The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles (1049 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.
Course
The Tennessee River is formed at the confluence of the
Holston and
French Broad Rivers on the east side of
Knoxville, Tennessee. From Knoxville, it flows southwest through
East Tennessee toward
Chattanooga before crossing into
Alabama. It loops through
northern Alabama and eventually forms a small part of the state's border with
Mississippi, before returning to
Tennessee. At this point, it defines the boundary between Tennessee's other two regions—
Middle and
West Tennessee.
The
Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, a
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project providing navigation on the
Tombigbee River and a link to the Port of
Mobile, enters Tennessee near the Tennessee-Alabama-Mississippi boundary. This waterway reduces the navigation distance from Tennessee, north Alabama, and northern Mississippi to the
Gulf of Mexico by hundreds of miles. The final part of the Tennessee's run is in
Kentucky, where it separates the
Jackson Purchase from the rest of the state. It then flows into the Ohio River at
Paducah, Kentucky. It is one of a very few rivers in the United States which leave a state and then re-enter it; the
Cumberland River is another such river.
Dams
The river has been
dammed numerous times, primarily by
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) projects. The placement of TVA's Kentucky Dam on the Tennessee River and the Corps' Barkley Dam on the
Cumberland River directly led to the creation of
Land Between the Lakes. A navigation canal located at
Grand Rivers, Kentucky links
Kentucky Lake and
Lake Barkley. The canal allows for a shorter trip for river traffic going from the Tennessee to most of the Ohio River, and for traffic going down the Cumberland River toward the Mississippi.
Important cities and towns
Cities in bold type have more than 30,000 residents
- Bridgeport, Alabama
- Chattanooga, Tennessee
- Cherokee, Alabama
- Clifton, Tennessee
- Crump, Tennessee
- Decatur, Alabama
- Florence, Alabama
- Grand Rivers, Kentucky
- Guntersville, Alabama
- Harrison, Tennessee
- Huntsville, Alabama
- Killen, Alabama
- Knoxville, Tennessee
- Langston, Alabama
- Lenoir City, Tennessee
- Loudon, Tennessee
- New Johnsonville, Tennessee
- Paducah, Kentucky
- Redstone Arsenal, Alabama
- Savannah, Tennessee
- Scottsboro, Alabama
- Sheffield, Alabama
- Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee
- Signal Mountain, Tennessee
- South Pittsburg, Tennessee
- Triana, Alabama
- Waterloo, Alabama
Historic beginning
Officially the Tennessee River begins at mile post 652, where the French Broad River meets the Holston River. According to Tennessee Valley Authority historians, until 1933 the river that flowed past Knoxville was designated the Holston River, and the Tennessee River was considered to begin at the confluence of the Holston and the Little Tennessee River at
Lenoir City 51 miles downstream and 601 miles upstream from the Ohio River at
Paducah, Kentucky. The nomenclature was changed in 1933 due to a Congressional mandate that the Tennessee Valley Authority headquarters be located on the banks of the Tennessee River. Because the TVA headquarters were to be located in downtown Knoxville, the confluence of the Holston and French Broad Rivers was designated to be the beginning of the Tennessee River, placing the beginning of the river upstream from Knoxville.
Water rights and border dispute with Georgia
At various points since the early 19th century,
Georgia has disputed its northern border with Tennessee, thereby denying Georgia its historical riparian and navigation rights to the waters of the Tennessee River. In 1796, when Tennessee was admitted to the Union, the border was originally defined by
United States Congress as located on the 35th parallel, thereby ensuring that at least a portion of the river would be located within Georgia. As a result of an erroneously conducted survey in 1818 (ratified by the Tennessee legislature but not Georgia), however, the actual border line was set on the ground approximately one mile south, thus placing the disputed portion of the river entirely in Tennessee. .
Georgia made several unsuccessful attempts to correct what Georgia felt was an erroneous survey line 'in the 1890s, 1905, 1915, 1922, 1941, 1947 and 1971 to "resolve" the dispute', according to C. Crews Townsend, Joseph McCoin, Robert F. Parsley, Alison Martin and Zachary H. Greene, writing for the Tennessee Bar Journal, a publication of the Tennessee Bar Association, appearing on May 12, 2008.
In 2008, as a result of a serious drought and resulting water shortage, the Georgia General Assembly passed a resolution directing the governor to pursue its claim in the United States Supreme Court.
Many Tennessee lawmakers have dismissed the Georgia claims and are mounting a legislative challenge to keep the border where it is.
Popular culture
Tennessee River tributaries
Tributaries and sub-tributaries are hierarchically listed in order from the mouth of the Tennessee River upstream.
- Big Sandy River (Tennessee)
- Duck River (Tennessee)
- Beech River (Tennessee)
- Bear Creek (Alabama, Mississippi)
- Buzzard Roost Creek (Alabama)
- Colbert Creek (Alabama)
- Malone Creek (Alabama)
- Mulberry Creek (Alabama)
- Cane Creek (Alabama)
- Dry Creek (Alabama)
- Little Bear Creek (Alabama)
- Spring Creek (Alabama)
- Cypress Creek (Alabama)
- Shoal Creek (Alabama)
- First Creek (Alabama)
- Elk River (Tennessee, Alabama)
- Flint Creek (Alabama)
- Limestone Creek (Alabama, Tennessee)
- Indian Creek (Alabama)
- Flint River (Alabama, Tennessee)
- Paint Rock River (Alabama, Tennessee)
- Sequatchie River (Tennessee)
- Chattanooga Creek (Tennessee, Georgia)
- Chickamauga Creek (Tennessee, Georgia)
- Hiwassee River (Tennessee, North Carolina)
- Piney River (Tennessee)
- Clinch River (Tennessee, Virginia)
- Little Tennessee River (Tennessee, North Carolina)
- Little River (Tennessee)
- French Broad River
- Holston River (Tennessee)
See also
Notes
Further reading
- Woodside, M.D. et al. (2004). Water quality in the lower Tennessee River Basin, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Georgia, 1999-2001 [U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1233]. Reston, VA: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey.
External links
