Cumberland River

Cumberland River
Cumberland River
	Martins Fork
• location	Harlan, Kentucky
• coordinates	36°50′42″N 83°19′26″W / 36.84500°N 83.32389°W
• elevation	1,158 ft (353 m)
Mouth	Ohio River
• location	Livingston County, Kentucky
• coordinates	37°08′36″N 88°24′27″W / 37.14333°N 88.40750°W
• elevation	302 ft (92 m)
Length	688 mi (1,107 km)
Basin size	17,728 sq mi (45,920 km2)
Discharge
• location	below Barkley Dam, about 31 mi (50 km) from the mouth
• average	37,250 cu ft/s (1,055 m3/s)
• minimum	6,085 cu ft/s (172.3 m3/s)
• maximum	209,000 cu ft/s (5,900 m3/s)
Basin features
Tributaries
• left	Red River, Little River

The Cumberland River is a major

Red

Rivers.

Although the Cumberland River basin is predominantly rural, there are also some large cities on the river, including Nashville and Clarksville, both in Tennessee.

The river system has been extensively altered for flood control. Major dams impound areas of both the main stem and many of its important tributaries.

Geography

Its headwaters are three separate forks that begin in

Harlan

.

Clover Fork once flowed through downtown Harlan and merged with Martins Fork at what is now the intersection of

Letcher County

near Flat Gap, Virginia. It flows southwest in parallel with Pine Mountain until it merges with the other two forks in Baxter.

From there, the wider, now named Cumberland River continues flowing west through the mountains of Kentucky before turning northward toward Cumberland Falls. The 68-foot (21 m) falls is one of the largest waterfalls in the southeastern United States and is one of the few places in the Western Hemisphere where a moonbow can be seen.^[5]

Beyond Cumberland Falls, the river turns abruptly west once again and continues to expand as other creeks and streams feed into it. It receives the Laurel and Rockcastle rivers from the northeast, followed by the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River from the south. From here it flows into the man-made Lake Cumberland, formed by Wolf Creek Dam. The more than 100-mile (160 km) reservoir is one of the largest artificial lakes in the eastern US.

Near

Red River

.

It flows back into Kentucky at the

Paducah

.

History

The explorer Thomas Walker of Virginia in 1758 named the river, but whether for the Duke of Cumberland or the English county of Cumberland is not known.^[6]

The Cumberland River was called Wasioto by the Shawnee Native Americans, who lived in this area. French traders called it the Riviere des Chaouanons, or "River of the Shawnee" for this association. The river was also known as the Shawnee River (or Shawanoe River) for years after Walker's trip.^[1]

Important first as a passage for hunters and settlers, the Cumberland River also supported later riverboat trade, which traveled to the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Villages, towns, and cities were located at landing points along its banks. Through the middle of the 19th century, settlers depended on rivers as the primary transportation routes for trading and travel.

Floods

In more recent history, a number of severe floods have struck various regions that the river flows through. In April 1977, Harlan, Kentucky, and many surrounding communities were inundated with floodwaters, destroying most of the homes and businesses within the floodplain of the river. This event led to the building of the Martins Fork Dam for flood control and the diversion of the Clover Fork around the city of Harlan. In addition, the river was diverted through a mountain cut in Loyall, Kentucky.

In late April and early May 2010, due to the

Nashville and Clarksville, Tennessee. The downtown area was ordered to evacuate.^[7]

Major flooding occurred along the Cumberland River at Pineville, Barbourville, and Williamsburg in early February 2020.^[8]