Buffalo Valley, Tennessee facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Buffalo Valley, Tennessee
Unincorporated community
Buffalo Valley, Tennessee Location in Tennessee Show map of Tennessee Buffalo Valley, Tennessee Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Country	United States
State	Tennessee
County	Putnam
Elevation	518 ft (158 m)
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP code	38548
Area code(s)	931
GNIS feature ID	1278920

Buffalo Valley is a small, quiet place in western Putnam County, Tennessee. It's called an unincorporated town, which means it doesn't have its own city government like a big town. Its zip code is 38548. Some people even describe it as a "ghost town" because it's much quieter than it used to be.

A Look Back: Buffalo Valley's Story

Buffalo Valley was once a very busy place! Long ago, even before 1803, it had a grist mill. A grist mill is a place where grain like corn or wheat was ground into flour.

How Buffalo Valley Grew and Shrank

At its busiest, Buffalo Valley was a major transportation hub. This means it was a central spot where people and goods moved around. Imagine it having:

• Three grist mills
• Four general stores (like small supermarkets today)
• A pole and timber yard (for wood)
• Several livestock dealers (who bought and sold farm animals)
• A produce dealer (for fruits and vegetables)
• A bank
• Two blacksmith shops (where metal was shaped, like for horseshoes)

You can still see signs of this busy past today!

Why Buffalo Valley Changed

Sadly, flooding caused a lot of problems for Buffalo Valley. In the early 1900s, one flood washed away a railroad bridge. Another flood completely devastated the whole town.

Even with these challenges, Buffalo Valley has had some exciting moments. In the late 1990s, a scene for the movie The Green Mile was filmed here. The movie used a railway bridge that crosses the Caney Fork River. The scene involved the character John Coffey, played by Michael Clarke Duncan.

What Remains Today

As of 2019, the old Buffalo Valley School turned 90 years old. This old school building is now a community center and library. What's left of this flood-prone town includes:

• Some houses
• An active church
• An abandoned church
• A post office downtown
• A few abandoned stores

Exploring Buffalo Valley's Nature

Rivers, Hills, and Pastures

The southwest end of Buffalo Valley is where two waterways meet. This meeting point is called a confluence. Here, the Caney Fork River joins Big Indian Creek. The rest of the town stretches along Big Indian Creek. The area around Buffalo Valley has many streams, gently rolling hills, and large green pastures.

Plants and Animals of the Valley

Long before people settled here, the area had a huge canebrake. This was a thick growth of Arundinaria gigantea (River Cane), a type of tall grass. American bison (also known as buffalo) would come down from the nearby Highland Rim to the valley. They would graze in these canebrakes during the winter. The town was actually named Buffalo Valley because a particularly large bison was killed here!

Buffalo Valley's Weather

Buffalo Valley has a humid subtropical climate. This type of climate means the area has mild winters and hot, humid summers. This is known as Cfa in the Köppen system.

Rainfall is usually highest in the spring. It's lowest from August to October. However, there's a second peak in rainfall during December. On average, Buffalo Valley gets:

• 208 sunny days each year
• About 37 days where the temperature goes above 90°F (32°C)
• Around 77 days where the temperature drops below freezing (32°F or 0°C)
• Very rarely, about 0.3 days, the temperature goes below 0°F (-18°C)
• About 107 days with at least 0.1 inches of rain