The Kentucky Bend, variously called the New Madrid Bend, Madrid Bend, Bessie Bend, or Bubbleland, 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
State line between the Kentucky Bend and Route 22 in Tennessee.
Front stone for the Madrid Bend families' cemetery (known in official registries as Whitson Cemetery)
Fulton County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of Kentucky, with the Mississippi River forming its western boundary. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,515. Its county seat is Hickman and its largest city is Fulton. The county was formed in 1845 from Hickman County, Kentucky and named for Robert Fulton, the inventor of the steamboat.
Fulton County Courthouse in Hickman