Talk:Perry County, Tennessee/GA1

GA Review
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Reviewer: Marshelec (talk · contribs) 18:19, 8 December 2022 (UTC)

I am commencing a review of this article, and will aim to complete this over the next 7-10 days. --Marshelec (talk) 18:19, 8 December 2022 (UTC)

Coverage
I will begin with physical geography.

Rivers
The two main rivers are major features of the county, and I think they warrant some more focussed coverage. Although it will mean some rework of the section on Topography, I recommend a new section heading for Rivers under Perry_County,_Tennessee, with subsection each for the Tennessee and Buffalo Rivers, presented in Summary style, and using the Template:Main to link to the separate articles for each river.

Also, a clarification is needed. The existing text under Perry_County,_Tennessee says that Duck River is outside of the County. However, when I search for Perry County, TN on Google maps, it shows that one bend of the Duck River is within the north east corner of the county. Is that correct ? If so the text needs a minor alteration.

Tennessee River
For the Tennessee River, I suggest coverage specifically relevant to Perry County could include:

perhaps add a note that some river-side camping grounds, (particularly Crooked Creek) may be inundated at mild or moderate flood levels The existing sentence about Lady's Bluff in the first paragraph under Geography could be relocated into the sub-section about the Tennessee River, along with mention of Lady's Bluff Small Wild Area, and the fact (from the cited source) that two barges cannot pass side-by-side at this point because the waterway is too narrow
 * that the course of the river as it flows south to north forms the western boundary of the county, and is a navigable waterway for the entire length, and provide the approximate length that is within Perry County
 * that the river level was raised with the commissioning of the Kentucky Dam in 1944, forming Kentucky Lake, and that the influence of the dam extends the full length of the river within Perry County (it would be interesting to know if there were any significant consequences of the inundation caused by the creation of Kentucky Lake, for the section of the river within Perry County, but perhaps this section is too far upstream for the dam to have flooded significant original features).
 * some mention of the numerous river landings that are within Perry County (with a brief mention of the historical or current significance of those landings, if there are suitable sources). This could include some expansion of content about Mousetail Landing State Park as a significant attraction and revenue earner for the county. I have just found a source that claims that 250,000 people visit Mousetail Landing State Park annually. (That's huge when compared with the county population !).

This would mean that the existing section titled Protected areas could be removed (this section looks a bit "stubby" on the page at present, and may not do justice to the two areas).

Buffalo River
For the Buffalo River, coverage relevant to Perry County could include:


 * flows south to north through the county, close to the towns of Linden and Lobelville
 * the use of the river for canoeing and free-float tubing, as described here: Buffalo_River_(Tennessee)

Wooded area
I was surprised to read that 80% of the county is wooded. This could be of interest to readers, and is of sufficient significance that it should probably be mentioned in the lead. Are there any sources that describe the make-up of this wooded area (ie is there much "ancient forest", how much is commercial plantations, how much is woodland that has been created by settlers over the centuries). ? How much of this is in state goverment ownership, or protected in some way ?

Land use and ownership statistics
Are there any sources that describe land use in the county ? I note a statement under Economy, that about 10% of the land area is rated as prime farmland. Are there sources that describe the rest in some way ?. What about ownership of land ? Is any summary data available - eg how much is in state government ownership as parks and reserves etc
 * Online sources are hard to find. I came across this book from 1910. It states that virtually all forested land in Tennessee was in private ownership. There is interesting content, but it is probably too old to be useful now, and doesn't have much that is specific to Perry County unfortunately.

Citations of USDA - Soil Survey of Perry County
There are multiple citations of this source. At present the reference states pages 11-12, and this is correct for the first use of this source. However, for some of the other citations of this source, the relevant content is on other pages. For example, the source of content for the acreages of forested and non-forested wetland (cited from the last paragraph under Topography and hydrography) come from page 112. For sources with a large number of pages like this, I use a citation without page numbers, then after the cite, I add the template for example, to each instance, so that the reader can find the relevant page. I recommend all instances of the cite for the USDA source are amended accordingly.

I will review coverage of other topics, but these points about rivers and the wooded area seemed to stand out on first reading.

--Marshelec (talk) 01:45, 9 December 2022 (UTC)

Economy
I listened to this brief video fronted by the Mayor:  He mentioned that an automotive parts manufacturer NYX Inc had established a new manufacturing plant in the county (in Linden). Based on news sources I found, it was expected to create 400 new jobs over 5 years. This is very significant for this small community. I have found sources here: and here   This is not mentioned in the county article at present (or in the article Linden, Tennessee, but is notable based on the multiple news items I found, and is worth including. It appears that the facility is still in operation.

It would be a useful addition to briefly summarise the challenges and opportunities for economic development identified on page 7 of the document that is already cited: "Mapping the Agricultural Assets of Perry County, Tennessee".

Flora and fauna
Fish and fishing are not mentioned in the article at present, but fishing is presumably one of the attractions for people to visit rivers and camp nearby. I found these reference: and.


 * Great feedback! I'll get to work on addressing these, looking forward to seeing what else you come up with.nf utvol (talk) 13:50, 9 December 2022 (UTC)

Images
The historical maps and images in the article at present are useful, but ideally, there would be more current images that represent the County, and in particular, show something of the rural landscape and natural scenery. I note that there are few suitable images in Wikimieda Commons at present. I searched on Flickr, and found an album of beautiful photos taken in Mousetail Landing State Park in June 2011. See:. I have had moderate success in the past with contacting the creators of images via Flickr mail, and asking them to change permissions in Flickr for a few to "Attribution-ShareAlike" (CC-BY-4.0) or similar, so that they can be imported to Wikimedia Commons and used in articles. I have a Flickr account, and I could approach the owner of the these photos myself, but it is possibly best that you do this - a request from the other side of the world might seem odd. However, I am still willing to try if you wish. Just let me know.--Marshelec (talk) 21:24, 9 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Through the co-operation of a Flickr user, I have obtained access to several images of the Cedar Grove Iron Furnace. I have added these to a new category in Wikimedia Commons: C:Category:Cedar Grove Iron Furnace. I have added one of the images to the infobox of Cedar Grove Iron Furnace and updated the Wikidata item Q111915332. It could be useful to add one of the images to the Perry County article - I leave this to your discretion. -Marshelec (talk) 02:21, 11 December 2022 (UTC)

The lead
Based on WP:LEAD and WP:BETTER/GRAF1 the article needs a lead of 3 to 4 paragraphs, summarising the most important points in the article. Judgement calls are required about what is sufficiently important to be in the lead. My suggestions are:
 * move the content about the history of the county to a new paragraph, and expand a little.
 * add a new paragraph with a summary of the geography - including a mention of:
 * the Tennessee and Buffalo Rivers, and their watersheds and wetland areas
 * the 80% woodland cover
 * the wildlife
 * expand content about the economy, levels of unemployment, infrastruture constraints etc
 * expand content about tourism and visitor attractions

--Marshelec (talk) 22:33, 9 December 2022 (UTC)

Prose

 * Under Prehistory and early settlement, the subject of first sentence doesn't flow to the subject of the 2nd and third sentences. It could probably be deleted, because it doesn't add much.
 * In the first paragraph under Prehistory, the term "bottomlands" is used. It is used in four places in the article. This appears to be a US term, and will be unfamiliar to readers from other places. I acknowledge WP:ENGVAR, but I also note MOS:COMMONALITY. Using vocabulary common to all varieties of English is preferable. I suggest a compromise where the first usage is: "botttomlands (low-lying alluvial land)". The remaining three instances should be "bottomland" (as one word) for consistency.
 * In the first sentence of the second paragraph, to achieve flow to the use of the term "treaty" in the second sentence, I suggest a change to: "On January 7, 1806, with the signing of the Treaty of Washington, the Cherokee ...."
 * In the section: Breckenridge's raid on Linden, the sentence beginning: "The small force of 55 mounted cavalry ..." needs rewording, for greater clarity
 * In the section: Geography and geology, in the second sentence, I suggest a change to: "The topography of Perry County is characterised by high ridges...". Later in that same sentence I suggest: "and is typical of..."
 * In the section Tennessee River, in the second sentence, I think the river actually flows south to north ?
 * In the section Economy, the phrase: "3,200 acres were planted to corn, 2,600 were planted to soybeans, " would be better as: "3,200 acres were planted in corn, 2,600 were planted in soybeans, ", unless the original is standard North American English.
 * In the second parapgraph, the expression "pre-pandemic" will date and be unclear. It needs to be either reworded or perhaps given a wiki-link instead
 * In the section Poverty and unemployment, in the second paragraph, change "massive amount" to "high"
 * In the section Cities and towns, the first sentence seems unnecessary and could be deleted.
 * Under Telecommunications and electric power, the second sentence needs a template:As of or similar, because it will rapidly get out of date
 * Under Media and entertainment, the first sentence could be deleted, and the word "Today", replaced with template:As of

--Marshelec (talk) 22:50, 10 December 2022 (UTC)

Edits
Good day! Thank you so much for your quality feedback and suggestions. I made most of them (a couple of exceptions, couldn't find detailed sources for land use and ownership statistics... Will continue looking and if I ever stumble in to it I'll make the addition, but I don't want to hold it up for that. Let me know if you have any further suggestions! Thanks again! nf utvol (talk) 18:42, 12 December 2022 (UTC)