Tag Archives: Tennessee River

The Hana Chronicles: Month 9, Day 26

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Posted by on in children, Education, Family, Hiking and Nature, Historical, Personal Values, Social, Travel

October 17, 2026- Hana and I went on a long walk this afternoon, as her Mom was taking an hour or so for herself, and it was a beautiful day. Hana enjoyed the walk, but after a while, she wanted to get out of the stroller and stretch. It will be a grand thing, when she can wear socks and shoes, and balance being in a stroller with walking around.

Hana is noticing what other children are doing. She was delighted by a girl of about five, who was walking her much larger dog, and pretty much making it mind. I think my granddaughter will be a rather authoritative pet minder, one of these days. She certainly communicates her feelings quite forcefully.

HANA’S NOTE- I had a huge breakfast today. I didn’t have much room at lunch time, but by dinner, I was very hungry again. So that was another big meal.

EXPANDING CIRCLES: Tennessee-The Volunteer State, along with Kentucky, extends from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian Mountains. I have been to all parts of Tennessee, visiting about a dozen times. The first time was in 1979, spending an unusually snowy, blustery nigh, in Memphis, sitting by a fireplace and thoroughly enjoying catfish and hush puppies, at an “all-you -can-eat” hotel restaurant. A dear friend lives in Crossville, halfway between Nashville and Knoxville. Other good friends live in each of those cities, and an extended family member lived for a time in Chattanooga. I’ve always enjoyed my visits to the Volunteer State.

The Turf- Tennessee’s western third is riparian plain, part of the Mississippi Delta. The central part of the state is rim country nearly surrounding Nashville, which itself sits in a low-lying Basin. The Cumberland Plateau rises to the east of the Highland Rim. The peaks and valleys of the Appalachian region. including the Blue Ridge, borders the Cumberland, to the east. Tennessee is drained by the Mississippi, Tennessee,Clinch, Cumberland, Buffalo and Holston Rivers, as well as their tributaries.

First Nations- Tennessee is the ancestral home of the Cherokee, Shawnee, Chickasaw, Quapaw and Yuchi peoples. Other tribes found homes among the Cherokee, at different periods of the adjustment to the coming of Europeans to the middle part of North America. Mound builders pre-dated those nations, leaving their earthworks behind, most prominently at Pinson Mounds, Mound Bottom, Toqua, Citico and Old Stone Fort.

With European, and then American, expansion, came pressure on the nations which lived east of Cumberland Gap, such as the Cherokee. These tribes then move in on their neighbours, the Yuchi and Shawnee, pushing them west and south. The Cherokee, and later the Chickasaw, were moved out of Tennessee in the 1830s, as part of the forced relocation to what is now Oklahoma. Today, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw have a small community in Lauderdale County, west Tennessee. Native people have re-settled in Nashville and Knoxville. There are, however, no other organized First Nations communities in the state.

Where I most feel at home- Crossville, Wildersville, Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Shiloh

Where I most feel at peace- Fall Creek Falls, Natchez Trace, Nashville’s Parthenon, Crossville,

NEXT: Mississippi

Wide Murals and A Long Market

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Posted by on in Community, Historical, Spiritual, Travel

July 23, 2017, Paducah, KY-

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This old river town, now also a regional hub for the Confluence- (people in Cairo, IL refer to Paducah as “town”), has two places that drew me back, all the way from last year, when I passed this way after dark, and ended up in Marion, IL.  The first is the Ohio Riverfront.  Middle America has done well, in making the most of its waterways, both the great rivers and the Great Lakes.  Retaining walls are accompanied by walkways and adorned by murals.  Public events, ever with music, are a given- especially in summer.  This is Paducah, named by William Clark, who gave the local Comanches the name Padoukas- a corruption of the Kaw term for them: Padoka.

The Ohio is joined by the Tennessee River, not far from here.    Then, as you may recall, the Ohio itself conjoins the Missisissippi, a few miles further west, at Cairo.  Thus, one might set sail in Huntsville, Alabama and make one’s way clear to Billings, Montana, or Wichita, Kansas, with clever navigation.

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The preacher man was too busy singing, to introduce himself, but he is apparently a local fixture, as many of those in their lawn chairs said they’d be at his gospel festival, a few days into August.  He covered all the timeless classics, and got me to croak along, on a few of them.

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The triptych mural, on Paducah’s floodwall, covers different aspects of the river’s heritage.  This one, of the riverboat, looks at a period of time that fascinated me, as a child.  The gamblers and the roustabouts of the early river communities were among my favourite characters, on shows like “Daniel Boone.”

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River traffic made Paducah prosper, in the mid-Nineteenth Century, even into the beginnings of the Rail Era.  The solid buildings still maintain a bustling downtown.  Even on Sunday evening, when most everything was closed, I got a sense of the city’s vitality.

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Every Midwestern town, it seems, has a gazebo, and Paducah is no exception.  This gazebo spawned its own park, and Garden Club.

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Should I pass this way again, I would make certain to come when the long Market Hall is open.  Growing up with Boston’s Faneuil Hall, I am perfectly content spending hours in a public market.

Along Broadway Street are some ever-enticing abstract murals.

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Lastly, this evening introduced me to St. Clair Court, the site of a three-story wooden hotel and theater, across from the Market.  It was destroyed by fire, in 1895.  Adjacent to it is this brick and mortar wonder.

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So, there is a taste of one of Kentucky’s interesting river towns.  Like any region, the Ohio Valley would offer a full experience to the discerning and curious traveler.  Alas, I must head westward, though through other interesting areas, to my own exhilarating Home Base.

NEXT:  A Tale of Two Campgrounds