Island No. 20/Cottonwood Point/Booth Point, Tennessee/Linwood Bend

Island No. 20/Cottonwood Point/Booth Point, Tennessee/Linwood Bend. Panel #57 Mississippi Riverwalk. , A) Island No. 20 , Mile 8290 AHP, The wandering geography of Island No. 20 illustrates the Mississippi River's erratic nature. Navigation charts of 1801 show the island lying near the west bank. Later, the river moved and placed the island close to the Tennessee bank. Then, once again the river changed paths, leaving Island No. 20, still Tennessee territory, permanently attached to the Missouri shore., B) Cottonwood Point , Mile 832.9 AHP, The tall trees that gave this point its name were abundant along this part of the river, and several nearby wood yards provided steamboats with cottonwoods for fuel. Early settlers used the easily split timber for their cabins and stockades. Under good conditions the trees grow very fast, up to seven feet a year, and a number of cottonwood plantations have been established in the Lower Mississippi Valley to produce pulpwood., C) Booth Point, Tennessee , Mile 839.0 AHP, In 1860, a well known steamer, A.T. Lacy, was just approaching Booth Point when it caught fire. The pilot quickly ran the boat to shore, but many passengers panicked, jumped overboard, and drowned. The boat's clerk grabbed the owner, A.T. Lacy's daughter, went over the rail and swam for shore with the girl on his back. They were just short of the bank when a large tree floated around the bend, caught the child's clothing and swept her under. The village of Booth Point disappeared at the end of the steamboat era., D) Linwood Bend , Mile 840.0 AHP, This dangerous curve was a graveyard for wrecked steamboats in the mid-1800's. It was named for the Linwood, which sank at the head of the bend in 1847. An 1847 map shows four wrecked boats in the channel, numerous sandbars, and an enormous pile of driftwood at the top of the bend.