The Holston River is a river that flows from

Kingsport, Tennessee Kingsport is a city in Sullivan County, Tennessee, Sullivan and Hawkins County, Tennessee, Hawkins counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, its population was 55,442. Lying along the Holston Ri ...

, to

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the stat ...

. Along with its three major forks (North Fork, Middle Fork and South Fork), it comprises a major river system that drains much of northeastern

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 36th-largest by ...

, southwestern

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

, and northwestern

North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...

. The Holston's confluence with the

French Broad River The French Broad River is a river in the U.S. states of North Carolina and Tennessee. It flows from near the town of Rosman in Transylvania County, North Carolina, into Tennessee, where its confluence with the Holston River at Knoxville form ...

at Knoxville marks the beginning of the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other name ...

. The North Fork flows southwest from Sharon Springs in

Bland County, Virginia Bland County is a United States county located in the southwestern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Like most of Southwestern Virginia, it is part of the Appalachian region. The county seat is the unincorporated area of Bland. Bland ...

. The Middle Fork flows from near the western border of Wythe County, Virginia, joining the South Fork in

Washington County, Virginia Washington County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 53,935. Its county seat is Abingdon. Washington County is part of the Kingsport–Bristol–Bristol, TN-VA Metropolitan Statis ...

, southeast of Abingdon. The South Fork rises near Sugar Grove in Smyth County and flows southwest to join the North Fork at Kingsport. The Watauga River, a tributary of the South Fork Holston, flows westward from

Watauga County, North Carolina Watauga County ( )
from the North Carolina Collection's website at the

. The main stem of the Holston is impounded 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 Carolin ...

's Cherokee Dam near Jefferson City, Tennessee. Five other dams, also managed by TVA, impound the Holston's headwater streams:

Watauga Dam Watauga Dam is a hydroelectric and flood control dam on the Watauga River in Carter County, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the 1940s as part of efforts to con ...

and

Wilbur Dam Wilbur Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Watauga River in Carter County, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is one of two dams on the river owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority. The dam impounds Wilbur Lake, which extends for abou ...

on the Watauga River, and

Boone Dam Boone Dam is a hydroelectric and flood control dam on the South Fork Holston River on the border between Sullivan County and Washington County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is one of three dams on the South Fork Holston owned and operated b ...

, Fort Patrick Henry Dam, and

South Holston Dam South Holston Dam is a hydroelectric and flood control dam on the South Fork Holston River in Sullivan County, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the uppermost of three dams on the South Fork Holston owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley ...

, on the South Fork Holston River.

Power generation

The Holston River valley has been greatly developed for

electrical Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

power generation, both with

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

dams and

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 ...

-fired steam plants. In the upper reaches, some of these plants are controlled by private interests; in the downstream portion, they are owned by the

United States Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

Area

Among the dams and associated reservoirs on the South Fork Holston River are

and Boone Lake, named for the explorer

Daniel Boone Daniel Boone (September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the we ...

; Fort Patrick Henry Dam and Fort Patrick Henry Lake, named for the Revolutionary War hero; and

and South Holston Lake. Cherokee Dam on the Holston River forms

Cherokee Lake Cherokee Lake, also known as Cherokee Reservoir, is an artificial reservoir in the U.S. state of Tennessee formed by the impoundment of the Holston River behind Cherokee Dam. Hydrology The reservoir has a surface area of about , a flood-storage ...

, named for the historic Native Americans who occupied extensive areas along the Holston River at the time of European-American settlement. The United States settlers and army fought with the

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...

over land in Tennessee, North Carolina, and further South into Georgia and Alabama. In the 1830s the government forced the Cherokee out on the

Trail of Tears The Trail of Tears was an ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of approximately 60,000 people of the " Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850 by the United States government. As part of the Indian removal, members of the Cherokee, ...

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...

(now Oklahoma) west of the Mississippi River, under the authority of the

Indian Removal Act The Indian Removal Act was signed into law on May 28, 1830, by United States President Andrew Jackson. The law, as described by Congress, provided "for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or territories, and for ...

passed by Congress in 1830.

Name

Maps by early French explorers in this area identified what is now known as the Holston River as the "Cherokee River", after the tribe they encountered. Early Tennessee historian and Tennessee Supreme Court Justice John Haywood cited in his 1823 book ''The civil and political history of the state of Tennessee from its earliest settlement up to the year 1796, including the boundaries of the state'' that the Holston River was identified and named on earlier produced French maps as the "Cherokee River". British colonists later named the Holston River after pioneer Stephen Holstein, a European-American settler who built a

cabin Cabin may refer to: Buildings * Beach cabin, a small wooden hut on a beach * Log cabin, a house built from logs * Cottage, a small house * Chalet, a wooden mountain house with a sloping roof * Cabin, small free-standing structures that serve as i ...

in 1746 on the upper reaches of the river. Similarly, Holston Mountain was named after the Holston River.

Recreation

All three forks in Virginia, South Holston Lake, and the Holston River in Tennessee below the South Holston Dam offer relatively easy-to-reach recreation opportunities. The North Fork in Virginia is known as an excellent smallmouth bass river (due to mercury contamination, fish caught in the North Fork of the Holston below

Saltville, Virginia Saltville is a town in Smyth and Washington counties in the U.S. state of Virginia. The population was 2,077 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Kingsport– Bristol (TN)– Bristol (VA) Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is a compon ...

must not be consumed). Both the South Fork in Virginia and the first of the Holston in Tennessee below South Holston Dam are quality

brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a European species of salmonid fish that has been widely introduced into suitable environments globally. It includes purely freshwater populations, referred to as the riverine ecotype, ''Salmo trutta'' morp ...

and

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 coast ...

fisheries. The Holston River is wide and open enough to allow extensive

fly fishing Fly fishing is an angling method that uses a light-weight fishing lure, lure—called an artificial fly—to catch fish. The fly is Casting (fishing), cast using a fly rod, Fishing reel#Fly reel, reel, and specialized Fly line, weighted line. T ...

. South Holston Lake offers a variety of fishing opportunity as well, as it contains smallmouth bass,

common carp The Eurasian carp or European carp (''Cyprinus carpio''), widely known as the common carp, is a widespread freshwater fish of eutrophic waters in lakes and large rivers in Europe and Asia.Fishbase''Cyprinus carpio'' Linnaeus, 1758/ref>Arkive The ...

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the yellow pike or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relat ...

, pike, sunfish,

crappie Crappies () are two species of North American freshwater fish of the genus ''Pomoxis'' in the family Centrarchidae (sunfishes). Both species of crappies are popular game fish among recreational anglers. Etymology The genus name ''Pomoxis' ...

and a few trout.

List of crossings

Holston River

The following is a list of major road crossings on the Holston River:

South Fork Holston River

The following is a list of major road crossings on the South Fork Holston River:

North Fork Holston River

Middle Fork Holston River

The following is a list of major road crossings on the Middle Fork Holston River:

References

External links

* {{authority control Rivers of Tennessee Rivers of Virginia Rivers of Bland County, Virginia Rivers of Wythe County, Virginia Rivers of Grainger County, Tennessee Rivers of Washington County, Tennessee Rivers of Knox County, Tennessee Rivers of Sullivan County, Tennessee Rivers of Smyth County, Virginia