The Conasauga River is a
river
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...
that runs through southeast
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 ...
and northwest
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
. The Conasauga River is long
[U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data]
The National Map
, accessed April 27, 2011 and is home to 90 species of fish and 25 species of freshwater mussels. The Conasauga River watershed encompasses over in two states, multiple counties, and two ecologically different regions.
Location
The Conasauga River is the most westerly
trout
Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...
water on public land in Georgia. It is the only river in Tennessee that is not a 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 only road access to the Conasauga is found via Old GA 2,
GA 2, and Carlton Petty Road. Access via foot trail is located on Forest Service road (FS) 64 in Betty Gap. Three other trails descend from the west off FS 17 to intersect the river trail. From south to north they are the Chestnut Lead, , Tearbritches Trail, , and Hickory Creek Trail, . Primitive
camping
Camping is an outdoor activity involving overnight stays away from home, either without shelter or using basic shelter such as a tent, or a recreational vehicle. Typically, participants leave developed areas to spend time outdoors in more nat ...
is allowed all along the river.
Natural information
At the core of the Conasauga watershed is the
Cohutta Wilderness
The Cohutta Wilderness was designated in 1975, expanded in 1986, and currently consists of . Approximately are located in Georgia in the Chattahoochee National Forest and approximately are located in Tennessee in the Cherokee National Forest. T ...
, located in
Fannin,
Gilmer, and
Murray
Murray may refer to:
Businesses
* Murray (bicycle company), an American manufacturer of low-cost bicycles
* Murrays, an Australian bus company
* Murray International Trust, a Scottish investment trust
* D. & W. Murray Limited, an Australian who ...
counties in Georgia and
Polk County Polk County is the name of twelve counties in the United States, all except two named after president of the United States James Knox Polk:
* Polk County, Arkansas
* Polk County, Florida
* Polk County, Georgia
* Polk County, Iowa
* Polk Count ...
in Tennessee. The
United States Forest Service
The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...
manages the area as part of the
Chattahoochee National Forest
The Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida - Georgia border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the con ...
and
Cherokee National Forest
The Cherokee National Forest is a United States National Forest located in the U.S. states of Tennessee and North Carolina that was created on June 14, 1920. The forest is maintained and managed by the United States Forest Service. It encompasses ...
. The preserve covers over and contains approximately of the Conasauga.
The Conasauga River is home to more than 90 fish species, including 12 federally listed species of fish and mussels. Historically there were 42 species of freshwater mussels, however only 25 species still exist. It is estimated that only 1% of original population remains.
[Conasauga River Watershed Ecosystem Restoration Project](_blank)
/ref>
The waters yield wild rainbow trout
The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coasta ...
and wild browns, with rainbows up to and browns to . The managed land is populated by white-tailed deer
The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...
, wild hogs, black bear
Black bear or Blackbear may refer to:
Animals
* American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species
* Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species
Music
* Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...
s, and smaller animals.
Environmental problems
The Conasauga River is a Category 1 priority watershed in Georgia’s Unified Watershed Assessment and of the river and of the tributaries have been on Georgia’s List of Impaired Waters for fecal, metal, toxic chemical, sediment, and nutrients.
Up to one-third of the summer flow taken in the vicinity of Dalton, Georgia
Dalton is a city and the county seat of Whitfield County, Georgia, United States. It is also the principal city of the Dalton Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Murray and Whitfield counties.
As of the 2010 census, the ci ...
is used for carpet production.
The river has been contaminated with perfluorinated compounds
A perfluorinated compound (PFC) or perfluoro compound is an organofluorine compound containing only carbon-fluorines and C−C bonds, as well as potentially heteroatoms. Perfluorinated compounds have properties that result from the presence of fl ...
used to make carpets stain-resistant.[Fuchs, Erin and Pam Sohn]
"Study finds high levels of stain-resistance ingredient in Conasauga River"
''Chattanooga Times Free Press''. (February 10, 2008). Accessed October 26, 2008.
Name
"Conasauga" is a name derived from the Cherokee language
200px, Number of speakers
Cherokee or Tsalagi ( chr, ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ, ) is an endangered-to-moribund Iroquoian language and the native language of the Cherokee people. ''Ethnologue'' states that there were 1,520 Cherokee speaker ...
meaning "grass". According to the Geographic Names Information System
The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories, Antarctica, and the associated states of ...
, Conasauga River has also been known historically as:
* Connasauga River
* Connesauga River
* Conne-san-ga River
* Slave River
* Jacks River
The Jacks River or Jack's Fork (of the Conasauga River) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 27, 2011 river in the Cohutta Wilderness Area of northwest Georgia, ...
now is the name of a tributary of the Conasauga.
See also
* Laurel Fork Railway The Laurel Fork Railway was a small, standard-gauge logging railroad that operated entirely in Carter County, Tennessee from 1912 to 1927. Built by the Pittsburgh Lumber Company to serve a double-band sawmill at Braemar, in present-day Hampton, Te ...
* 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
The Conasauga River - The Nature Conservancy
no reference to Conasauga May 2016
{{authority control
Rivers of Georgia (U.S. state)
Rivers of Tennessee
Rivers of Fannin County, Georgia
Rivers of Gilmer County, Georgia
Rivers of Murray County, Georgia
Bodies of water of Polk County, Tennessee
Rivers of Whitfield County, Georgia
ACT River Basin