The Yazoo River was named by French explorer
La Salle in 1682 as "
Rivière des Yazous" in reference to the
Yazoo tribe living near the river's mouth at its confluence with the Mississippi. The exact meaning of the term is unclear. One long-held belief is that it means "river of death". The river is 188 miles (303 km) long and is formed by the
confluence of the
Tallahatchie and the
Yalobusha Rivers, where modern
Greenwood developed. The river parallels the
Mississippi River in the latter's
floodplain for some distance before joining it north of
Vicksburg, Mississippi. Natural
levees, which flank the Mississippi, prevent the Yazoo from joining it before Vicksburg. A "
yazoo stream" is a
hydrologic term that was coined to describe any river or major stream with similar characteristics.
Potamologists believe the Yazoo River had its origins as the lower Ohio River. The French (and later the Anglo-American settlers) historically called the surrounding area of Mississippi and Alabama the
Yazoo lands, after the river. This became the basis for naming the
Yazoo land scandal of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The river was of major importance during the American Civil War. The Confederates used the first electrically detonated underwater
mine in the river in 1862 near Vicksburg to sink the Union
ironclad USS Cairo. The last section of the
Cairo was raised on December 12, 1964. It has been restored and is on permanent display to the public at the
Vicksburg National Military Park. Twenty-nine sunken ships from the Civil War rest beneath the waters of the river. The steamer
Dew Drop was reportedly sunk near Roebuck Lake as an obstruction to the United States Navy, but
Union sources claim the vessel was captured and burned. Variant names of the Yazoo River include Zasu River, Yazous River, Yahshoo River,
Rivière des Yasoux, and
Fiume del Yasous. In 1876, the Mississippi River changed its course, shifting west several miles and leaving Vicksburg without a river front. In 1902, the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers diverted the Yazoo River into the old riverbed, forming the Yazoo Diversion Canal. The modern-day port of Vicksburg is still located on this canal. Commercial navigation of the Yazoo River has declined considerably since the 1990s, and is mainly concentrated on the section from Vicksburg to
Yazoo City. At
Long Lake, Mississippi, the river flows . ==Gallery==