wolf river gary bridgman for holy apostles

Gary Bridgman, volunteer

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Perceptions Is this how you experience the Wolf River? It’s how I did till I was 30.

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I Remember Raleigh, by Mary Winslow Chapman, 1977

Standing today on the Wolf River bridge at Raleigh and looking down into the muddy water below, we seem to see nothing more than an ugly, man-made drainage ditch of no importance to anyone. But to make such an estimate is to overlook a vital part of the early history of West Tennessee and to be most ungrateful to this constant little stream which made Memphis a port city and put Raleigh where it is today.

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LaGrange, Tennessee

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Riviere a Margot (Wolf) Detail from a map by Ignace Francois Broutin, 1740

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Mississippian civilization

Chickasaw

Red wolf, the river’s namesake

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Bienville’s Chickasaw Campaign of 1740

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Fort San Fernando de las Barrancas, 1795

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1824: Wolf declared navigable up to Moscow by Tennessee General Assembly.

1840: Tennessee General Assembly declares it not navigable (probably in favor of railroad interests.

1844: The flat boat Forlorn Hope carries 83 bales of cotton from Moscow to Memphis.

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Wolf River Water Works (discontinued in 1888 in favor of artesian wells)

1962: Digging diversion channel, creating a new mouth for the Wolf at the north end of Mud Island.

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1964: Channelization of the Wolf from its mouth to Germantown (Gray’s Creek) is completed.

1970: Wolf River pronounced "dead" around Memphis.

1985: Wolf River Conservancy organized.

1987: Shelby County government first proposes a “Wolf River Greenway” concept.

Canoeing downstream of Gray’s Creek, Germantown

Surveying head-cut erosion in Collierville

Ghost River section of the Wolf

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Wolf River Greenway

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Gray’s Creek

Wolf River

The 1964 channelization of the Wolf ended at Gray’s Creek in Germantown. The road on the far right is Houston Levee.

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Wolf River Restoration - Collierville

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Wolf River Restoration - Collierville

President’s Island

Memphis

Mississippi meander-belt shifts since 800 CE