family resided until his trip to Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
in 1835.
On February 16th, 2025 a levee along the Obion River failed, resulting in widespread flooding in multiple countries in West Tennessee. The entire town of Rives was completely flooding resulting in water rescuewpsd
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See also
*List of Tennessee rivers
This is a list of rivers of the U.S. state of Tennessee:
By drainage basin
This list is arranged by drainage basin, with respective tributaries indented under each larger stream's name. All rivers in Tennessee ultimately flow to the Gulf of Mex ...
References
External links
{{authority control Rivers of Tennessee Tributaries of the Mississippi River Rivers of Dyer County, Tennessee Bodies of water of Gibson County, Tennessee Bodies of water of Lauderdale County, Tennessee Bodies of water of Obion County, Tennessee