The Beech River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed June 8, 2011 stream draining the east-central portion of

West Tennessee West Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions (Tennessee), Grand Divisions of the U.S. state of Tennessee that roughly comprises the western quarter of the state. The region includes 21 counties between the Tennessee River, Tennessee and Miss ...

in the United States. The Beech rises about northwest of Lexington, Tennessee. In the same area are the headwaters of two other West Tennessee rivers, the Big Sandy River and the Middle Fork of the

Forked Deer River The Forked Deer River system is the main drainage of the central portion of West Tennessee. Locals pronounce the first word of the river's name with two syllables, as in “Forkéd” (). The Forked Deer consists of various streams designated ...

. The Big Sandy, like the Beech, is part of the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names, ...

system, whereas the Forked Deer system drains into the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. The Beech River was named for the

beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engle ...

timber along its course.

Hydrography

The Beech flows southeast into the town of Lexington and then primarily eastward. As is typical of most major streams in West Tennessee, much of the lower course was the subject of a channelization project in the mid-20th century conducted largely for agricultural purposes; this has resulted in a considerable loss of

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

. The stream crosses into

Decatur County Decatur County is the name of various past and present counties in the United States, all named for Stephen Decatur: *Decatur County, Georgia *Decatur County, Indiana *Decatur County, Iowa *Decatur County, Kansas *Decatur County, Tennessee *Decatu ...

, flowing in between

Parsons Parsons may refer to: Places In the United States: * Parsons, Kansas, a city * Parsons, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Parsons, Tennessee, a city * Parsons, West Virginia, a town * Camp Parsons, a Boy Scout camp in the state of Washingt ...

and Decaturville. The large

embayment A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

formed at the mouth of the Beech is the result of the backwaters of the

Kentucky Dam Kentucky Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River on the county line between Livingston and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of Kentucky. The dam is the lowermost of nine dams on the river owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Auth ...

project many miles downstream on the Tennessee; the embayment reaches the outskirts of both towns.

Dams

The Beech River system is somewhat unusual in that it and all of its major tributaries (a total of eight) are impounded, one of them twice, primarily by dams built in the mid 20th century as part of the

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina ...

's Beech River Project—Beech, Cedar, Dogwood, Lost Creek (which has no permanent reservoir), Pin Oak, Pine, Redbud, and Sycamore.TVA's Sycamore Reservoir page
Tva.gov. Retrieved on November 20, 2011. The dams are purely for purposes of

flood control Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters."Flood Control", MSN Encarta, 2008 (see below: Further reading). Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water level ...

and

recreation Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasur ...

, though it is possible that the relatively small volume of water they store could result in some minimal aid to

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...

on the Tennessee under some conditions. Unlike most other TVA dams, none of the Beech River dams are used for

hydropower Hydropower (from el, ὕδωρ, "water"), also known as water power, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by energy transformation, converting the Pot ...

, since the small size of the streams impounded and their relative lack of fall would make power generation impractical. Some of the lakes created are located in

Natchez Trace State Park Natchez Trace State Park is a state park located in western Tennessee, in the United States. It was named for the historic Natchez Trace woodland path, an important wilderness trail during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The park covers m ...

, the largest of the

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

s; though located many miles west of both the

Natchez Trace Parkway The Natchez Trace Parkway is a national parkway in the southeastern United States that commemorates the historic Natchez Trace and preserves sections of that original trail. Its central feature is a two-lane road that extends 444 miles (715 ...

and the historic

Natchez Trace The Natchez Trace, also known as the Old Natchez Trace, is a historic forest trail within the United States which extends roughly from Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi, linking the Cumberland, Tennessee, and Mississippi rivers. ...

, this area is named for a branch of the historic Trace that bore that name in the area.

Notes

External links

TVA's Tennessee River system main page
{{authority control Rivers of Tennessee Tennessee Valley Authority Rivers of Decatur County, Tennessee Rivers of Henderson County, Tennessee

Hydrography

Dams

See also

Notes

External links