From the Tennessee RiverLine
Tennessee RiverLine partners from across the region, including representatives of Tennessee RiverTowns communities & organizations from Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky, gathered in The Shoals, Sept. 14-15, for the first-ever Tennessee RiverLine Partnership Paddle.
This year’s Partnership Paddle was the first event of its kind. It was developed as an opportunity for various stakeholders to celebrate their progress toward realizing a shared vision for the Tennessee RiverLine over the past year and to give partners an opportunity to continue developing relationships and building collaborations that make this progress possible.
“The Tennessee RiverLine is powered by partnerships,” said Tennessee RiverLine Program Manager Lizzy Gardner. “As an initiative that brings diverse communities and partners together across the region around a shared vision, it’s really important for us to create opportunities to physically gather, nurture those relationships and, of course, just have some fun outside and on the water!”
The Partnership Paddle was held in the Shoals, a Tennessee RiverTowns community that includes Colbert County, Florence, Sheffield, Tuscumbia and Muscle Shoals. The event was organized by the Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area, which is a partnership between the National Park Service and the University of North Alabama. The Tennessee RiverLine named the Shoals its 2021 Community Partner of the Year Award. As a community whose past, present and future has deep connections to the river, and whose leadership in the Tennessee RiverLine initiative is supported by robust and authentic collaborations, the Shoals was the perfect host community for this inaugural event.
“The Shoals community and the MSNHA have believed in the vision of the Tennessee RiverLine from the earliest days of the program,” said Carrie Crawford, MSNHA director. “We were honored to be selected as the Tennessee RiverLine’s 2021 Community Partner of the Year. Hosting the Partnership Paddle was such a wonderful way to share the rich history and culture of northwest Alabama with our friends from across the Tennessee River Valley.”
Partners gathered on the evening of Sept. 14 for a welcome reception. After welcome remarks by Brad Collett, Tennessee RiverLine
director, Crawford and TVA’s Samantha Strickland, attendees networked, socialized and spent some much-appreciated time together. The reception was held at Florence’s McFarland Park where campsites, playgrounds, fishing piers, a frisbee golf course, a swimming beach, boat ramps, picnic shelters and jogging trails offer panoramic views of the river and limestone bluffs.
The following day, attendees took part in a 6-mile kayak excursion on the Tennessee River from Colbert Ferry Landing to Brush Creek Campground. Prior to launching, Crawford oriented paddlers to the intersecting histories of this reach of the river and the Natchez Trace. Both of those played pivotal roles for thriving communities of indigenous peoples and their displacement on the Trail of Tears, as well as the contemporary influence of the TVA and National Park Service. Tennessee RiverLine fleets from Knoxville, Paducah and the Shoals were used for the paddle. Non-paddlers could visit local attractions such as the Helen Keller Museum, Fame Recording Studios and the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Rosenbaum House.
In all, more than 45 partners attended the event, including representatives from Knoxville, South Pittsburg, Hardin County and Clifton, Tennessee; Paducah/McCracken County, Kentucky; and Bridgeport and the Shoals. Friends of the initiative from Nashville also attended.
Recalling a quote by Clay Guerry, TVA recreation strategy specialist and the Tennessee RiverLine’s primary contact with the agency, Strickland said in her welcoming remarks that “The Tennessee River connects us by water. The Tennessee RiverLine connects us by purpose.”
The Partnership Paddle will become a Tennessee RiverLine annual networking and team-building activity. Each summer, it will be hosted by the preceding year’s Community Partner of The Year. Dates and location for the 2023 Partnership Paddle will be announced in January during the Tennessee RiverLine Summit.
Get Involved
Follow the Tennessee RiverLine on social media and visit our calendar of events at tnriverline.org/events for important details about upcoming events, or contact the Tennessee RiverLine team at info@tnriverline.org.
About the Tennessee RiverLine
The Tennessee RiverLine is North America’s next great regional trail system, a multi-generational initiative that offers economic development, public health, resource stewardship and equitable access benefits to 2.4 million people in diverse Tennessee River communities in four states. The Tennessee RiverLine is an initiative of the UT Institute of Agriculture and principal partners, UT Knoxville and TVA, in collaboration with the Tennessee RiverLine Partnership, a diverse consortium of organizations committed to realizing the vision for the Tennessee RiverLine. The initiative began in and continues to be supported by the UT School of Landscape Architecture, which is a partnership of the UT College of Architecture and Design and the Herbert College of Agriculture.
