Tennessee basin
Nantahala River
Rises under Standing Indian in Macon County, North Carolina, and runs through its gorge to the Little Tennessee at Fontana Lake. Most of its flow is piped to a powerhouse.
The Country
Rivers and
their country.
A few rivers, chosen because the record on them is good. Each entry follows the water from where it rises to where it ends, and names the ranges it crosses and what has been documented along it.
Savannah basin
Chattooga River
Rises under Whiteside Mountain near Cashiers and runs off the Blue Ridge Escarpment to Lake Tugalo, forming the Georgia and South Carolina line. Wild and Scenic since 1974.
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Mobile (Coosa) basin
Conasauga River
Rises in the Cohutta Mountains and runs 93 miles to the Oostanaula near Calhoun. Its fish, 75 to more than 90 species by source, include the Conasauga logperch, found in no other river.
Tennessee basin
Little Tennessee River
Rises in Rabun County, Georgia, and runs north past Franklin and the Smokies to the Tennessee at Lenoir City. Cherokee towns lined it, and five major dams now hold it.
Savannah basin
Tallulah River
Rises near Standing Indian Mountain in North Carolina and runs south through a chain of four reservoirs and Tallulah Gorge to Lake Tugalo, where it meets the Chattooga.
Tennessee basin
Hiwassee River
Rises in Towns County, Georgia, crosses the corner of North Carolina through Chatuge, Hiwassee and Apalachia lakes, and runs through Polk County, Tennessee, to the Tennessee River. A state scenic river below the North Carolina line since 1968.
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Tennessee basin
Tellico River
Rises near McDaniel Bald on the North Carolina side of the Unicoi Mountains and runs down an old logging grade to Tellico Plains and the Little Tennessee under Tellico Lake. Trout water at the top, rescued fish at the bottom.
Tennessee basin
Little River
The Smokies' Tennessee-side river. It rises under Kuwohi, runs down the Little River Lumber Company's old grade past Elkmont and Townsend, and reaches the Tennessee in Fort Loudoun Lake below Rockford.
Tennessee basin
Toccoa and Ocoee River
One river with a name for each state. It rises in Union County, Georgia, fills Blue Ridge Lake, changes names between McCaysville and Copperhill, and runs through the Copper Basin and three TVA dams to the Hiwassee. The 1996 Olympic slalom was paddled on it.
Tennessee basin
Sequatchie River
Comes out of the ground at the Head of Sequatchie, carrying water that sank in Grassy Cove, and runs the length of the Sequatchie Valley past Pikeville, Dunlap and Whitwell to the Tennessee River below Nickajack Dam.
Tennessee basin
Tuckasegee River
Rises where Panthertown and Greenland creeks meet in southeastern Jackson County, North Carolina, and runs northwest to the Little Tennessee in Fontana Lake, taking the Smokies' southern streams on the way. In 2010 a dam came out of it at Dillsboro.
Tennessee basin
Pigeon River
Rises on the north side of the Great Balsams and runs past Canton, through Walters Dam and the gorge at the state line, to the French Broad near Newport. For most of the twentieth century it carried the Canton paper mill's waste into Tennessee. Since 2001 its lost fishes and snails have been put back by hand.