The Tombigbee watershed encompasses much of the rural coastal plain of western Alabama and northeastern Mississippi, flowing generally southward.

[1] The river formed the eastern boundary of the historical Choctaw lands, from the 17th century when they coalesced as a people, to the forced Indian Removal by the United States in the 1830s.

It flows through Aliceville Lake on the Mississippi-Alabama border, then generally SSE across western Alabama in a highly meandering course, past Gainesville and Demopolis.

The Choctaw National Wildlife Refuge is along the river in southwestern Alabama, approximately 20 mi (30 km) northwest of Jackson.

The United States forced the Chickasaw west of the Mississippi to Indian Territory, extinguishing most of their claims to land in the Southeast.

The force was so great that it pulled the boat downward, tilting it beneath the bridge, and fully submerging it in the river.

[5] The underwater pressure blew out a port-side window in the pilot house, which began filling with water, while the captain remained at the helm.

[6] One of the two main ventilator funnels had tilted to the center, yet one engine was still running, and the captain steered to anchor the tugboat in a flooded cornfield.