photograph by bruce vanwyngarden
Editor’s Note: A city is to be shared. Roughly a million people live in what we might call “Greater Memphis,” a hub that stretches east to Germantown and Collierville, and even across state borders (and a mighty river) if we include West Memphis and Southaven. But here’s the charm of a city as distinctive as Memphis, Tennessee: It’s a different home for every one of us. There are residents of Midtown who feel like they need to pack a suitcase if they travel east of Highland. Likewise, some East Memphians schedule trips Downtown like a special event. What makes Memphis home for you? If you had to identify one place or thing that makes the Bluff City singular, what would it be?
We asked eight writers to define “My Memphis” in a single essay. While it’s impossible to answer such a challenge on a single page, it’s a start. And we hope it reminds you of a place (or thing) that makes this amazing city your home too. Feel free to share your version of “My Memphis” with us.
Seventeen miles north of Marion, Arkansas, just across the Mississippi River from Memphis, lies another world — the Wapanocca National Wildlife Refuge, a place where you can see the Mississippi Delta in a near-primeval state. While it’s not in Memphis proper, it’s been a part of “my Memphis” since I first visited the place in 1996.
To put yourself in the proper frame of mind, I recommend taking the first exit after you cross the I-40 bridge — Mound City Road. Follow it into Marion and take a right on Highway 77 at the first light. Two lazy lanes wind along the west side of the Mississippi levee and the accompanying railroad tracks, passing through the not-so-thriving burg of Jericho, where Joshua probably never “fit” the battle, to where Highway 42 enters from the west. Take a right under the railroad tracks and you’ll see the WNWR sign.
Grab a brochure/map at the ranger’s cabin or just download one on your phone. Wapanocca’s 5,600 acres include hardwood forests, cypress swamps, grasslands, and a 500-acre oxbow lake that was part of the Mississippi River more than 5,000 years ago. On the south end of the lake, several hundred members of the Pacaha tribe lived in a village and grew corn, beans, and squash in nearby fields and no doubt fished the fertile waters of the lake.
The refuge is a prime wintering and resting area for migratory waterfowl. I recommend a drive to the observation deck during the fall migration. The lake’s surface and the air above it fill with thousands of ducks, Canada geese, snow geese, swans, great blue herons, bald eagles, anhingas, and other waterfowl.
In 1886, the lake and the surrounding land were bought by a group of Memphis waterfowl hunters, who formed the Wapanocca Outing Club, and used the place for hunting and fishing. Nash Buckingham, a noted Memphis outdoor writer (1880-1971), joined the group after the turn of the century and spearheaded several conservation efforts, including urging the passage of the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the founding of the Wapanocca National Wildlife Refuge in 1961.
Because of its strategic location in the heart of the Mississippi Flyway, the refuge is a prime wintering and resting area for migratory waterfowl. I recommend a drive to the observation deck during the fall migration. The lake’s surface and the air above it fill with thousands of ducks, Canada geese, snow geese, swans, great blue herons, bald eagles, anhingas, and other waterfowl. The cacophonous sound is exhilarating, astonishing. The sky is alive with motion.
But every season brings its own beauty to Wapanocca, which has 12.5 miles of well-maintained gravel roads. (I say every car needs a good dusting now and then.) You’ll see algae-covered sloughs with cruising gar and carp and basking turtles, dark forests, open fields, and lots of swampland. There’s also a 1.5-mile kayak trail, which is dense and magical.
The observation platform on the east side of the lake is a “don’t miss” destination. It’s a boardwalk over a cypress swamp and a great place to get a sense of the lake’s enormity (and an excellent spot for bird-watching (or listening). It’s also a good place to speculate about what’s causing those large, noisy splashes in the surrounding swamp. My money is on alligators. The most recent sighting at Wapanocca was in October 2023. I told you it was primeval.
