French Broad River
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.
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).French Broad River
North Fork French Broad River
3,189 ft (972 m)
West Fork French Broad River
3,440 ft (1,050 m)
2,195 ft (669 m)
814 ft (248 m)[5]
219 mi (352 km)[4]
5,124 sq mi (13,270 km2)[6]
Riverdale, Tennessee, 7.5 miles (12.1 km) above the mouth(mean for water years 1945–1983)[7]
7,878 cu ft/s (223.1 m3/s)(mean for water years 1945–1983)[7]
67 cu ft/s (1.9 m3/s)October 1953[7]
160,000 cu ft/s (4,500 m3/s)July 1867[7]
French Broad → Tennessee → Ohio → Mississippi
Course[edit]
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 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.
