HICKMAN, THE CITY THAT REFUSES TO DIE

The town of Hickman was built on moderately permeable loess underlain by impermeable clays. Following heavy rainfall the loess immediately above the impermeable clays becomes saturated and essentially turns to soup, leaving the slopes of Hickman vulnerable. Loess bluffs are prominent on the Kentucky side of the Mississippi River with many apparent breaks in the bluffs where landslides and other mass movements have taken place. Examination of the Hickman topographic map shows two such breaks in Hickman. One of these breaks is in the area of Magnolia Street, where over a period of 150 years the town of Hickman has lost three blocks of streets and homes. Further west a much larger break in the slope occurs and it appears that most of downtown Hickman is built on the debris from this huge slide. During an upgrade of the floodwall this entire block became unstable and slid toward the river, damaging most of the buildings and displacing much of the floodwall.

Hickman provides excellent illustrative material for Geology, Geography, Environmental Science, and Civil Engineering classes. Historical background, maps, newspaper clippings, and photographs of remediation in progress and completed, as well as photographs of damage to homes and businesses have been gathered and assembled in digital format for this purpose. A CD with these files is available.