<p>Rhetorical questions:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Does the Erie Canal, which connects the Hudson River with Lake Erie make northern New York, southern Quebec, all of New England, all of New Brunswick, and the non-island parts of Nova Scotia an island?</p></li>
<li><p>Does the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal make all of the eastern part of the US an island?</p></li>
<li><p>Does Russia's Unified Deep Water System make Finland, Scandinavia, and Estonia an island, and mainland Europe another island?</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Humankind has learned to connect waterways with canals, locks, and dams. The sudden appearance of those canals, locks, and dams does not suddenly make those now disconnected lands into islands. The connection between the Tombigbee and the Tennessee rivers involves manmade canyons, manmade canals, and several manmade locks and dams.</p>

<p>What about naturally narrow waterway connections? As an extreme example, consider the Committee's Punch Bowl in Alberta, Canada. This little lake has two little outlets. One of the outlets eventually joins the MacKenzie River, which flows into the Arctic Ocean. The other eventually joins the Columbia River, which flows into the Pacific Ocean.</p>

<p>This leads to one last rhetorical question: Does the natural existence of the Committee's Punch Bowl make most of Washington state, most of British Columbia, almost all of the Yukon, and all of mainland Alaska into a very large "island"? Most geographers would say no.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-17T05:18:13.127Z
2020-06-17T07:02:41.547Z
2020-06-17T07:02:41.547Z
David Hammen
<p>It is possible to travel up the Tombigbee River to the Tennessee River. This is because parts of the Tombigbee River are man made.</p>

<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee%E2%80%93Tombigbee_Waterway#Locks_and_dams" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee%E2%80%93Tombigbee_Waterway#Locks_and_dams</a></p>

<p>The key part seems to be the "Divide Cut," a canal linking the Tennessee and Tombigbee Rivers.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-16T18:30:59.397Z
you do not answer the question is it an island.
trond hansen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-16T17:16:09.300Z
2020-06-16T17:16:09.300Z
John
<p>Apologies if this is a poorly written question, I'm writing this on my phone.</p>

<p>I noticed that there were a lot of rather long rivers in the region in question, and I began to wonder just how connected they are. I came up with the following path:</p>

<p>Start in Mobile, Alabama, and head north along the Tombigbee River past the Mississippi-Alabama border and into Mississippi. It seems to go through some name changes, but near the Tennessee-Alabama-Mississippi border, it connects with the Tennessee River. Follow the Tennessee River north through Kentucky and Kentucky Lake, where it will eventually meet the Ohio River. That, in turn, feeds into the Mississippi River, which flows back to the Gulf of Mexico.</p>

<p>It seems to me that it makes the region enclosed an island, since it is impossible to reach it without crossing a body of water. But is this significant in any other way? I can tell that not all the rivers flow in the same direction, and it's possible that some portions of the water around it were artificially created, is there anything else that comes as a result of this?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-16T15:06:05.443Z
i do not think the land area fills the criteria of beeing an island even with the rivers and lakes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island
trond hansen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-17T12:54:15.410Z
How is this question *not* about Earth Science? Voting to reopen.
David Hammen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-17T12:55:52.227Z
@a_donda - What about the fact that the two outlets from the Committee's Punch Bowl in a way makes all of northwestern North America an island? (It's not an island, IMO.) The definition of island is a bit fuzzy.
David Hammen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-17T13:08:46.920Z
Some other examples are Isa Lake in Wyoming, which drains to the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico; Wollaston Lake in Saskatchewan, which drains to the Mackenzie and Churchill rivers; Divide Creek on the Alberta / British Columbia border, which forks at the continental divide to drain to both the Pacific Ocean and Hudson Bay; and several lakes in Finland. There are other manmade and natural weird drainage systems in the world.
David Hammen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-17T23:14:40.810Z
@a_donda - I discussed the [Committee's Punch Bowl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee%27s_Punch_Bowl) in my answer. It's a tiny natural lake that sits directly on the continental divide in Canada's Jasper National Park. The lake's drains to both the Pacific and the Arctic. Is there any distinction between natural waterways and manmade ones regarding what constitutes an island?
David Hammen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-17T23:14:44.643Z
The definition of "island" is a bit fuzzy. Is a chunk of land that is connected to the mainland for an hour or so once per decade at extremely low tides an island or a peninsula? (Most would call it an island.) Is a chunk of land that is disconnected from the mainland for an hour or so once per decade at extremely high tides an island or a peninsula? (Most would call it an peninsula.)
David Hammen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-20T20:32:34.097Z
We forget the obvious.  Since the Panama Canal was built all of Sourh America has been an island .  And [you can't drive there from North America](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dari%C3%A9n_Gap).
Oscar Lanzi
<geography><islands>
Is Mississippi and parts of Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky one giant island?
Calvin Godfrey
# Is Mississippi and parts of Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky one giant island?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-06-16)

Apologies if this is a poorly written question, I'm writing this on my phone.

I noticed that there were a lot of rather long rivers in the region in question, and I began to wonder just how connected they are. I came up with the following path:

Start in Mobile, Alabama, and head north along the Tombigbee River past the Mississippi-Alabama border and into Mississippi. It seems to go through some name changes, but near the Tennessee-Alabama-Mississippi border, it connects with the Tennessee River. Follow the Tennessee River north through Kentucky and Kentucky Lake, where it will eventually meet the Ohio River. That, in turn, feeds into the Mississippi River, which flows back to the Gulf of Mexico.

It seems to me that it makes the region enclosed an island, since it is impossible to reach it without crossing a body of water. But is this significant in any other way? I can tell that not all the rivers flow in the same direction, and it's possible that some portions of the water around it were artificially created, is there anything else that comes as a result of this?

**Tags:** geography, islands

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: i do not think the land area fills the criteria of beeing an island even with the rivers and lakes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island  
> **username_2**: How is this question *not* about Earth Science? Voting to reopen.  
> **username_2**: @a_donda - What about the fact that the two outlets from the Committee's Punch Bowl in a way makes all of northwestern North America an island? (It's not an island, IMO.) The definition of island is a bit fuzzy.  
> **username_2**: Some other examples are Isa Lake in Wyoming, which drains to the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico; Wollaston Lake in Saskatchewan, which drains to the Mackenzie and Churchill rivers; Divide Creek on the Alberta / British Columbia border, which forks at the continental divide to drain to both the Pacific Ocean and Hudson Bay; and several lakes in Finland. There are other manmade and natural weird drainage systems in the world.  
> **username_2**: @a_donda - I discussed the [Committee's Punch Bowl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee%27s_Punch_Bowl) in my answer. It's a tiny natural lake that sits directly on the continental divide in Canada's Jasper National Park. The lake's drains to both the Pacific and the Arctic. Is there any distinction between natural waterways and manmade ones regarding what constitutes an island?  
> **username_2**: The definition of "island" is a bit fuzzy. Is a chunk of land that is connected to the mainland for an hour or so once per decade at extremely low tides an island or a peninsula? (Most would call it an island.) Is a chunk of land that is disconnected from the mainland for an hour or so once per decade at extremely high tides an island or a peninsula? (Most would call it an peninsula.)  
> **username_3**: We forget the obvious.  Since the Panama Canal was built all of Sourh America has been an island .  And [you can't drive there from North America](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dari%C3%A9n_Gap).  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2020-06-17. Score: 5

Rhetorical questions:

* Does the Erie Canal, which connects the Hudson River with Lake Erie make northern New York, southern Quebec, all of New England, all of New Brunswick, and the non-island parts of Nova Scotia an island?
* Does the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal make all of the eastern part of the US an island?
* Does Russia's Unified Deep Water System make Finland, Scandinavia, and Estonia an island, and mainland Europe another island?

Humankind has learned to connect waterways with canals, locks, and dams. The sudden appearance of those canals, locks, and dams does not suddenly make those now disconnected lands into islands. The connection between the Tombigbee and the Tennessee rivers involves manmade canyons, manmade canals, and several manmade locks and dams.

What about naturally narrow waterway connections? As an extreme example, consider the Committee's Punch Bowl in Alberta, Canada. This little lake has two little outlets. One of the outlets eventually joins the MacKenzie River, which flows into the Arctic Ocean. The other eventually joins the Columbia River, which flows into the Pacific Ocean.

This leads to one last rhetorical question: Does the natural existence of the Committee's Punch Bowl make most of Washington state, most of British Columbia, almost all of the Yukon, and all of mainland Alaska into a very large "island"? Most geographers would say no.


---

### Answer by username_4 on 2020-06-16. Score: 2

It is possible to travel up the Tombigbee River to the Tennessee River. This is because parts of the Tombigbee River are man made.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee%E2%80%93Tombigbee_Waterway#Locks_and_dams>

The key part seems to be the "Divide Cut," a canal linking the Tennessee and Tombigbee Rivers.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: you do not answer the question is it an island.  

---

