Wolf River (Tennessee)

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The Wolf River is a small alluvial river of West Tennessee and North Mississippi, whose confluence with the Mississippi River was the site of various Chickasaw, French, Spanish and American communities and forts that eventually became Memphis, Tennessee.

Contents

1 Location
2 Wildlife
3 History

3.1 Timeline

4 Identified public benefits
5 See also
6 External links

Location

It rises in the Holly Springs National Forest at Baker's Pond in Benton County north of Ashland and flows northwest into Tennessee, draining a large portion of Memphis and northern and eastern Shelby County before entering the Mississippi River near the northern end of Mud Island, a relatively large Mississippi River island located just north of downtown Memphis on the Tennessee side of the channel.

Note: This river should not be confused with the Wolf River of Middle Tennessee which flows along the Cumberland Plateau nor should its headwaters in North Mississippi be confused with the estuarine Wolf River that flows past Pass Christian, Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico via St. Louis Bay.

Wildlife

The Wolf River area is home to deer, otter, mink, bobcat, fox, coyote, turkey and a wide variety of waterfowl. Migrating osprey, great egret, and bald eagle have been spotted along this river as well. There are Tennessee state record trees located in its bottomland forests, including a Tupelo Gum that is 17 feet in circumference. Other hardwoods include green ash, red maple, swamp chestnut oak, blackgum, and the majestic bald cypress. Native flowering plants include cardinal flower, ironweed, swamp iris, false loosestrife, spatterdock, swamp rose, blue phlox and spring cress.

Beneath the Wolf River’s surface, 25 species of freshwater mussels (unionidae) have been documented. Their dependence on good water quality makes them vulnerable to pollution.

A growing number of these species of plants and animals can be found in the urban reaches of the Wolf in Memphis, as the legacy of community action and the Clean Water Act slowly heals the degraded downstream section.

History

The Wolf River is estimated to be about 12,000 years old, formed by Midwestern glacier runoff carving the region’s soft alluvial soil. It is one of many rivers in West Tennessee and Mississippi that prompted the Chickasaw to call the region “Leaky Land.” William Faulkner, a native of the nearby Tallahatchie Basin, was inspired to describe these swampy, untamed rivers as “the thick, slow, black, unsunned streams almost without current, which once each year ceased to flow at all and then reversed, spreading, drowning the rich land and subsiding again, leaving it still richer." (from the short story "The Bear" from Go Down, Moses.) In 1997, the singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley drowned in Wolf River Harbor, which was the Wolf River's mouth until 1960.

Timeline

10,000 BCE Wolf River formed by runoff from melting glacier shelf.

1300-1700 CE Chickasaw tribe settles northern Mississippi, western Tennessee, and eastern Arkansas, replacing the dwindling population of "ancient ones" who had built mound settlements along the Wolf.

1682 French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle claims the region near the mouth of the Wolf River. The French alternately called the river Riviere de Mayot (or Margot), Riviere de Chichicha, Blackbird River, and Loup.

The original Loup was rumored to be a Delaware Indian guide who disappeared along the river while guiding the French. According to one account, both the English and Chickasaw afterwards called the river Loup in their respective languages: Wolf and Nashoba.

1740 Non-local native American scouts working for the French at Fort Assumption (Memphis) survey the Wolf as a possible military supply route from which to destroy Ackia, a Chickasaw stronghold near Tupelo that weathered an attack four years eariler. The group turned back near Germantown.

Early 1800s The Wolf River is declared navigable, from Memphis to LaGrange, by the Tennessee Assembly, which appropriated funds to remove obstructions for keel boat travel.

1825 British-born Frances Wright establishes the Nashoba Commune on the Wolf River at the present-day site of Germantown, Tennessee. The commune's purpose was to educate and emancipate slaves using proceeds from the sale of crops grown there.

1888 Memphis stops using Wolf River as its principle source of drinkingwater, switching to artesian wells, which are still recharged by the Wolf's watershed.

1960 Because of its foul odor the Wolf is dammed near its mouth and diverted into the Mississippi north of Mud Island. The section of the Wolf downstream of this channel diversion became a slackwater harbor of the Mississippi known today as Wolf River Harbor, which separates Mud Island from the Memphis "mainland."

Mid-1960s Completion of channelization of the Wolf from the Mississippi upstream to Gray's Creek, east of Germantown, Tennessee resulting in a lowered riverbed and diminished wetland habitat.

'1970 Surface drainage, sewage, and industrial pollution caused a group of scientists and environmentalists to pronounce the river "dead" around Memphis.

1985 Wolf River Conservancy founded by an alliance of conservation-minded real estate executives and local environmental advocates.

1995 "Ghost River" section of the Wolf saved from timber auction by a coordinated effort of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, local conservation activists Lucius Burch and W.S. "Babe" Howard, and the WRC.

1997 American Singer-Songwriter Jeff Buckley drowns during an evening swim in Wolf River Harbor. Jeff Buckley was in the height of his popularity, and was known for his recent album 'Grace.'

2005-2008

Wolf River Restoration Project – U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

City of Memphis- Wolf River Greenway project

"Middle Wolf" Campaign - attempted sprawl-proofing of the the western Fayette County section

Holly Springs National Forest (Mississippi) - Baker's Pond trail enhancements at Wolf's source

Identified public benefits

According to the Wolf River Conservancy, the Wolf River serves the Mid-South in four distinct ways:

Flood/Erosion Control During heavy rains, the Wolf’s floodplain and wetlands temporarily store floodwaters. When these are filled in for development, the river loses these natural release valves, causing increases in river velocity and flood height. Without an adequate floodplain, floodwaters and the erosion caused by them threaten property, transportation, and lives.

Water Quality The Memphis metropolitan area and other Mid-South communities receive drinking water from a pure underground aquifer beneath the Wolf River Basin. The Wolf’s fragile wetlands hold water long enough for it to be absorbed into the ground and serve as natural filters to cleanse polluted waters before they reach the aquifer.

Wildlife Habitat As described above, Wolf River is alive with deer, otter, mink, bobcat, fox, coyote, turkey and a wide variety of waterfowl. Migrating osprey, great egret, and bald eagle have been spotted along the river as well.

Low-Impact Recreation While civilization has long surrounded the Wolf River’s floodplain, its wetland and bottomland trails provide Mid-Southerners with scenic wilderness experiences from the Holly Springs National Forest all the way to Downtown Memphis. Hikers, runners, sportsmen, cyclists and paddlers experience nature on or near the river every day.

External links

[Wolf River Conservancy site]
[Memphis Flyer article] about canoeing the Bateman Road-to-Moscow section

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