Topography and Migration, Obion County, Tennessee

Area and Topography

• County area is about 560 square miles, 1/3 hilly, 2/3 rolling and level.
• Thirty-six acres once under Reelfoot Lake, Lake has receded, acreage isn’t available.

Migration

• First settlers arrived in wagon trains.
• They cut trees, built rafts and floated their wagons across the Tennessee River.
• Flatboat travel via the Cumberland-Ohio-Mississippi and up the Obion River was impossible because the mouth of the and logs.
• Some settlers came across Kentucky and settled near or on the Kentucky-Tennessee border.

Border Counties

• On the north by Fulton County, Kentucky
• On the east by Weakley County, Tennessee
• On the south by Gibson and Dyer Counties, Tennessee
• On the west by the Mississippi River until Lake County was formed in 1870

Border Cities

• Fulton and South Fulton on the Kentucky-Tennessee Border
• Kenton on the Obion-Gibson County Line
• Trimble in Dyer County abuts and may cross over the southern border of Obion County.

Indian Mounds and Artifacts

• Mounds at the Turnpike in Obion County and other artifacts indicate that the Chickasaw and Indians hunted the area because of the good water source and a natural salt lake ground.

Tennessee Delta

• 100-mile stretch between the Mississippi River flowing south and the Tennessee River flowing north.
• The head waters of the Obion, Forked Deer, and Hatchie rivers are a short distance from the Tennessee River and flow west into the Mississippi.

Western Gateway

• Obion and Lake Counties became a gateway to Missouri and Arkansas.
• Border State searches could possibly locate a missing link.