Upper Overlook

Upper Overlook. . , You are looking down on a slow-moving slough of the Tennessee River. Two islands are between you and the river's main channel. The one on the left is Dickinson Island, home of Knoxville's Island Airport opened in 1930. The island is named in honor of Perez Dickinson, who built a home near here in 1846. Legend has it that his cousin, poet Emily Dickinson, wrote some of her poems on visits to the area. H.P. and Alice Ijams bought the property you are standing on from the Perez Dickinson estate in 1910. , , To the right is Otter Island, so called because river otters have been seen on it. The aquatic mammals had disappeared from the region because of over-trapping. Otters were reintroduced in the early 1990s. Today, they can be seen swimming along the slough at twilight. , , Look for Canada geese, great blue herons and, in the winter, pied-billed grebes. Also watch for prothonotary warblers that nest along the shoreline in the summer. , , Most of the trees that surround the overlook are sugar maples and the vine growing up the large one to your left is trumpet creeper, a hummingbird favorite.