Yocona River is a

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

. It is a tributary of the

Tallahatchie River The Tallahatchie River is a river in Mississippi which flows from Tippah County, through Tallahatchie County, to Leflore County, where it joins the Yalobusha River to form the Yazoo River. The river is navigable for about . At Money, Mississipp ...

. The fish species '' Etheostoma faulkneri'' (Yoknapatawpha darter) is endemic to headwater streams of the Yocona River watershed, being found nowhere else in the world. In Yalobusha County, the river is impounded by an earthen dam, near the community of Enid, creating

Enid Lake Enid Lake is a lake that is located mostly in Yalobusha County in the U.S. state of Mississippi. Parts of it extend into Panola and Lafayette counties. Common fish species include crappie, largemouth bass, catfish and bream. Enid Lake holds th ...

, with that lake's waters stretching as far as the town of Water Valley.

Name

''Yocona'' is a name derived from the

Chickasaw language The Chickasaw language (, ) is a Native American language of the Muskogean family. It is agglutinative and follows the word order pattern of subject–object–verb (SOV). The language is closely related to, though perhaps not entirely mutually ...

meaning "land". The

Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal governm ...

settled on "Yocona River" as the river's official name and spelling in 1912. According to the

Geographic Names Information System The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories, Antarctica, and the associated states of ...

, the Yocona River has also been known as: *Yackoney River *Yacony Creek *Yanekney River *Yocana River *Yocany River *Yoccona River *Yochnapafa Creek *Yockany River *Yockhapatalfa River *Yockinapatapha River *Yockna River *Yockney River *Yocona River Canal *Yoconie River *Yohnapatapna River *Yokoney River The Yocona River was referred to as the

Yoknapatawpha Yoknapatawpha County () is a fictional Mississippi county created by the American author William Faulkner, largely based upon and inspired by Lafayette County, Mississippi, and its county seat of Oxford (which Faulkner renamed "Jefferson"). Faulk ...

River by

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most of ...

References

Rivers of Mississippi Rivers of Tallahatchie County, Mississippi Rivers of Panola County, Mississippi Rivers of Yalobusha County, Mississippi Rivers of Lafayette County, Mississippi Rivers of Pontotoc County, Mississippi Mississippi placenames of Native American origin {{Mississippi-river-stub