New Madrid Bend
Coordinates: 36°31′46″N 89°30′13″W / 36.529502°N 89.503555°W
The Kentucky Bend, variously called the New Madrid Bend, Madrid Bend or Bessie Bend, is an exclave of Fulton County, Kentucky, encircled by the states of Tennessee and Missouri. It is a portion of a peninsula defined by an oxbow loop meander of the Mississippi River, and its inclusion in the state of Kentucky stems from uncertainties of the course of the Mississippi River when the boundary between Tennessee and Kentucky was established.
Kentucky Bend is the extreme southwestern corner of Kentucky. The peninsula includes the lowest point in the state of Kentucky, at the banks of the Mississippi River. The only highway into the area is Tennessee State Route 22, whose continuation into Kentucky Bend at one time was signed as Kentucky State Route 313.
As of the 2010 census, the population was 18 persons in this area, tabulated as the "Kentucky Bend Census County Division". The mailing address of the area is Tiptonville, Tennessee, which lies to its south, although the nearest population center (and post office) is in the nearer city of New Madrid, Missouri, across the river, to its north.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Kentucky Bend covers a land area of 26.9 square miles (69.6 km2), of which 17.5 square miles (45.2 km2) is land and 9.4 square miles (24.4 km2), or 35.08%, is water. The water area is primarily within the Mississippi River. Surveyors marking the boundary between Kentucky and Tennessee had only estimated where their line would meet the Mississippi; later, more detailed surveys revealed the location of this line to pass through north-south bends in the river, creating a division of the peninsula. The western border of Kentucky is designated as the Mississippi River, as is the eastern border of Missouri—thus the creation of a "notch" for Kentucky, but not for Tennessee.
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