Tellico River
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Tellico River | |
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| Origin | Cherokee County, North Carolina |
| Mouth | Tellico Reservoir of the Little Tennessee River; Monroe County, Tennessee |
| Length | 52.8 miles (85 km) |
| Mouth elevation | 814 ft (248 m) [1] |
| Basin area | 285 square miles (738 km²) |
The Tellico River rises in the westernmost mountains of North Carolina, but it flows mainly through Monroe County, Tennessee. It is a major tributary of the Little Tennessee River and the namesake of Tellico Reservoir, a reservoir created by Tellico Dam, which impounds the lower reaches of the Tellico River and the Little Tennessee River and was famous during the 1970s for the snail darter controversy.
The Tellico River and its main tributaries are renowned for their brook, brown, and rainbow trout fishing. Upstream from Tellico Lake, above the town of Tellico Plains, the Tellico is a premier trout stream. It meanders through a mountain gorge before reaching the broad plains downstream of Tellico Plains.
The Tellico River rises in the Unicoi Range near the Tennessee-North Carolina state line, in the Nantahala National Forest. The North Carolina side includes the Upper Tellico Off-highway vehicle area. This park is known for some of the most scenic and complicated off-road terrain.[2]
After the river crosses into Tennessee, it is joined by its major tributaries the Bald and North Rivers.
Virtually the whole of the Tellico River basin was logged by the Babcock Lumber Company in the early 20th century. The present-day road up the Tellico River from Tellico Plains was built on the old Babcock logging railroad bed. After the Tellico River basin forests were cut, Babock sold the land to the United States Forest Service.
According to the USGS, variant names of the Tellico River include Delaquay River, Talequo River, Terrique River, and Tellequo River.[1]
The word "Tellico" was the name of several Cherokee towns, the largest of which was Great Tellico, located on the Tellico River near present-day Tellico Plains, Tennessee. In Cherokee the word is more properly written "Talikwa". According to James Mooney, the Cherokee meaning of the word was lost. The origin of the word is actually Muskogee (Creek.) A Muskogean town named Taliko was thriving on the Tellico River when Spanish explorers visited in area in the mid-1500s. Taliko means "bean" in Muskogee.
The Tellico River is also a jewel for whitewater kayakers, as its rocky descent provivdes for beautiful class III-IV creeking. The run is especially popular during spring break due to higher water levels.
[edit] References
- Mooney, James Myths of the Cherokee (1900, repr. 1995)
