Tiptonville, Tennessee/Bixby Towhead

Tiptonville, Tennessee/Bixby Towhead. Panel #60 Mississippi Riverwalk. , A) Tiptonville, Tennessee , Mile 872.8 AHP , Its ridge-top location has kept Tiptonville dry through every flood since it was founded in the early 1800s. It was a flourishing little river town by the beginning of the Civil War, and served as a Confederacy supply depot for the garrison at Island No. 10. After the island fell, the town surrendered. Sometime after the war, the Mississippi deposited a large sandbar in front of the town, and today Tiptonville lies more than a mile from the river. It is the center of commerce for the Reelfoot Lake recreational area., B) Bixby Towhead , Mile 873.9 AHP , This sandbar was likely named for Captain Horace Bixby, a veteran river pilot of the 1800s. Bixby was piloting an old steamer named the Paul Jones, in 1855, when he took on a young apprentice named Sam Clemens. For a year and a half, Clemens was Bixby’s “cub pilot,” learning the secrets of the river and the skills needed to navigate it. Years later, when Sam Clemens had become Mark Twain, he immortalized Captain Bixby in his autobiographical book Life on the Mississippi.