Tombigbee
Tombigbee is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Coordinates
- 32.93°, -88.20°
About Tombigbee
The Tombigbee River is a tributary of the Mobile River, approximately 200 mi (325 km) long, in the U.S. states of Mississippi and Alabama. Together with the Alabama, it merges to form the short Mobile River before the latter empties into Mobile Bay on the Gulf of Mexico. The Tombigbee watershed encompasses much of the rural coastal plain of western Alabama and northeastern Mississippi, flowing generally southward. The river provides one of the principal routes of commercial navigation in the southern United States, as it is navigable along much of its length through locks and connected in its upper reaches to the Tennessee River via the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.
The name "Tombigbee" comes from Choctaw itumbi ikbi, meaning "box maker, coffin maker", from itumbi, "box, coffin", and ikbi, "maker". The river formed the eastern boundary of the historical Choctaw lands, from the 17th century when they coalesced as a people, to the forced Indian Removal by the United States in the 1830s.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Tombigbee River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Tombigbee in Depth
Description
The river begins in northeastern Mississippi just south of the Pharr Mounds near the northern county line of Itawamba County, at what was once known as the source of the east fork of the river. Historically, the beginning of the river was in northern Monroe County at the confluence of Town Creek (also known as West Fork Tombigbee River) and the east fork of the river.
The river flows east through Aberdeen Lake near Aberdeen, and Columbus Lake near Columbus. It flows through Aliceville Lake on the Mississippi-Alabama border, then generally SSE across western Alabama in a highly meandering course, past Gainesville and Demopolis. There it is joined from the northeast by the Black Warrior River.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Tombigbee River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Tombigbee: Key Facts
| Length | 325 km |
|---|---|
| Drainage basin | 52,300 km² |
| Source | Itawamba County |
| Mouth | Mobile River |
| Drainage system | Tombigbee River drainage basin |
| Tributaries | Noxubee River, Black Warrior River, Bashi Creek, Bassett Creek, Buttahatchee River, Oak Slush Creek, Sipsey River, Sucarnoochee River |
Facts from Wikidata Q2297877 (CC0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Tombigbee: Quick Answers
- Where is Tombigbee?
- Tombigbee is located in United States, at 32.9258° N, 88.1978° W.
- Are there dams on the Tombigbee?
- No dam on the Tombigbee is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.