Elk River (North Carolina)

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This article is about the 'Elk River' in North Carolina and Carter County, Tennessee. For the article about the 'Elk River' of Middle Tennessee and Northern Alabama, see Elk River (Tennessee). For links to information about other streams called 'Elk River', or places named 'Elk River', see the Elk River disambiguation page.

The Elk River rises in Avery County, North Carolina just south of the small community of Elk Park, North Carolina on U.S. Highway 19E. in Pisgah National Forest. For most of the river's course, it runs in a deep gorge. Just before the Elk River crosses into Tennessee it flows over "Big Falls" (also called "Elk Falls"), a locally-known attraction which is approximately a 40 foot (12 m) drop. It then flows down a narrow, relatively steep valley to the tiny community of Elk Mills, which is named for a former water-powered mill built on this river at this point by early white settlers. Between the state line and Elk Mills, it flows over Twisting Falls, a drop of approximately 30 feet (nine m). At this point, it is bridged by U.S. Highway 321. Shortly below this point, it waters become slack as part of an embayment of Watuaga Lake, a sizable reservoir of the Watauga Dam Project of the Tennessee Valley Authority. This project has flooded the actual site of the original confluence of the Elk and Watauga Rivers.

The water eventually flows through the Watuga River, the Holston River, the Tennessee River, the Ohio River, and the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.

For more information on waterfalls in the Elk River drainage, see Waterfalls of Tennessee by Gregory Plumb, ISBN 1-57072-057-6

[edit] See also

• List of North Carolina rivers
• List of Tennessee rivers