Tensaw River | |
---|---|
Location | |
Country | United States |
State | Alabama |
County | Baldwin County |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | |
• coordinates | 31°04′05″N87°57′47″W / 31.06795°N 87.96306°W |
Mouth | |
• coordinates | 30°41′07″N88°00′25″W / 30.68519°N 88.00695°W Coordinates: 30°41′07″N88°00′25″W / 30.68519°N 88.00695°W |
Length | 41 miles (66 km) |
The Tensaw River is a river in Baldwin County, Alabama.
The name Tensaw is derived from the historic indigenous Taensa people. [1]
It is a distributary of the Mobile River, approximately 41 miles (66 km) long. It is formed as a bayou of the Mobile approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) south of the formation of the Mobile by the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, at 31°04′05″N87°57′47″W / 31.06795°N 87.96306°W .
The Tensaw flows alongside the Mobile and Middle rivers, with the Tensaw being the easternmost flowing river. There are numerous back channels extending off the main channel into Baldwin County. It enters Mobile Bay at 30°41′07″N88°00′25″W / 30.68519°N 88.00695°W , near Blakeley and Pinto islands and approximately 1.8 miles (2.9 km) east of downtown Mobile. [2]
The Alabama River, in the U.S. state of Alabama, is formed by the Tallapoosa and Coosa rivers, which unite about 6 miles (10 km) north of Montgomery, near the town of Wetumpka.
Mobile Bay is a shallow inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, lying within the state of Alabama in the United States. Its mouth is formed by the Fort Morgan Peninsula on the eastern side and Dauphin Island, a barrier island on the western side. The Mobile River and Tensaw River empty into the northern end of the bay, making it an estuary. Several smaller rivers also empty into the bay: Dog River, Deer River, and Fowl River on the western side of the bay, and Fish River on the eastern side. Mobile Bay is the fourth largest estuary in the United States with a discharge of 62,000 cubic feet (1,800 m3) of water per second. Annually, and often several times during the summer months, the fish and crustaceans will swarm the shallow coastline and shore of the bay. This event, appropriately named a jubilee, draws a large crowd because of the abundance of fresh, easily caught seafood.
Baldwin County is a county located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Alabama, on the Gulf coast. It is one of only two counties in Alabama that border the Gulf of Mexico, along with Mobile County. As of the 2020 census, the population was 231,767. The county seat is Bay Minette. The county is named after senator Abraham Baldwin, though he never lived in what is now Alabama.
Escambia County is a county located in the south central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 36,757. Its county seat is Brewton.
Washington County is a county located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 15,388. The county seat is Chatom. The county was named in honor of George Washington, the first President of the United States. It is a dry county, with the exception of Chatom. In September 2018 The United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) added Washington County to the Mobile, Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is also part of the larger Mobile-Daphne-Fairhope, AL Combined Statistical Area.
Bay Minette is a city in and the county seat of Baldwin County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 8,044.
Loxley is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 1,632. It is part of the Daphne-Fairhope-Foley metropolitan area. Loxley is becoming a popular location for the expansion of the suburbs from Daphne and Spanish Fort, Alabama, because it is served by an Interstate 10 exit and is almost directly between the cities of Mobile, Alabama, and Pensacola, Florida.
Spanish Fort is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States, located on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. The 2020 census lists the population of the city as 10,049. It is a suburb of Mobile and is part of the Daphne-Fairhope-Foley metropolitan area.
The Tombigbee River is a tributary of the Mobile River, approximately 200 mi (325 km) long, in the U.S. states of Mississippi and Alabama. Together with the Alabama, it merges to form the short Mobile River before the latter empties into Mobile Bay on the Gulf of Mexico. The Tombigbee watershed encompasses much of the rural coastal plain of western Alabama and northeastern Mississippi, flowing generally southward. The river provides one of the principal routes of commercial navigation in the southern United States, as it is navigable along much of its length through locks and connected in its upper reaches to the Tennessee River via the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.
The Mobile River is located in southern Alabama in the United States. Formed out of the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, the approximately 45-mile-long (72 km) river drains an area of 44,000 square miles (110,000 km2) of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. Its drainage basin is the fourth-largest of primary stream drainage basins entirely in the United States. The river has historically provided the principal navigational access for Alabama. Since construction of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, it also provides an alternative route into the Ohio River watershed.
The Alabama red-bellied cooter or Alabama red-bellied turtle, is native to Alabama. It belongs to the turtle family Emydidae, the pond turtles. It is the official reptile of the state of Alabama.
The Bartram Trail follows the approximate route of 18th-century naturalist William Bartram’s southern journey from March 1773 to January 1777. Bartram explored much of the territory which is now the states of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee.
Interstate 10 (I-10) is a part of the Interstate Highway System that runs from Santa Monica, California, to Jacksonville, Florida. In Alabama, the Interstate Highway runs 66.269 miles (106.650 km) from the Mississippi state line near Grand Bay east to the Florida state line at the Perdido River. I-10 is the primary east–west highway of the Gulf Coast region of Alabama. The highway connects Mobile, the largest city in South Alabama, with Pascagoula, Mississippi, to the west and Pensacola, Florida, to the east. Within the state, the highway connects Mobile and Mobile County with the Baldwin County communities of Daphne and Fairhope. I-10 connects Mobile and Baldwin County by crossing the northern end of Mobile Bay and the southern end of the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta via the George Wallace Tunnel in Mobile and the Jubilee Parkway viaduct system between Mobile and Daphne.
The Mobile–Tensaw River Delta is the largest river delta and wetland in Alabama. It encompasses approximately 260,000 acres (110,000 ha) in a 40-by-10-mile area and is the second largest delta in the contiguous United States.
The Spanish River is a brackish distributary river that forms part of the border between Baldwin and Mobile counties in Alabama. It is approximately 8 miles (13 km) long and is influenced by tides. It begins at the northernmost tip of Blakeley Island, where it diverges from the Mobile River, at 30.772°N 88.0222°W. From there it flows along the eastern edge of Blakeley and Pinto islands, and discharges into Mobile Bay south of Pinto Island, at 30.665°N 88.021°W.
The Middle River is a distributary river in Baldwin County, Alabama, which forms part of the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta. It branches off from the Tensaw River at 31.021°N 87.950°W. From there it flows southward for approximately 9.5 miles (15.3 km) before rejoining the Tensaw at 30.923°N 87.913°W.
The Apalachee River is a distributary river in Baldwin County, Alabama that forms part of the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta. It branches off from the Tensaw River at 30.74333°N 87.93194°W. From there it flows southward for approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) before emptying into Mobile Bay at 30.66074°N 87.95860°W. Apalachee comes from the Hitchiti word apalahchi, which means "on the other side".
The Blakeley River is a distributary river in Baldwin County, Alabama that forms part of the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta. It branches off from the Apalachee River at 30.69972°N 87.93361°W. From there it flows southward for approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) before emptying into Mobile Bay at 30.64769°N 87.92749°W.
Gravine Island is a small, sparsely populated island in Baldwin County, Alabama. It is found in the Tensaw River about four miles (6.4 km) north of Interstate 10 and Mobile Bay.
Hurricane is an unincorporated community in Baldwin County, Alabama on the Tensaw River about 12 miles (19 km) north of Spanish Fort, Alabama.