Coal Creek is a tributary of the
Clinch River
The Clinch River is a river that flows southwest for more than through the Great Appalachian Valley in the U.S. states of Virginia and Tennessee, gathering various tributaries, including the Powell River, before joining the Tennessee River in Ki ...
in
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
, approximately long.
Coal Creek flows northward along the southeastern base of Cross Mountain, slicing a narrow valley in which the communities of
Briceville and
Fraterville are located, to
Lake City, a town formerly named Coal Creek, at the base of the
Cumberland Plateau. The creek's confluence with the Clinch River is east of Lake City and below
Norris Dam
Norris Dam is a hydroelectric and flood control structure located on the Clinch River in Anderson County and Campbell County, Tennessee, United States. The dam was the first major project for the Tennessee Valley Authority, which had been create ...
, near the
Interstate 75
Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from St ...
highway bridge across the river.
The creek drains a watershed area of about . Beech Grove Fork is its largest tributary stream. Coal Creek's water quality is affected by
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when ...
surface mining, municipal
wastewater
Wastewater is water generated after the use of freshwater, raw water, drinking water or saline water in a variety of deliberate applications or processes. Another definition of wastewater is "Used water from any combination of domestic, industrial ...
discharges, and
channelization.
See also
*
Coal Creek War
The Coal Creek War was an early 1890s armed labor uprising in the southeastern United States that took place primarily in Anderson County, Tennessee. This labor conflict ignited during 1891 when coal mine owners in the Coal Creek watershed beg ...
*
List of rivers of Tennessee
This is a list of rivers of the U.S. state of Tennessee:
By drainage basin
This list is arranged by drainage basin, with respective tributaries indented under each larger stream's name. All rivers in Tennessee ultimately flow to the Gulf of Mex ...
References
External links
Coal Creek Watershed Foundation
Rivers of Anderson County, Tennessee
Rivers of Tennessee
Tributaries of the Tennessee River
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