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Kentucky Bend
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The Kentucky Bend, variously called the New Madrid Bend, Madrid Bend, Bessie Bend or Bubbleland is an exclave of Fulton County, Kentucky, in the United States. It is a piece of land on the inside of an oxbow loop meander of the Mississippi River and is completely surrounded by the states of Tennessee and Missouri. It is the extreme southwestern corner of Kentucky. As of the 2000 census the population was 17 persons in this area, officially known by the United States Census Bureau as Fulton County West Census County Division (CCD), a subdivision of Fulton County.
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Encyclopedia
The Kentucky Bend, variously called the New Madrid Bend, Madrid Bend, Bessie Bend or Bubbleland is an exclave of Fulton County, Kentucky, in the United States. It is a piece of land on the inside of an oxbow loop meander of the Mississippi River and is completely surrounded by the states of Tennessee and Missouri. It is the extreme southwestern corner of Kentucky. As of the 2000 census the population was 17 persons in this area, officially known by the United States Census Bureau as Fulton County West Census County Division (CCD), a subdivision of Fulton County. The peninsula includes the lowest point in the state of Kentucky, at the banks of the Mississippi River. The only highway into the area is Tennessee State Route 22.
The Kentucky Bend covers a land area of 45.472 km˛ (17.557 sq mi), according to the Census Bureau. The exclave was created due to the shift in course of the Mississippi after the 1812 New Madrid earthquake. Surveyors marking the boundary between Kentucky and Tennessee had estimated where their line would meet the Mississippi; later, more detailed surveys revealed the division of the loop. The western border of Kentucky is designated as the Mississippi River, as is the eastern border of Missouri — thus the creation of a "notch" for Kentucky, but not for Tennessee.
The state of Tennessee contested the inclusion of the Kentucky Bend in the state of Kentucky, and it was legally part of Obion County, Tennessee, until at least 1848, but Tennessee eventually dropped its claim.
Due to its extremely fertile soil, Kentucky Bend was once a major cotton-producing area. The 1870 census found more than 300 residents. In The West Tennessee Farm edited by Marvin Downing (University of Tennessee at Martin Press, 1979), Norman L. Parks reports that in 1880 there was a population of 303, of whom 18 were African American. By 1900, there were "large numbers of Negroes in the Bend" to plant and harvest the cotton.
This area of the Mississippi River, from just east at "Island Number Ten" around to the town of New Madrid, Missouri, was the site of a Civil War battle from February 28 to April 8 1862, the Battle of Island Number Ten.
In Mark Twain's book Life on the Mississippi, he reports on the six-decade long feud between the Darnell and Watson families and other elements of life in the Bend. "In no part of the South has the vendetta flourished more briskly, or held out longer between warring families, than in this particular region,” he wrote. Twain continues:
The mailing address of the area is Tiptonville, Tennessee.
In April 1981, author Allen Anthony wrote an article for The Filson Club Quarterly entitled "Kentucky Bend: A Struggle for Political Identity".
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