Kentucky Bend

The Kentucky Bend ( also New Madrid Bend to the city on the opposite bank ) is a peninsula on the Mississippi River and an exclave of the State of Kentucky. It is the only mainland - exclave U.S. State at all. The region has an area of 68.3 km ² (of which 45.5 km ² of land ) and according to the last census ( 2000) 17 inhabitants.

The exclave is surrounded on three sides by the Mississippi River, which forms the frontier of the State of Missouri. In the south of the Kentucky Bend adjacent to Tennessee. The area was the great New Madrid earthquake of 1811, which also changed the course of the Mississippi here concerned. At this time the river was already the border between the states of Kentucky and Tennessee in the east and Missouri to the west, and a line along 36 ° 30 'N formed the border between Kentucky and Tennessee. For more accurate land surveys in the 19th century, it became clear that this line the Mississippi now repeatedly cruised and therefore the Peninsula was not a part of Tennessee. Since then, the Kentucky Bend is part of Fulton County.

It is the westernmost point of the state of Kentucky. On the banks of the Mississippi is also the 78 m asl (257 feet) lowest point of the state. The most important link in the area is Tennessee State Route 22, The United States Census Bureau leads the exclave as Fulton County West CCD.

In 1870, about 300 people lived in the Kentucky Bend. At that time the peninsula was an important growing area of cotton due to the very fertile soil. Just east of the enclave was located the island of Iceland no. 10, a theater of the American Civil War.

The mailing address is Tiptonville, Tennessee.