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Black Warrior River
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The Black Warrior River is a tributary of the Tombigbee River, approximately 178 mi (286 km) long, in west central Alabama in the United States. It drains an area of 6,275 sq mi (16,250 kmē) with its upper watershed encompassing a forested area of high bluffs at the extreme southern end of the Appalachian Mountains north and west of the city of Birmingham. In its lower reaches it flows across the forests of the coastal plain. It is impounded along nearly its entire course in a chain of narrow reservoirs for hydroelectricity, drinking water, and as an aid to navigation.
river is formed approximately 25 mi (40 km) west of Birmingham by the confluence of the Mulberry and Locust forks, which join as arms of Bankhead Lake, a narrow reservoir on the upper river formed by the Bankhead Lock and Dam.
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Encyclopedia
The Black Warrior River is a tributary of the Tombigbee River, approximately 178 mi (286 km) long, in west central Alabama in the United States. It drains an area of 6,275 sq mi (16,250 kmē) with its upper watershed encompassing a forested area of high bluffs at the extreme southern end of the Appalachian Mountains north and west of the city of Birmingham. In its lower reaches it flows across the forests of the coastal plain. It is impounded along nearly its entire course in a chain of narrow reservoirs for hydroelectricity, drinking water, and as an aid to navigation.
Description
The river is formed approximately 25 mi (40 km) west of Birmingham by the confluence of the Mulberry and Locust forks, which join as arms of Bankhead Lake, a narrow reservoir on the upper river formed by the Bankhead Lock and Dam. Bankhead Lake and Holt Lake, formed by the Holt Lock and Dam, encompass the entire course of the river for its upper 50 mi (80 km) stretching southeast into central Tuscaloosa County, northwest of Tuscaloosa. The Black Warrior flows westward past downtown Tuscaloosa, the largest city on the river, then flows generally south in a highly meandering course, joining the Tombigbee from the northeast at Demopolis. The lower 30 mi (48 km) of the river are part of the narrow Lake Demopolis.
Early Development
To develop the coal industries of Central Alabama the Federal Government in the 1880s began building a system of dressed rock lock and dams that concluded in 17 impoundments. The first 16 locks and dams were constructed of Sandstone quarried from the banks of the river and the river bed itself. Huge blocks of stone were hand shaped with hammer and chisel to construct the locks and dams, and a few of these dams were in service until the 1960s. One example of the craftsmanship of the stone locks is at University Park on Jack Warner Parkway in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The bank side wall of Lock 3 (Later renumbered Lock 12 and today largely disassembled) is the last remnant of the old dams made of this dressed rock from the 1880s-90s. A concrete dam completed in 1915, Lock 17 (John Hollis Bankhead Lock and Dam) is the last and only existing of the original dams, and has been modernized over the years with the addition of spillway gates, and replacement of the two stage lift with a larger single lift lock. Lock 17 and Holt Lock and Dam also have hydro generating plants owned by Alabama Power suppling electricity for the Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, Alabama areas. This lock and dam system made the Black Warrior River navigable along its entire course and it is one of the longest channelized waterways in the United States forming part of the extended system that link the Gulf of Mexico to Birmingham, Alabama. Birmingham became the "Pittsburgh of the South", shipping Iron and steel products via the Black Warrior River through the Panama Canal to the West Coast and the world. Coal is barged to Mobile and is shipped throughout the world today making Mobile the largest coal port in the South. Coal mining and production in West Central Alabama is one of the larger employers and will continue be very important to the energy needs of the World.
The Black Warrior River receives the North River from the north approximately 1 mi (1.6) northwest of Tuscaloosa. North River was dammed in 1968 to form Lake Tuscaloosa and is the main source for drinking water for the City of Tuscaloosa and the City of Northport Alabama and Tuscaloosa County as a whole.
Variant names of the Black Warrior River include Apotaka Hacha River, Bance River, Chocta River, Pafallaya River, Patagahatche River, Tascaloosa River, Tuskaloosa River, and Warrior River. The River has been called two names at the same time in history. Warrior River for the river up stream of the City of Tuscaloosa and Black Warrior River below the City of Tuscaloosa. It is still referred by both names today by the public, depending where you are along its length.
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