The Rocky River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
accessed June 8, 2011 stream in the east-central portion of

Middle Tennessee Middle Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee that composes roughly the central portion of the state. It is delineated according to state law as 41 of the state's 95 counties. Middle Tennessee contains the state's capital an ...

in the United States. It is a tributary of the

Caney Fork River The Caney Fork River is a river that flows through central Tennessee in the United States, draining a substantial portion of the southwestern Cumberland Plateau and southeastern Highland Rim regions. It is a major tributary of the Cumberland Rive ...

, and is part of the

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

and

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

watersheds. The lower portion of the river is part of the reservoir created by Great Falls Dam, which is located near the river's confluence with the Caney Fork.

Course

The Rocky River rises on the slopes of Jakes Mountain, a summit north of the Cagle community atop the

Cumberland Plateau The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau in the Appalachian Mountains of the United States. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and portions of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia. The terms " Al ...

in Sequatchie County. Just below its source, the stream enters its Studer Lake impoundment as it flows northward through a rugged area of abandoned surface mines. Beyond this lake, the river crosses into Van Buren County, where it continues northward through rugged hills.U.S. Geological Survey 1:24,000 topographical maps: Smartt Mountain, TN, Curtistown, TN, Welchland, TN, and Doyle, TN.Tennessee Report: Summary of Tennessee AML Reclamation
National Association of State Land Reclamations newsletter, July 2007, p. 3. Retrieved: 2 July 2013. After passing the historic "Rocky River Crossing" (once part of the

Trail of Tears The Trail of Tears was the forced displacement of about 60,000 people of the " Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850, and the additional thousands of Native Americans and their black slaves within that were ethnically cleansed by the U ...

) along Pleasant Hill Cemetery Road,Historic Sites
" Trail of Tears Association website. Retrieved: 2 July 2013. the river begins its descent to the

Highland Rim The Highland Rim is a geographic term for the area in Tennessee, North Alabama, and Kentucky which surrounds the Central Basin. The Central Basin is a geological dome which has subsequently fractured and eroded to produce a basin. The Highland R ...

, losing 900 feet in elevation in less than four miles before steadying in the White Hill area. Flanked by the walls of the Cumberland Plateau and Barnett Mountain, the river continues northward through the Riverview and Laurelburg communities. At the latter, the river veers westward toward Warren County, then again turns northward, forming the boundary between Warren and Van Buren for the remainder of its course. Just before reaching the Goodbars community, the river passes under State Highway 30 (Spencer Road). Beyond Goodbars, the river flows through a series of oxbow bends, one of which nearly forms a

meander cutoff A meander cutoff is a natural form of a cutting or cut in a river occurs when a pronounced meander (hook) in a river is breached by a flow that connects the two closest parts of the hook to form a new channel, a full loop. The steeper drop in gra ...

. After passing under Bone Cave Road and U.S. Highway 70, the river flows just east of the Rock Island community as it enters the slack waters of Great Falls Lake. The river empties into the Caney Fork about a mile upstream from Great Falls Dam. Its confluence with the Caney Fork marks a three-way junction between Warren, Van Buren, and

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

counties.

Watershed

The drainage area of the Rocky River covers 111 square miles.Warren King, ''Water Resources of Tennessee'' (Nashville, 1925), p. 65. The Tennessee Valley Divide, which separates the Cumberland and

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

watersheds, crosses Jakes Mountain a few hundred yards south of the source of the Rocky River. Streams on the north side of the mountain flow into the Rocky, while streams on the south side are part of the Sequatchie River watershed. A string of ridges extending from the Cumberland Plateau, among them Long Mountain and Barnett Mountain, split the watershed of the Rocky from the watershed of the

Collins River The Collins River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 8, 2011 stream in the east-central portion of Middle Tennessee in the United States. It is a tributary of t ...

to the west. Important tributaries of the Rocky include Harper Branch, Sycamore Branch, and Dyer Gulch Creek, which flow into the river from the west, and Samples Fork, Rocky Branch, and Pine Branch, which join the river from the east. Laurel Creek, which empties into the river's eastern bank just downstream from Goodbars, drains part of the town of Spencer.

History

Rock Island, a small island at the confluence of the Rocky River and Caney Fork, was an important early landmark and river ford for settlers in the eastern Highland Rim region. Two Indian trails, the Chickamauga Trail (later the Old Kentucky Road) and the Black Fox Trail, intersected near the island. Historian J. G. M. Ramsey reports a battle taking place at the island in 1793, near the end of the

Cherokee–American wars The Cherokee–American wars, also known as the Chickamauga Wars, were a series of raids, campaigns, ambushes, minor skirmishes, and several full-scale frontier battles in the Old Southwest from 1776 to 1794 between the Cherokee and American se ...

. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Higgenbotham's Trace (or Rainey's Turnpike), a major road connecting McMinnville with the

Sequatchie Valley Sequatchie Valley is a relatively long and narrow valley in the U.S. state of Tennessee and, in some definitions, Alabama. It is generally considered to be part of the Cumberland Plateau region of the Appalachian Mountains; it was probably formed ...

, crossed the Rocky River near Pleasant Hill Cemetery, just north of Van Buren-Sequatchie county line. In 1838, the northern route of the

, the path over which the

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

were removed from the eastern mountains to

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

, followed this road. While the procession camped at the Rocky River, the Cherokee leader Junaluska and several supporters deserted and attempted to return to the east. They were eventually arrested and incarcerated. The Rocky River Crossing and the adjacent roadbed, which look much as they did 170 years ago, have since been added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. Historian Arthur Weir Crouch reported several early fords along the Rocky River, most notably Brights Ford at the river's Laurel Creek confluence, and Hash Ford, or Indian Ford, near its mouth. A wooden bridge was built at the latter ford in the mid-19th century, but was destroyed by a flood in 1872. As part of its Great Falls Dam project, the Tennessee Electric Power Company built the Yost Bridge about a mile above the river's mouth in 1915, and the Blanks Bridge about three miles above the river's mouth in 1916. A bridge for Tennessee Highway 30 was built in the early 1920s.Arthur Weir Crouch, ''The Caney Fork of the Cumberland: The Story of a River, Its History, Features, Moods, People and Places with Particular Reference to Rock Island and the Area Above Great Falls'' (Nashville, Tenn.: Crouch, 1973), pp. 23-33.

Ecology and habitat improvement

Siltation Siltation is water pollution caused by particulate terrestrial clastic material, with a particle size dominated by silt or clay. It refers both to the increased concentration of suspended sediments and to the increased accumulation (temporary o ...

from surface mining conducted in the upper Rocky River basin during the early and mid-20th century damaged several sections of the river, and threatened two federally-listed species that live in the river, the bluemask darter and the slender chub. Restoration efforts have focused on the erection of livestock exclusion fences to create a reforested

riparian zone A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a ripari ...

along the river,U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Celebrating Habitat in Tennessee
p. 1. Retrieved: 2 July 2013. and backfilling and revegetating abandoned surface mines.

References

External links

{{authority control Rivers of Tennessee Rivers of Sequatchie County, Tennessee Rivers of Van Buren County, Tennessee Rivers of Warren County, Tennessee Rivers of White County, Tennessee Tributaries of the Cumberland River