Hatchie

The Hatchie winds from northern Mississippi across western Tennessee to the Mississippi River. Its slow course passes through wooded floodplains, swamps and bends cut off from the main channel. The river retains a Chickasaw name, recalling the people who claimed and used the country before American settlement spread west of the Tennessee River.

In 1818 the Chickasaw ceded their claim to this region to the United States. Settlers established Hatchie Town beside the river, where it became a temporary county seat in 1823. A new town was laid out farther south and named Bolivar, after the South American liberator. A ferry crossed the broad river bottoms, while boats carried goods along the Hatchie toward the Mississippi. The river continued to serve the settlement as a route for trade.