Cuba Landing Marina, Tennessee



An old railroad bridge along the lake with the centre span removed

 Travelled south another 49 miles today to Cuba Landing. This is quite a large marina, but winding down for the winter months, with the advertised restaurant and deli closed.
We are still in Kentucky Lake, and the scenery is fabulous. This area is all Tennessee Wildlife Refuge area, and the marina is on land leased from the refuge.  This is one of 3 wildlife refuges in Tennessee; in the fall/winter, more than 200,000 ducks and 25,000 Canada geese stay at the refuge, along with about 75 bald eagles. As we travelled today, we saw only one tow, and that one only had two barges. We passed Pilot Knob, a high hill used by early steamboat pilots as a landmark. It is now part of the Nathan Bedford Forrest Memorial State park, the site of the only time a cavalry force defeated a naval force. It was in the Civil War, and Nathan Bedford Forrest was successful at destroying General Sherman's supply lines. In this particular battle at Pilot Knob, 33 Union vessels were sunk, two trians had been destroyed, warehouses containing supplies worth more than six million dollars were in flames, and 150 union soldiers had been captured. In contrast, Forrest had only two men killed, nine wounded and two guns lost. As we moved down the lake, we were passing over the rotting remains of the union vessels.

This abandoned building was once used for shipping grain on the Tennessee before Kenducky Dam was built. Apparently the building was built so well that attempts to destroy it failed, so officials decided to leave it.

This is one of the many mooring cells that we see along the waterway; some can be used by pleasure boats, most are for the use of the tows.

It was another beautiful day, cool this morning, but sunny and warm by late morning. Hope this weather continues. Went for a walk after we arrived, then got together with Nancy and Eddie for dinner.