Chickasaw Bluff

The Chickasaw Bluff is the high ground rising about above the Mississippi River flood plain between Fulton in Lauderdale County, Tennessee and Memphis in Shelby County, Tennessee. This elevation, shaped as four bluffs, is named for the Chickasaw people. Known in the 19th century as one of the Five Civilized Nations in the Southeast, they occupied much of this area in western Tennessee and Mississippi. By their control of the bluffs, they could impede French river traffic in the 18th century when the peoples were at war.

The Chickasaw Bluffs are a relatively recent feature. They were formed from pleistocene loess (wind blown) silt. This loess can be as thick as 70 feet and it generally tapers off as one moves eastward. The loess accumulated on top of fluvial deposits from the pliocene. These primarily consist of terrace gravels deposited from glacial runoff. Because of this, the bluffs are slide prone, especially during seismic activity. This location was also the meeting place of d'Artaguette, Chicagou and de Vincennes before their ill fated 1736 attack against the Chickasaw.

The French built their Fort Prudhomme, or Prud'homme, at one of the Chickasaw Bluffs in 1682. René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (1643–87) was a French explorer. In 1682, La Salle led a canoe expedition to explore the Mississippi River basin. The expedition landed to hunt, when one of their members went missing. The armorer Pierre Prudhomme was assumed captured by Chickasaws. La Salle decided to stay and search for the missing member. La Salle had a stockade built and named it Fort Prudhomme, after their lost man. This was the first structure built by the French in Tennessee. Days later, the missing man found his way back to La Salle. Prudhomme had lost his way while hunting. The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture suggests that the fort was constructed on the second Chickasaw Bluff near modern day Randolph. Other research mentions the third Chickasaw Bluff as the location of the fort, at the border of modern Tipton and Shelby counties. The fourth Chickasaw Bluff in modern Shelby County at Memphis is also supported as a site of Fort Prudhomme.

During the American Revolution, the Chickasaw Bluffs were fortified by the British in an attempt to control the Mississippi River. In 1780, Captain Edward Worthington was ordered by George Rogers Clark to occupy the Bluff. Worthington and his Virginia soldiers constructed Fort Jefferson to protect American interests along the Mississippi River. In 1781, Captain Worthington was ordered by General Clark to withdraw his company of soldiers and abandon Fort Jefferson, which was remote and indefensible from continuous Chickasaw attacks.

A federal fur trade post was established in 1802. It was removed to Spadra Bluff, Arkansas in 1818.

Reference is made to "the Bluff" in Johnny Cash's hit song, "Big River." The lyric's narrator describes his fruitless pursuit of a free spirited love interest from Saint Paul to Davenport, St. Louis, Memphis, Baton Rouge, and eventually New Orleans. "I found her trail in Memphis," the song relates, "but she just walked up the Bluff / She raised a few eyebrows and she went on down alone." Some internet transcribers incorrectly use the word "block" rather than "bluff," but it is beyond doubt Cash had in mind the "Bluff City's" famous geology in his musical tour of the Mississippi.