The Barren Fork is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed June 8, 2011 tributary of the

Collins River The Collins River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 8, 2011 stream in the east-central portion of Middle Tennessee in the United States. It is a tributary of th ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

of Tennessee. Via the Collins River, the

Caney Fork The Caney Fork River is a river that flows through central Tennessee in the United States, draining a substantial portion of the southwestern Cumberland Plateau and southeastern Highland Rim regions. It is a major tributary of the Cumberland River ...

, and the

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...

and

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

rivers, it is part of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

watershed. The Barren Fork rises in western

Warren County, Tennessee Warren County is a county located on the Cumberland Plateau in Middle Tennessee, one of the three Grand Divisions of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2010 census, the population was 39,839. Its county seat is McMinnville. Warren County ...

. It is formed from the confluence of its north and south prongs, which join near the tiny community of Trousdale. Its component streams and their tributaries drain much of the eastern portions of

Cannon County Cannon County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,506. Its county seat is Woodbury. Cannon County is part of the Nashville–Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN Metropolitan Stat ...

and Coffee County. The stream flows generally from west to east until it reaches the town of McMinnville, county seat of Warren County. From there it turns in a more northeasterly direction. From this point it is less than 5 linear miles (8 km) to the mouth of the Barren Fork into the

, but considerably longer by the meandering course taken by the stream in its lower reaches. Near downtown McMinnville is a dam formerly utilized by the city as an electric power source; it was supplanted by the

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina ...

system, as the small amount (by modern standards) of electricity it was capable of producing makes it impracticable to man and maintain by modern standards. The Barren Fork is named for the "Barrens" area of

Middle Tennessee Middle Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of the U.S. state of Tennessee that composes roughly the central portion of the state. It is delineated according to state law as 41 of the state's 95 counties. Middle Tennessee contains the s ...

. This area comprises much of Coffee County, western Warren County, and southeastern

. The area was first named this by the early settlers, who were surprised to find a largely unforested area in the midst of what was generally a dense

hardwood Hardwood is wood from dicot trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood (which comes from ...

forest surrounding it. Several theories have been suggested as to its origin. The area is somewhat swampy, however; it is too moist for many types of hardwood trees that cannot survive long periods of "wet feet". It is suggested that it was cleared by Native Americans, in part using

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition ...

, so that the resulting open area would improve grazing conditions for

elk The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The common ...

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

, and buffalo and thus improve hunting, and that they, like their

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

successors, also used the area for

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

. Since only a limited number of native hardwood trees could grow in the area, it was relatively easy for the area to remain cleared once it had initially had much of its woody vegetation removed. The

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) is an independent state agency of the state of Tennessee with the mission of managing the state's fish and wildlife and their habitats, as well as responsibility for all wildlife-related law enforcem ...

(TWRA) maintains three boat access sites in McMinnville.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Tennessee Rivers of Warren County, Tennessee Tributaries of the Cumberland River

See also

References