Jeff Buckley Drowning Site? (Memphis: live, auction, parking)

[v_astro]

Originally Posted by Kabluey

It's at the northern part of the parking lot where the fishing boat ramp is, no? Hopefully one day there'll be some sort of memorial or marker.

Re things to do, I don't know which is less annoying, reposting a lengthy post or linking to another thread. To save space here, I'll elect the latter: First Time Visitor. It may be a little outdated...

Thanks.

I note there are two boat ramps. One at the 12 o'clock position and one at the 7 o'clock position. I know I'm getting pretty anal on the specificity, but does anyone know exactly where he went in the water?

[knucklehead_vol]

Originally Posted by v_astro

Thanks.

I note there are two boat ramps. One at the 12 o'clock position and one at the 7 o'clock position. I know I'm getting pretty anal on the specificity, but does anyone know exactly where he went in the water?

It was the area under the auction street bridge.

[BirdieBelle]

Originally Posted by v_astro

Thanks.

I note there are two boat ramps. One at the 12 o'clock position and one at the 7 o'clock position. I know I'm getting pretty anal on the specificity, but does anyone know exactly where he went in the water?

It's near the one at the noon spot. It was just along the water there, not exactly on the ramp itself. The lower ramp was not there back then.

[v_astro]

Originally Posted by knucklehead_vol

Its the marina under the Auction St bridge.

Who's zooming who here?

My prior research indicates it happened in the Wolf River Harbor near a marina. Additional information says it happened near two pylons for a monorail to Mud Island. Yet, two people on this board say it happened at the northern part of Mud Island on the Mississippi side of the peninsula near where Wolf River flows into it.

[BirdieBelle]

I'm pretty sure it's a difference of where he went in and where he was found.

[v_astro]

I appreciate that, but all of the research says he was found on the island down near Beale Street. This is what it says that points to the Wolf River Harbor side as the site of where he went in:

"We used to call it the chute," says Coast Guard Petty Officer H.C. Kilpatrick about the channel, because it carried the eastern fork of the Wolf's flow into the Mississippi. But the Army Corps of Engineers had capped the north end of the chute with an earthen dam, creating a seemingly quiet channel set apart from the Mississippi by a sprawling sandbank known as Mud Island but still fed from the south by the river's waters. "Almost like a backwater," Kilpatrick points out, noting the whirlpool-like eddies where the river rushes around Mud Island, "and definitely having undertows that are way underestimated."

Also:

"After calling out for Buckley with increasing desperation for several minutes, Foti ran up the bank to the welcome center. There, at a pay phone not far from a statue of Elvis Presley, he called the police at 9:22 p.m. "

The I-40 Visitors Center is right off of Wolf River Harbor and it has an Elvis statue.

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/64512940

[JoeCartpath]

Interesting that all the reports I see online state that he drowned in the harbor, not the Wolf River at the north end of Mud Island. Some of them refer to it as the Wolf River Harbor, which may account for the confusion....there is no harbor at the Wolf River - but the harbor on the eastern side of Mud Island was originally part of the Wolf River years ago...before the Wolf was rerouted to empty into the Mississippi at the northern end of Mud Island and the present day harbor created by closing it off from the Wolf on that northern end.

I don't know what the official name of the harbor is. I see it referred to as Wolf River Harbor often and it's shown on Google maps as Wolf River Lagoon.

It would certainly make more sense that he would be swimming in the harbor...and not in the Wolf River where it exits into the Mississippi.

[v_astro]

I'm 99% certain I've pinpointed it.

He went in somewhere on the Memphis side of the Wolf River Harbor near the monorail that connects Memphis to Mud Island. The monorail runs to the Mississippi River Musuem.

[v_astro]

Originally Posted by JoeCartpath

Interesting that all the reports I see online state that he drowned in the harbor, not the Wolf River at the north end of Mud Island. Some of them refer to it as the Wolf River Harbor, which may account for the confusion....there is no harbor at the Wolf River - but the harbor on the eastern side of Mud Island was originally part of the Wolf River years ago...before the Wolf was rerouted to empty into the Mississippi at the northern end of Mud Island and the present day harbor created by closing it off from the Wolf on that northern end.

I don't know what the official name of the harbor is. I see it referred to as Wolf River Harbor often and it's shown on Google maps as Wolf River Lagoon.

It would certainly make more sense that he would be swimming in the harbor...and not in the Wolf River where it exits into the Mississippi.

Not being from Memphis, I'm not sure its official name. All I know is that it's the channel to the right of Mud Island. It is referred to either as the Wolf River Harbor or the Wolf River Lagoon and is closed out at the north end. I have long believed it to be in this section, which is why I was suprised when two people said it was in a parking lot near boat ramps near where the actual Wolf River flows into the Mississippi. That made no sense to me.

If someone can help narrow it down with more exactitude, I'd be appreciative.

[v_astro]

More:

They sat in the brown upholstered cabin of the Ryder rental van, Foti driving and Jeff slouched in the passenger seat, his right leg hung from the window. After the last turn, they found themselves on a stretch of road which broke from the imposing neon and gloom verticals of the city to bridge the Harbour. They pulled into a dimly lit car park covered in elongated shadows with an empty and graffiti ridden information booth. The sign hanging tenuously on the door read “River-Watch Information”. Looking out over the harbour to Mud Island and past that to the pin-pricks of light from the river docks, Jeff felt at ease. An island named unimaginatively, Mud Island and it’s only structure - a stadium - were a bleak but non-invasive protrusion silhouetted against the still setting sun and the rest of the cityscape.

“I guess if we can’t have fresh, we’ll just have to cope with funky, damn river stinks.” Muttered Foti, stepping out of the van after Jeff, who had already set out toward the fenced river bank carrying Foti’s stereo.

“Come on, man, let’s go down to the beach.” Called the hermit, dragging his 65 decibel shell toward the fence line.

They climbed the green palings, Foti doing his best to stay in tow of Jeff, skipping and stumbling down the steep brushy scree to the thin strip of shale and pebbles at the waters edge. People call this a beach? they both wondered.

Minutes passed and the pair stood silently at the waters edge, “not all that wolf-like,” Jeff offered, disconnectedly.

“I guess not.”, Foti replied, “and I meant to say, be careful with that stereo man, it’s my only sound.”

“Sure, sure,” Jeff uttered, from far inside himself.

***

“What the hell are you doing?” Foti laughed, “are you crazy?”

“Probably,” Jeff chuckled as he fell into a back stroke, his shirt billowing around him as it filled with the shallow, temperate water near the shore. Foti watched him for a moment, how his legs kicked intermittently and arms – heavy with his shirt – flopped lazily over his head, propelling him between the peninsular outcrop at one end of the lowly shoreline and the monorail bridge at the other. Foti chuckled perplexedly, and refused for almost a minute to take his eyes off Jeff, but soon got used to the idea of his twilight dip, and went back to the guitar.

***

It was too dark for Jeff to be seen in the water, especially once it began churning in the wake of a tug. He swam quickly, heading for the safety of the mainstays and joists that supported the nearby monorail bridge, feeling the current pulling more and more at his lower body as he did so.

***
Jeff turned and looked toward Mud Island and saw a small dirt service road trailing around behind the stadium, then dove underwater.