The Tallahatchie River flows 230 miles from Tippah County to Leflore County, so it was only fitting that the recent inaugural meeting of the Tallahatchie River Authority should be held in the river’s namesake county.
About two-dozen people, including appointed members of the Authority and invited guests, gathered Nov. 29 at the Charleston Arts Center in Tallahatchie County, selecting officers of the body’s eight-member board of directors.
The directors are board of supervisor appointees from each of the eight North Mississippi counties — Lafayette, Leflore, Marshall, Panola, Quitman, Tallahatchie, Tippah and Union — which the Tallahatchie and Little Tallahatchie rivers traverse or border.
The Tallahatchie County appointee, Sykes Sturdivant of Glendora, was named president of the Authority board.
Other officers are Brantley Snipes of Leflore County, vice president; Billye Jean Stroud of Union County, secretary; and Lisa Carwyle of Lafayette County, treasurer.
The Tallahatchie River Authority became an official entity July 1.
It was created through the provisions of House Bill 1323, coauthored by District 14 state Rep. Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, and District 33 state Rep. Tommy Reynolds, D-Charleston, and sponsored in the 2022 regular legislative session by those lawmakers and a few others, including District 30 state Rep. Tracey Rosebud, D-Tutwiler.
The measure empowers the Authority to develop plans for enhancing tourism, promoting economic development and fostering the use of the Tallahatchie River for the benefit of the counties along the river.
“It is our hope that the Authority will help to promote and strengthen opportunities for each Tallahatchie River county and to make best use of the God-given resource with which we have been blessed,” said Reynolds.
Creekmore said the Tallahatchie River is widely known and, therefore, the work of the Authority will be of widespread interest.
“Whatever this Authority is going to do, the nation and, in some respects, the world will be watching,” he noted.
“We have our own perception of the river locally and regionally, but outside the state of Mississippi, the world knows the Tallahatchie River with conflicting adjectives — some tragic, some romantic, some sleepy,” Creekmore said.
Through the literary works of William Faulkner, the heinous murder of Emmett Till and the civil rights movement it helped to spark, and the haunting lyrics of the Bobbie Gentry song, “Ode to Billy Joe,” the Tallahatchie River holds a lasting place in the collective psyche of the nation, he added.
In this Oct. 27, 2008, photo, the Tallahatchie River flows past Graball Landing in Tallahatchie County, where it is believed the badly beaten and decomposed body of Emmett Till was pulled from the river on Aug. 31, 1955. (Sun-Sentinel file photo by Clay McFerrin)
“You could make the argument that it’s one of the most famous rivers in our country because of these artists and because of our history,” Creekmore continued.
After he presented House Bill 1323 on the House floor, national media outlets were quick to pick up the story, he noted.
"Two days later, there were articles in The Miami Herald, The New York Post and the L.A. Times about the Tallahatchie River Authority, which opened a whole new understanding for me that the world is watching and they have an interest — good, bad, historical or whatever — in what Mississippi is going to do with the Tallahatchie River."
Parlaying that interest and familiarity into meaningful, impactful projects that can benefit the economies and lives of counties and people along the river will be the Authority’s focus.
The bill authorizes the Authority "to contract with and to be contracted with the Tennessee Valley Authority and any other agency or agencies of the federal government or of any state or subdivision thereof which may be of assistance ..." and specifically mentions "tourism, economic development, forestry, drainage and local reclamation and preservation, bank stabilization, electric power utilization, water conservation, recreation, public health and education" as particular areas of interest.
Creekmore said that because the river runs through the heart of downtown New Albany, he and other officials there have been working with the National Park Service in an effort to develop one particular river project.
"We have some plans to put in a weir dam to maybe have a constant water level through our downtown that could be accessed for kayaks, canoes or even walking trails," he noted.
Asked what she would like to see the Authority highlight, Snipes mentioned promoting ecotourism and access to the river “as kind of an economic driver and for tourism development.”
Stroud, director of the New Albany Main Street Association, said much the same, adding, “We’ve got a natural resource, and none of us are doing anything with it. It’s been given to us and to our communities, and now it’s time to develop it and get it going.”
Officials said funding for development projects along the river could come from various federal, state, local or even private sources, depending on the nature and scope.
Creekmore said numerous governing bodies might be involved in planning because of the potential geographic and environmental implications of some of the projects.
"You have to be sensitive when you're dealing with the river," he noted. "We've got the Corps of Engineers we have to get approval from on some of this stuff. We've got Delta Council. What we do upstream, we need to make sure it doesn't [adversely] affect them downstream. That's another reason this Authority is so important, so we have representation from all the regions."
Representatives of several members of Mississippi’s congressional delegation attended the first Authority meeting, as did planning and development district personnel, grant writers and others with knowledge of federal agencies and programs.
