Tensas River

{{Short description|River in Louisiana}} {{Use American English|date=February 2025}} {{Infobox river | name = Tensas Bayou and Tensas River | image = Tensas River vertical lift bridge, Clayton, LA.jpg | image_size = | image_caption = Vertical lift bridge over the Tensas River at Clayton, Louisiana | source1 = Lake Providence (oxbow lake) | source1_location = Lake Providence, Louisiana | source1_coordinates = {{coord |32.8126|N|91.1919|W|format=dms}} | mouth = Confluence with Ouachita River to form the Black River | mouth_location = Jonesville | mouth_coordinates = {{coord|format=dms}} | length = {{convert|177|mi|km|abbr=on}} | source1_elevation = | mouth_elevation = | discharge1_location=Tendall, LA (includes Bayou Macon) | discharge1_avg = 1,205 cu/ft. per sec.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://waterdata.usgs.gov/la/nwis/annual/?format=sites_selection_links&search_site_no=07369500&agency_cd=USGS&referred_module=sw|title = USGS Surface Water data for Louisiana: USGS Surface-Water Annual Statistics}}</ref> | basin_size = | map = {{maplink|from=Tensas Bayou and River.map |type=line |frame=yes |plain=yes |frame-align=center |frame-width=270 |frame-height=200}} | map_caption = Tensas Bayou and Tensas River }} The '''Tensas River'''<ref>{{gnis|558329}}</ref> {{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|ɛ|n|s|ɔː}} is a river in Louisiana in the United States. The river, known as '''Tensas Bayou''' in its upper reaches,<ref>{{gnis|556219|Tensas Bayou}}</ref> begins in East Carroll Parish in the northeast corner of the state and runs roughly southwest for {{convert|177|mi}}<ref name=NHD>U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. [http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/ The National Map], accessed June 3, 2011</ref> more or less in parallel with the Mississippi River. The confluence of the Tensas and the Ouachita rivers, in Jonesville in Catahoula Parish, creates the Black River, not to be confused with Black Lake in Natchitoches Parish in north-central Louisiana.

For the twenty miles south of Interstate 20 between Delhi and Tallulah, the river winds its way through the Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge (in Madison, Franklin, and Tensas parishes), which was established in 1980 "for the preservation and development of environmental resources" about the river. In 1881 the Congress authorized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to improve the navigation by removing ordinary obstacles.<ref> Benyaurd, W. H. H. (1882). ''Annual report upon the preservation of the ports of Memphis, Vicksburg, and Natchez : improvement of the navigation of Red River, Louisiana and of certain rivers in Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee; and water-gauges on the Mississippi and its principal tributaries, in charge of W. H. H. Benyaurd, being appendix P of the annual report of the Chief of Engineers for 1882.''. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office., p. x.</ref> The navigation work began at Dallas, a village on the stream in Madison Parish. The bottomland hardwood forest near the Tensas River is some of the remaining habitat of the Louisiana black bear.<ref>Benson, John F., and Michael J. Chamberlain. “Food Habits of Louisiana Black Bears (Ursus americanus luteolus) in Two Subpopulations of the Tensas River Basin.” ''The American Midland Naturalist'', vol. 156, no. 1, University of Notre Dame, 2006, pp. 118–27, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/4094674 JSTOR website] Retrieved 3 December 2021.</ref>

The name ''Tensas'' is derived from the historic indigenous Taensa people.<ref>{{cite book|last=Swanton|first=John Reed|title=The Indian Tribes of North America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xpx6WoPz7xIC&pg=PA210|year=1952|publisher=US Government Printing Office|isbn=978-0-8063-1730-4|page=210}}</ref> The first plantations along the Tensas River were established by settlers who had earlier plantations across the Mississippi River in the Natchez District.<ref>Owens, Jeffrey Alan. “Naming the Plantation: An Analytical Survey from Tensas Parish, Louisiana.” ''Agricultural History'', vol. 68, no. 4, Agricultural History Society, 1994, pp. 46–69, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3744669 JSTOR website]. Retrieved 3 December 2021.</ref>

thumb|Bridge stamped with the Tensas River name

==See also== *List of Louisiana rivers

==References== {{reflist}} *''Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge'', http://www.fws.gov/tensasriver/, Retrieved 23 April 2005

Category:Rivers of Louisiana Category:Rivers of Catahoula Parish, Louisiana Category:Rivers of East Carroll Parish, Louisiana Category:Rivers of Madison Parish, Louisiana Category:Rivers of Franklin Parish, Louisiana Category:Rivers of Tensas Parish, Louisiana Category:Rivers of Concordia Parish, Louisiana Category:Ouachita River Category:Tributaries of the Red River of the South