Nov 022021
 

Leaving the anchorage at mile marker 88 we are heading south out of Kentucky Lake where it will end and the Tennessee River will continue. Scott notes that the current is stronger at about 1 knt against us. In the narrower section it is running at 1.5 knts. The day started out cloudy and cold with last night dipping to under 50 degrees. The generator has been running since 6 AM and it is staying on until almost noon when the sun decided to show up.

The name of the river may have come from a Cherokee Indian village located on the Little Tennesse River and spelled variously Tanase, Tennassee, Tanasi, or Tinasse. The Tennessee was explored during the period of rivalry between the French and the English for the territory west of the Appalachians, and a few small forts and posts were established on its banks. Earlier, explorers and fur traders had entered the lower course of the river from the Ohio River. Although the Tennessee served as a route for settlers moving southwestward, its role as a westward passage was negligible compared with that of the Ohio.

Originally, the Tennessee could be navigated only by flatboats. Its upper course was shallow and filled with short rapids. Its middle course, through the Cumberlands, contained whirlpools and was interrupted by muscle shoals (rapids, now submerged by reservoirs) in Alabama. Only its lower course was easily navigable, but the advent of the railroads in the Tennessee River valley after the 1840s kept river traffic from assuming the significance it had on other western and more easily navigated rivers.

The river’s north-flowing lower course was strategically important during the Civil War, for its valley offered an invasion route into the western Confederacy. Part of the course downstream is paralleled by theCumberland River. The Confederate forts Henry (on the Tennessee) and Donelson (on the Cumberland) were only 12 miles (19 km) apart. General Ulyssess S. Grant Federal army, accompanied by gunboats, struck southward in the Tennessee River valley in February 1862. The Confederate forces fell back to Corinth, Mississippi, and the Federal troops moved almost to Tennessee state’s southern boundary, where the Battle of Shiloh (Pittsburgh Landing) was fought (April 6–7, 1862).

The development of the river system as an important inland waterways began in 1933 with the establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority. The Tennessee now has a series of locks and reservoirs impounded by multipurpose dams for navigation, power, and flood control. 

We are heading into another anchorage just north of Shiloh National Park where some 23,000 men perished in the civil war. At mile marker 154 we drop the hook at Beech Creek Island and find our charts and the water level are similar. The purposely lowered levels are not a problem. We anchor in about 25 feet and put out a long chain. The winds are soft and the current keeps us in line. It is another glorious night on anchor as I write and Scott pulls out manuals and reads on the back deck.

  One Response to “Harmon Creek Anchorage, KY – Beech Creek Anchorage, KY.”

  1. You should become a history teacher : ).
    Cute little Stella picture. Love seeing the sun shining on your travels.

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