Water, fire and mold damage restoration in Samburg, Tennessee

In Obion County, Samburg holds the coverage described further down this page. Incorporated February 1907, with a 2025 certified population of 210, on the eastern shore of Reelfoot Lake.

Thirty road miles from Dyersburg, and the last stretch of it is lakeshore road rather than highway. Tiptonville is twelve miles away around the south end of the lake and Union City eighteen to the east. This is the longest approach in the Obion group and there is no shortcut in it — the lake occupies the ground a direct road would use, so the mileage is what it is. Anything needed on site is brought on the first trip, because going back for it costs an hour each way and there is nowhere closer to buy it.

The losses follow the shore. Buildings closest to the water sit lowest, take the most weather and hold the most humidity in their undersides, and they are also the ones most likely to be seasonal rather than lived in year round. A seasonal building is one that nobody is inside during the months when something goes wrong. Further back from the shore the units are newer and more of them are manufactured, which shifts the work from structure to systems — a duct run under a floor rather than a wall cavity is where the problem sits, and it is reached from outside the building.

No water provider is listed for this town in the state municipal directory, which is unusual enough to state rather than guess around. That is not a claim that there is no water; the published record simply does not name a supplier, so the arrangement at a building gets confirmed on site. Two other things are worth knowing. This town is in Obion County rather than Lake County, even though the lake it stands on is shared. And the land on the water side belongs to the state park and the wildlife refuge, so the buildable ground is a narrow band.

Samburg is a lake town of about two hundred people, and the housing reflects that: small frame houses, cabins, and a significant number of manufactured homes and recreational units. Much of what stands now went up after December 2021, because a good deal of what was there before did not survive it.

The municipal record for Samburg

Samburg is 0.69 square miles in total and only 0.47 of that is land — the highest proportion of water of any municipality on this site, which is what living on the eastern shore of Reelfoot Lake means in practice. Elevation is 285 feet, the lowest of any town here. The population peaked at 465 in 1980 and has fallen to 217 in 2010 and 210 in 2020, run by three municipal employees. No town-run water, sewer or electric utility is recorded, so those questions have to be asked address by address.