Mud Island, the long strip of land across Wolf River Harbor from downtown Memphis, is not an island and, by the favorite local story, owes its existence to a stranded warship. The story goes that the Navy monitor Amphitrite grounded in the harbor around 1910 and sat there for up to two years waiting on high water, and that the current slowed around her hull and dropped the sand that became the island. Tellings disagree on whether she grounded or merely anchored, and for how long. One older account says six to eight months. The ship is real, and her dates are close, but her record has her on duty at St. Louis until 1912. Amphitrite was recommissioned in 1910 to train the Missouri Naval Militia there and was reassigned to New Orleans in 1912, a move that would have taken her down the Mississippi. Her service history does not mention Memphis or any grounding. The river's own record is older: army engineers reported shoaling in the harbor in 1889, and a bar was building by about 1900. At most the gunboat was stuck on a bar that was already there. The bar became permanent about 1913 and joined the east bank around 1916, when the Wolf River was channeled to flow between it and downtown. It was City Island at first, and E.H. Crump called it an eyesore. It held a small airport until 1970, and a river park opened in 1982.
Getting there
35.1475, -90.0590
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
Hear it from the road
Whistlestop is an audio tour guide app that tells you this story automatically when you drive past. No searching, no tapping, nothing to ask.
