TRIBUTARIES

UPPER TOMBIGBEE TRIBUTARIES
Big Brown Creek, Little Brown Creek, Twentymile Creek, Mantachie Creek, Bull Mountain Creek, Gum Creek, Town Creek, Weaver Creek, Matubby Creek, Buttahatchee River, Tibbee Creek, Luxapallila Creek, Kincaide Creek, Coal Fire Creek, Broken Pumpkin Creek, Big Creek, Bogue Chitto Creek, Lubbub Creek, Sipsey River, Noxubee River, Trussells Creek, Brush Creek, Factory Creek, Taylor Creek, Black Warrior River 

The Upper Tombigbee Watershed covers large areas in both Mississippi and Alabama. Portions of the watershed flow through Prentiss, Tishomingo, Union, Pontotoc, Chickasaw, Webster, Choctaw, Oktibbeha, Winston and Kemper counties in Mississippi. All of Itawamba, Lee, Monroe, Clay, Lowndes, and Noxubee counties in Mississippi drain to the Upper Tombigbee Watershed.

In Alabama, portions of Franklin, Marion, Fayette, Tuscaloosa, Greene and Sumter counties flow into the watershed. All of Lamar, and Pickens counties flow in the Upper Tombigbee Watershed.

Major towns within the upper watershed include Amory, Aberdeen, and Columbus, Mississippi.

Buttahatchee River and Tributaries
Barn Creek, Beaver Creek, Bogue Creek, Camp Creek, Clifty Creek, Hurricane Creek, Sipsey Creek, Splunge Creek, Williams Creek, Woods Creek

 The name “Buttahatchee” is believed to be from the Choctaw Indian tongue and is interpreted as “sumac river.” (Read)

The Buttahatchee River and tributaries cover 870 square miles and flow through Fayette, Lamar, Marion, and Winston counties in Alabama and into Lowndes, Monroe, Clay, and Itawamba counties in Mississippi. Major towns include Hamilton, Guin and Sulligent, Alabama.

The Buttahatchee begins just south of the City of Haleyville in Winston County, Alabama. After flowing south for a few miles the river turns due west heading towards the City of Hamilton in Marion County. The river crisscrosses US Route 278 several times. At Hamilton the river heads southwest and flows through the Lamarion Wildlife Management Area.

Luxapallila Creek and Tributaries
Cut Bank Creek, Hell's Creek, Magby Creek, Mud Creek, Wilson Creek, Yellow Creek

The name “Luxapallila” is believed to be from the Choctaw Indian tongue and is interpreted as “turtles crawl there.” (Read)

The Luxapallila Creek watershed covers 803 square miles and flows through Fayette, Lamar, Marion, and Pickens counties in Alabama and into Lowndes and Monroe counties in Mississippi. Major towns within the watershed include Winfield, Millport, Kennedy, Vernon, and a small portion of Fayette in Alabama.

The Luxapallila begins just north of the City of Winfield in Marion County and has been channelized for almost its entire length. It flows south past Winfield and then begins traveling west as it passes the City of Fayette in Fayette County. The creek parallels state route 96 and contains extensive wetlands as it leaves the state in Lamar County and continues until it connects with the Tombigbee.

Two significant tributaries, Yellow Creek and Magby Creek, flow into the Luxapallila in Lowndes County, Mississippi. Yellow Creek is the largest and has several other significant tributaries of its own, Hell’s Creek, Wilson Creek, and Mud Creek. Yellow Creek originates west of Luxapallila. Downstream of the confluence between the Luxapallila and Yellow Creek, Magby Creek, a smaller tributary, originates closer to the mouth and enters the Luxapallila on its eastern side.

Sipsey River and Tributaries
New River, Little New River, Dunn Creek, Brush Creek

The Sipsey River is also known as the “Sipsey River Swamp,” and is one of the more interesting rivers in the state. Its watershed is uniquely long and narrow. The river officially begins when the headwater tributaries of the New River and the Little New River converge right at the Marion / Fayette county line.

The Sipsey River Swamp is one of the last wild free flowing swamp streams in Alabama and is estimated to contain at least 50,000 acres of bottomland hardwood wetlands, making it one of the largest wetlands within Alabama. (Ken Wills – pc)

The river is 92 miles long and portions of its narrow watershed are found in Fayette, Tuscaloosa, Pickens, and Greene counties and very small portions in Winston, Marion, and Walker counties. The lower portion of the river forms the boundary line between Pickens and Greene counties.

The Sipsey River Swamp contains a rich variety of terrain ranging from the low and almost permanently flooded old river channels or cutoffs to higher areas of the swamp which flood only in the winter and spring. These diverse environments have produced a rich variety of vegetation ranging form tupelo-bald cypress swamps to forest composed of species more commonly associated with uplands such as beech. (Ken Wills) There are 102 species of fish known from the Sipsey River, a remarkably diverse assemblage of fish species.

Alabama’s Forever Wild Program recently purchased approximately 3,500 acres of Sipsey River Swamp riparian lands within Tuscaloosa County, creating the watersheds first significant holding of publicly owned lands.

Noxubee River
Hashuqua Creek, Wahalak Creek, Wooward Creek, Bodka Creek

A possible translation for “Noxubee” in the Choctaw tongue is “stinking water.” (Read)

LOWER TOMBIGBEE TRIBUTARIES
Black Warrior River , Sucarnoochee River, Cotohaga Creek, Chickasaw Bogue, Kinterbish Creek, Beaver Creek, Tuckabum Creek, Horse Creek, Wahalak Creek, Bashi Creek, Tallawampa Creek, Okatuppa Creek, Turkey Creek, Santa Bogue Creek, Satilpa Creek, Jackson Creek, Bassett Creek, Lewis Creek, Bilbo Creek

The Lower Tombigbee Watershed is considered to be the portion of the watershed below where the Black Warrior River flows into the Tombigbee River. This lower portion drains an area of 4,659 square miles and travels 175 river miles before the Tombigbee and Alabama Rivers converge to form the Mobile River.

Tuckabum Creek in Choctaw County has an impressively diverse mussel fauna with 6 species present. Chickasaw Bogue Creek similarly had 6 species present

Sucarnoochee River and Tributaries
Pawticf  Creek, Blackwater Creek, Ponta Creek and Alamuchee Creek

The Sucarnoochee River is the largest tributary in the Lower Tombigbee Watershed. It begins in Kemper County, Mississippi and flows southeastward to join the Tombigbee on its western bank.

Recent mussel surveys found one specimen of the Ovate clubshell (Pleurobema perovatum), an endangered species once known from all the major rivers of the Mobile Basin, in Sumter County. This specimen was the first recording of this species in the Sucarnoochee. (GSA)

Okatuppa Creek and Tributaries
This creek flows through the Choctaw National Wildlife Refuge. One of its primary tributaries is named Puss Cuss Creek, an amusingly unique stream name.

Tuckabum Creek and Tributaries
Yantley Creek, Bogue Chitto

Tuckabum Creek is located almost entirely within Choctaw County, Alabama. The headwaters of Tuckabum and its primary tributary, Yantley Creek begin in Lauderdale County, Mississippi.

Recent mussel surveys found that Tuckabum Creek had the highest mussel diversity of tributaries in the Lower Tombigbee Basin. Five species were found including Fusconaia cerina, Quadrula aperata, Utterbackia imbecilis, Strophitus sp., and Lampsilis straminea.