Technical Abstract: The Goodwin Creek watershed is located within the loessal hills of northern Mississippi, a region of high erosion risk and elevated watershed sediment yields. This manuscript combines a regional history of land management and conservation issues from the time of European settlement to present with a summary of research results obtained during the past 30 years. Goodwin provides an instructive case study of the dynamism of land use, hydrologic, geomorphologic, and water quality characteristics that change over time. Conversion of forests to cropland caused a serious upland erosion problem. Excessive sedimentation of channels led to frequent flooding of floodplains. Channel straightening and dam construction to reduce flooding resulted in a channel system with increased sediment transport capacity. Improved conservation and reforestation of the uplands decreased the sediment load. The imbalance between channels with large sediment transport capacity and small sediment loads from the uplands created the situation found today where stream bank erosion of floodplains is the dominant source of sediment exported from the watershed. The Goodwin Creek experience demonstrates how piecemeal application of accepted best management practices can have unanticipated long term consequences and illustrates the challenges inherent in attempting to assess the impact of conservation practices at a watershed scale.