Ocoee River

About

Ocoee River, Tennessee — 1913-1936 Ocoee Dam, 1996 Olympic Whitewater Slalom, 1977 Relicensing, Cherokee. The Ocoee valley was central Cherokee territory before the forced removal of the 1830s, and the 1838 Trail of Tears passed through the watershed. The river's Cherokee name has been read two ways in the record — as "Uwagohi," for the passion flower along its banks, and as a word meaning "blocked waterway" or "place of the amber liquid," a nod to the tannic, tea-colored water draining the surrounding wetlands. In its full course the Ocoee gathers 770 square miles across Polk, Bradley, Fannin, and neighboring counties in southeastern Tennessee and northern Georgia, running some 92 miles west and north to its confluence with the Hiwassee River.

Industry arrived early in the twentieth century. The Tallassee Power Company — TAPOCO, later folded into the Tennessee Valley Authority — began building dams on the Ocoee in 1910 for hydroelectric power, and the Eastern Tennessee Power Company completed Ocoee Dam No. 1 in 1913, creating Parksville Lake. The system reshaped the river's flow for decades: the No. 2 powerhouse diverted water through a wooden flume, and the riverbed below ran dry until a landmark 1976 negotiation restored recreational flows. In 1939 the network passed into public hands when the TVA purchased Ocoee Dam No. 1 and Ocoee Dam No. 2 from the East Tennessee Power Company. The 1936 Ocoee Dam No. 3, a TVA dam, defined the modern era, and the 1977 Ocoee River relicensing stood as one of the first major FERC relicensings.

Conservation followed the industrial build-out. In 1983 the surrounding lands were renamed the Hiwassee/Ocoee Scenic River State Park, protecting the corridor for public enjoyment, and the river sits within the Cherokee National Forest as a designated Tennessee Scenic River. The defining moment came in 1996, when the Ocoee hosted the canoe and kayak events of the Atlanta Olympics — the first whitewater Olympic events held in the United States. The Olympic facility on the Upper Ocoee continues to host national and international competitions.

Today the river is paddled in three distinct reaches. The Upper Ocoee, or Olympic Section, runs Class III–IV over the competition venue and holds the best waves. The Middle Ocoee — the most popular stretch — delivers roughly five miles of near non-stop Class III–IV wave train. Below the powerhouse, the Lower Ocoee eases to Class II–III, a family-friendly float. By the 1980s through the 2010s, rafting had come to define the river; the TVA lists it among the most popular whitewater rafting destinations in the country, and the trade supports the economies of Copperhill, Ducktown, and Benton. Outfitters run guided trips here, from the Nantahala Outdoor Center to Ocoee Outdoors, a Ducktown operation working the river since 1985. American Whitewater continues its stewardship of recreational water releases, the same current that resurrected a riverbed once left dry by the flume.