Chickasaw Bluff
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The term Chickasaw Bluff refers to high ground rising 50 to 200 feet above the flood plain between Memphis, Tennessee and Hickman, Fulton County, Kentucky. Composed of eroded Pleistocene loess over Pliocene glacial gravel, they are slide prone. This elevation is named for the Chickasaw, who by their possession of the elevation impeded French river traffic in the 18th Century.
At the border between Kentucky and Tennessee, the left bank of the Mississippi River strikes the western edge of these uplands, exposing four banks of up to thirty feet in height. These Chickasaw Bluffs were numbered by rivermen from one to four starting from the north.
- First Chickasaw Bluff: Above Fulton, Lauderdale County, Tennessee.
- Second Chickasaw Bluff: At Randolph, Tipton County, Tennessee.
- Third Chickasaw Bluff: At the line between Tipton and Shelby counties in Tennessee.
- Fourth Chickasaw Bluff: Below the mouth of the Wolf River at Memphis. This was the site of the French Fort Assumption, used as a base against the Chickasaw in the abortive Campaign of 1739.
The French Fort Prudhomme, or Prud'homme, was established at one of these river bluffs by La Salle in 1682. This may have been at the Second Chickasaw Bluff, although all of the others have been variously cited as well. This location was also the meeting place of d'Artaguette, Chicagou and de Vincennes before their ill fated 1736 attack against the Chickasaw.
The Chickasaw Bluff secured Memphis from river floods, while a rare shelf of sandstone below provided a secure boat landing, making this the "only site for a commercial mart" between the Ohio River and Vicksburg, Mississippi.
