
Where is the Little River in Tennessee?
The Little River is a scenic Tennessee river containing spectacular scenery, with the first 18 miles located within Great Smoky Mountains National Park borders, and the remaining 33 miles flowing out of the mountains through Blount County to join the Tennessee River at Fort Loudon Lake in Knox County.
How big is the Little Tennessee River basin?
Little River is a 60-mile (97 km) river in Tennessee which drains a 380-square-mile (980 km 2) area containing some of the most spectacular scenery in the southeastern United States.The first 18 miles (29 km) of the river are all located within the borders of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.The remaining 42 miles (68 km) flow out of the mountains through Blount County to join the ...
Where does the Little River run into the Tennessee River?
The Little Tennessee River joins the Tennessee at Lenoir City, and the Clinch River enters at Kingston; the Clinch and Powell confluence is now found at Norris Lake. Below Decatur, the Hiwassee River brings its waters and those of the Ocoee River to the Tennessee, and above South Pittsburg is the mouth of the Sequatchie River.
Where is the Pigeon River in Tennessee?
Pigeon River. The Pigeon River of western North Carolina and east Tennessee rises above Canton, North Carolina, is impounded by Walters Dam, enters Tennessee, and flows into the French Broad River, just past Newport, Tennessee. The river traverses the Pisgah National Forest and the Cherokee National Forest, and drains much of the northeastern ...
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Where does the Little Tennessee River basin start?
Little Tennessee RBRP Overview The Little Tennessee River basin has its uppermost headwaters in Georgia and includes most of Graham, Macon, Swain and Jackson counties, as well as small portions of Cherokee and Clay counties.
Where does the Little Tennessee River start and end?
Tennessee RiverLittle Tennessee River / MouthThe Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. Wikipedia
Where is the beginning of the Tennessee River?
Holston RiverFrench Broad RiverTennessee River/Sources
Which way does the Little Tennessee River flow?
The river turns northwest, flowing through the Nantahala National Forest along the north side of the Nantahala Mountains. It crosses into eastern Tennessee and joins the Tennessee River at Lenoir City, 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Knoxville.
What cities does the Tennessee River run through?
The main riparian cities are Chattanooga and Knoxville in Tennessee and Florence in Alabama. Watts Bar hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River in Tennessee.
Does the Tennessee River connect to the ocean?
Chattanooga? Yes, there is a way to get to the ocean from there. The Tennessee River goes West to the Tennessee/Tombigbee waterway, a man-made channel that runs South to meet up with the Black Warrior and Tombigbee Rivers, ultimately joining with the Alabama and Mobile Rivers and continuing down to Mobile Bay.
What is the average depth of the Tennessee River?
The channel has a length of 1,045 kilometers (650 miles) and an average depth of about 2.7 meters (9 feet). About 34,000 barges annually travel the Tennessee River—the equivalent of two million semi-trailer trucks on the roads.
What part of Tennessee is considered the Tennessee Valley?
The Tennessee Valley is the drainage basin of the Tennessee River and is largely within the U.S. state of Tennessee. It stretches from southwest Kentucky to north Alabama and from northeast Mississippi to the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina. The border of the valley is known as the Tennessee Valley Divide.
How many miles of the Tennessee River is in Alabama?
652 miTennessee River / Length
What fish are in the Little Tennessee River?
Rainbow and brown trout live in the river all year, with spring runs of walleye and white bass providing plenty of action before the smallmouth start showing up in mid-May. The Little Tennessee River could be the most perfect warm water fishery in the Smoky Mountains.
Is the Little Tennessee River polluted?
The loss of riparian habitat due to development has led to increased sedimentation and diminishing water quality through polluted runoff within the Little Tennessee River Basin.
Where does the Little Tennessee River basin end?
The Little Tennessee River flows into the Tennessee River at Lenoir City, Tennessee and it eventually flows to the Gulf of Mexico. Water quality in the basin is generally excellent.
Where is the Little Tennessee River?
From its headwaters in the Chattahoochee National Forest of northeast Georgia, through the mountains of scenic western North Carolina, along the southern border of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, on down to Fontana Lake and its eventual confluence with ...
How many species of fish are there in Little Tennessee?
The Little Tennessee is designated as a Native Fish Conservation Area, containing more than 100 species of native fish, 10 species of native mussels, and a dozen crayfish species. It’s home to 35 fish, mussel, or crayfish species considered rare at the state or federal level, including fish like the Citico darter and Smoky madtom ...
How many public access points are there in Smoky Mountain Blueways?
Fortunately, Smoky Mountain Blueways has 51 public access points mapped out on the upper watershed alone, including the Cheoah, Nantahala, Oconoluftee, Tuckasegee, and the Little Tennessee itself. But the basin’s most impressive feature is its ability to nurture a vast array of aquatic life.
What river is American Rivers?
American Rivers is prioritizing efforts on the Tuckasegee River, a significant tributary in the upper basin, focusing on restoration, recreation, and conservation opportunities surrounding the popular trout fishery.
What is the economic impact of mountain trout fishing in North Carolina?
Recognizing the importance of the resource to the region’s outdoor-tourism economy, officials in Jackson County, NC, have even drafted legislation aiming to designate their community the “trout capital” of North Carolina, where mountain trout fishing has an annual economic impact of $174 million.
What is the upper basin of North Carolina known for?
Legendary trout streams and family-friendly whitewater (Class I-III), plus miles of mountain biking, horseback, and backpacking trails—including the Appalachian Trail—make the free-flowing upper basin a vital driver of western North Carolina’s vibrant recreation-based tourism economy.
Is Little T water good?
Water quality is excellent throughout the majority of the basin, and the Little T provides clean drinking water to surrounding municipalities, including Franklin, Sylva and Cherokee, a reservation that is home to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, numbering more than 13,000, and stewarding the area’s rich natural resources.
Where is the Tennessee River located?
The Tennessee River is formed at the confluence of the Holston and French Broad rivers in present-day Knoxville, Tennessee. From Knoxville, it flows southwest through East Tennessee into Chattanooga before crossing into Alabama.
What is the Tennessee River?
The Tennessee River is an important part of the Great Loop, the recreational circumnavigation of Eastern North America by water. The Tennessee River has historically been a major highway for riverboats through the South, and today they are frequently used along the river.
What happens if Tennessee declines to settle with Georgia?
The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported on 25 March 2013 that Georgia senators approved House Resolution 4 stating that if Tennessee declines to settle with them, the dispute will be given to the state attorney general, to take Tennessee before the Supreme Court to settle the issue once and for all.
What river is home to mussels?
The Tennessee River and its tributaries host some 102 species of mussel. Native Americans ate freshwater mussels. Potters of the Mississippian Culture used crushed mussel shell mixed into clay to make their pottery stronger.
What river is the Kentucky Dam on?
The construction of TVA's Kentucky Dam on the Tennessee River and the Corps of Engineers' Barkley Dam on the Cumberland River led to the development of associated lakes, and the creation of what is called Land Between the Lakes. A navigation canal located at Grand Rivers, Kentucky, links Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley.
How long is the Cherokee River?
It is approximately 652 miles (1,049 km) long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names, as the Cherokee people had their homelands along its banks, especially in what are now East Tennessee and northern Alabama.
What bridge crosses the Tennessee River?
The Market Street Bridge, spanning the Tennessee River in Chattanooga. The "Steamboat Bill" Hudson Memorial Bridge in Decatur, Alabama. Natchez Trace Parkway, crossing the Tennessee River in Cherokee, Alabama. The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River.
Where does the Tennessee River start and where does it end?
It is formed by the confluence of the Holston and French Broad rivers, just east of Knoxville, Tennessee, and flows south-southwest to Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Does the Tennessee River empty into the Mississippi?
The “Tenn-Tom” was designed by the Corps of Engineers to connect the Tennessee River near Pickwick Landing by canal and Yellow Creek to the Tombigbee River in Mississippi. This route allowed barge traffic to reach Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The 232-mile waterway was begun in 1972 and completed in the 1980s.
What is the biggest dam in Tennessee?
At 480 ft., Fontana Dam is the tallest concrete dam east of the Rocky Mountains. The dam impounds the Little Tennessee River forming Fontana Lake and produces hydroelectric power. Reservoir size is approximately 11,700 acres.
How deep is the Tennessee River in Chattanooga?
The channel has a length of 1,045 kilometers (650 miles) and an average depth of about 2.7 meters (9 feet). About 34,000 barges annually travel the Tennessee River—the equivalent of two million semi-trailer trucks on the roads.
Are there alligators in the Tennessee River?
Alligators are nothing new in the Tennessee River. Some 56 alligators from Louisiana were dropped into remote parts of Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge in 1979 in an effort to expand the range of the species. Most biologists think the gators didn’t get to the Tennessee River on their own.
What are the 3 major rivers in Tennessee?
The longest rivers in Tennessee are the Mississippi River, Cumberland River and Tennessee River.
How polluted is the Tennessee River?
In 2010, Tennessee researchers said 32.4% of the river miles they tested were impaired. A decade later, in the state’s 2020 report, that number jumps to 55.4%, meaning more than half of the waterways that they sampled were too polluted to support their basic functions.

Overview
Course
The Little Tennessee River rises in the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the Chattahoochee National Forest in northeast Georgia's Rabun County. After flowing north through the mountains past Dillard into southwestern North Carolina, it is joined by the Cullasaja River at Franklin. The river turns northwest, flowing through the Nantahala National Forest along the north side of the Nantahala Mountains. It crosses into eastern Tennessee and joins the Tennessee River at Lenoir City, 25 miles (40 km) sou…
Impoundments
The lower river is impounded in several places by sequential dams, some created as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) system. They form a string of reservoirs in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee down to the river's confluence with the Tennessee. Near the state line between North Carolina and Tennessee, the Little Tennessee River is impounded by the 480-foot (150 m) Fontana Dam, completed in 1944, forming Fontana Lake along the southern boundar…
History
The Little Tennessee River and its immediate watershed comprise one of the richest archaeological areas in the southeastern United States, containing substantial indigenous habitation sites dating to as early as 7,500 B.C. Cyrus Thomas, who conducted a survey in the 1880s of earthwork mounds in the area for the Smithsonian Institution, wrote that the Little Tennessee River was "undo…
See also
• List of rivers of Tennessee
External links
• Little Tennessee Watershed Association
• Land Trust for the Little Tennessee