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French Broad River

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This article is about the river west of the Eastern Continental Divide (ECD) in western North Carolina. For the similarly named river in western North Carolina east of the ECD, see Broad River (Carolinas).

The French Broad River is a river in the U.S. states of North Carolina and Tennessee. It flows 218 miles (351 km)[4] from near the town of Rosman in Transylvania County, North Carolina, into Tennessee, where its confluence with the Holston River at Knoxville forms the beginning of the Tennessee River. The river flows through the counties of Transylvania, Buncombe, Henderson, and Madison in North Carolina, and Cocke, Jefferson, Sevier, and Knox in Tennessee. It drains large portions of the Pisgah National Forest and the Cherokee National Forest.

French Broad River
French Broad River in Henderson County, North Carolina
French Broad River watershed
Location
CountryUnited States
StateNorth Carolina, Tennessee
Physical characteristics
SourceNorth Fork French Broad River
 • locationTransylvania County, North Carolina
 • coordinates35°15′57″N 82°53′20″W / 35.26583°N 82.88889°W / 35.26583; -82.88889[1][2]
 • elevation3,189 ft (972 m)
2nd sourceWest Fork French Broad River
 • locationTransylvania County, North Carolina
 • coordinates35°11′09″N 82°59′01″W / 35.18583°N 82.98361°W / 35.18583; -82.98361[3]
 • elevation3,440 ft (1,050 m)
Source confluence 
 • locationRosman, North Carolina
 • coordinates35°08′33″N 82°50′19″W / 35.14250°N 82.83861°W / 35.14250; -82.83861[4][5]
 • elevation2,195 ft (669 m)
MouthTennessee River
 • location
Knoxville, Tennessee
 • coordinates
35°57′33″N 83°51′0″W / 35.95917°N 83.85000°W / 35.95917; -83.85000[5]
 • elevation
814 ft (248 m)[5]
Length219 mi (352 km)[4]
Basin size5,124 sq mi (13,270 km2)[6]
Discharge 
 • locationRiverdale, Tennessee, 7.5 miles (12.1 km) above the mouth(mean for water years 1945–1983)[7]
 • average7,878 cu ft/s (223.1 m3/s)(mean for water years 1945–1983)[7]
 • minimum67 cu ft/s (1.9 m3/s)October 1953[7]
 • maximum160,000 cu ft/s (4,500 m3/s)July 1867[7]
Basin features
ProgressionFrench Broad → Tennessee → Ohio → Mississippi
Tributaries 
 • leftPigeon River, Little Pigeon River
 • rightSwannanoa River, Nolichucky River

Course

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The headwaters of the French Broad River are near the town of Rosman in Transylvania County, North Carolina, just northwest of the Eastern Continental Divide near the northwest border of South Carolina. They spill from a 50-foot (15 m) waterfall called Courthouse Falls at the terminus of Courthouse Creek near Balsam Grove. The waterfall feeds into a creek that becomes the North Fork, which joins the West Fork west of Rosman. South of Rosman, the stream is joined by the Middle and East forks to form the French Broad River.

From there it flows northeast through the Appalachian Mountains into Henderson, and Buncombe counties. In Buncombe County, the river flows through Asheville where it receives the water of the Swannanoa River. Downstream of Asheville, the river passes north through Marshall and Madison County. After passing through Hot Springs in the Bald Mountains, the river enters Cocke County, Tennessee.

In Cocke County, the river passes through Del Rio and receives the waters of both the Pigeon and the Nolichucky rivers northwest of Newport. The river enters the slack waters of Douglas Lake, which was created by the Tennessee Valley Authority's Douglas Dam in Sevier County, approximately 32 miles (51 km) upstream from the river's mouth. Near Sevierville, at Kodak, the French Broad River receives the flow of the Little Pigeon River, which drains much of the Tennessee section of the Great Smoky Mountains. After flowing through a wide gap in Bays Mountain, it enters Knox County. Its confluence with the Holston River forms the Tennessee River at a place known as "Forks of the River", at the eastern edge of Knoxville.

Major tributaries

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  • North Fork
  • West Fork
  • East Fork
  • Middle Fork
  • Pigeon River
  • Nolichucky River
  • Mills River
  • Davidson River
  • Swannanoa River
  • Little River (French Broad River)

History

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The French Broad River is believed to be one of the oldest in the world, cutting over eons through ancient rocks in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.[8] The French Broad predates the Alleghanian orogeny, through the resulting mountains it cuts; however, the current topographic relief of the Southern Appalachians is relatively new, making it virtually impossible to estimate the age of the river.[9]

The Cherokee people, the historic Indigenous Americans who occupied the area at the time of European invasion and conquest, referred to the river by different names: Poelico and Agiqua ("broad") in the mountains of the headwaters; Zillicoah upriver of the confluence at present-day Asheville; and Tahkeeosteh (racing waters) from Asheville downriver.[10] The river is considered to roughly mark the eastern boundary of the Cherokee homelands in this region, which included areas of present-day northwestern South Carolina, northeastern Georgia, and southeastern Tennessee. The French called the river the Agiqua, borrowing one of the Cherokee names.

Initiated as a project during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Douglas Dam was completed in the 1940s on the lower French Broad by the TVA to provide electricity and flood control. It is one of the larger TVA developments on a tributary of the Tennessee River. (The two other very large ones are Norris Lake on the Clinch River and Cherokee Lake on the Holston River.)

In 1987, the North Carolina General Assembly established the French Broad River State Trail as a blueway which follows the river for 117 miles (188 km).[11] The paddle trail is a part of the North Carolina State Trails System, which is a section of the NC Division of Parks and Recreation. A system of launch point sites was created along the river to support the trail.

The portion of the French Broad River in Tennessee was designated as a state scenic river by the Tennessee Scenic Rivers Act of 1968. Approximately 33 miles (53 km) of the river in Cocke County, starting at the North Carolina border and extending downstream to the place where it flows into Douglas Lake, are designated as a Class III, Partially Developed River.

 
French Broad River as seen from the Appalachian Trail near Hot Springs, North Carolina

Crossings

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The following is a list of crossings of the French Broad from Brevard to the confluence with the Tennessee River.

North Carolina

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Tennessee

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: North Fork French Broad River
  2. ^ John Hairr, North Carolina Rivers: Facts, Legend, and Lore (History Press, 2007), p. 90.
  3. ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: West Fork French Broad River
  4. ^ a b c U.S. Geological Survey. Rosman, NC. 1:24,000.
  5. ^ a b c U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: French Broad River
  6. ^ U.S. Geological Survey, "Introduction to the Upper Tennessee River Basin," 11 January 2013. Accessed: 31 May 2015.
  7. ^ a b c d United States Geological Survey, Water Resources Data Tennessee: Water Year 1983, Water Data Report TN-83-1, p. 116.
  8. ^ Boyle, John (August 2, 2018). "Answer Man: Is the French Broad one of the world's oldest rivers?". Asheville Citizen-Times. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
  9. ^ "Researchers Find Evidence of Geological 'Facelift' in the Appalachians". NC State News. Retrieved Oct 19, 2020.
  10. ^ French Broad River, Blue Ridge National Heritage Area
  11. ^ "Size of the North Carolina State Parks System" (XLS). North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation. January 1, 2019. Archived from the original on July 21, 2019. Retrieved July 21, 2019.

Further reading

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  • Dykeman, Wilma. The French Broad (1955).
  • Rich, Jeff. Watershed: The French Broad River (2012).
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