When Prentice Cooper, a bachelor, was governor of Tennessee in the early 1940s, he took his future bride, Hortence, for a boat ride on the Duck River which flows through his hometown of Shelbyville. Later their sons, Jim, John and William, grew up enjoying the river.
In the summer 2024 edition of Where the Waters Meet, the magazine of The Harpeth Conservancy, I read that the Duck was named one of the most endangered rivers in America By American Rivers. This 284-mile long stream crosses fast-growing Middle Tennessee from east to west and, “is home to 22 aquatic snail species, 56 mussel species, including the salamander mussel, and 151 fish species, including a few with viable populations found only in this river.”
The Duck also, “provides a critical water source for more than 250,000 people and more than 150,000 people recreate on and around the Duck River watershed.”
We are fortunate that this river, one of the most biodiverse rivers on Earth, is being protected by American Rivers, the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Harpeth Conservancy.