The Keowee River is created by the confluence of the

Toxaway River The Toxaway River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 26, 2011 waterway that flows south from headwaters in Transylvania County, North Carolina, into Lake Toxaway ...

and the Whitewater River in northern

Oconee County, South Carolina Oconee County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 78,607. Its county seat is Walhalla and its largest city is Seneca. Oconee County is included in the Seneca, SC Micropol ...

. The confluence is today submerged beneath the waters of

Lake Jocassee Lake Jocassee (, ) is a , deep reservoir in northwest South Carolina. It was created in 1973 by the state in partnership with Duke Power. The lake is known for the clean and cold Appalachian mountain rivers that flow into it, keeping its ...

, a reservoir created by Lake Jocassee Dam. The Keowee River flows out of Lake Jocassee Dam and into

Lake Keowee Lake Keowee is a man-made reservoir in the United States in the state of South Carolina. It was developed to serve the needs of power utility Duke Energy and public recreational purposes. It is approximately long, wide, with an average depth of ...

, a reservoir created by Keowee Dam and Little River Dam. The Keowee River flows out of Keowee Dam to join Twelvemile Creek near

Clemson, South Carolina Clemson () is a city in Pickens and Anderson counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina. Clemson is home to Clemson University; in 2015, ''the Princeton Review'' cited the town of Clemson as ranking #1 in the United States for " town-and-gown" ...

, forming the beginning of the Seneca River, a tributary of the Savannah River. The Keowee River is long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed April 26, 2011 The boundary between the Seneca River and the Keowee River has changed over time. In the Revolutionary War period and early eighteenth century, the upper part of the Seneca River was often called the Keowee River, as it was part of 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, t ...

homeland. They also had a town named

Keowee Keowee ( chr, ᎫᏩᎯᏱ, translit=Guwahiyi) was a Cherokee town in the far northwest corner of present-day South Carolina. It was the principal town of what were called the seven Lower Towns, located along the Keowee River (Colonists referred ...

. In current times, the section of the Keowee River between the Keowee Dam and its confluence with Twelvemile Creek is called the Seneca River on many maps, including the official county highway map. Since this area is flooded by

Lake Hartwell Lake Hartwell is a man-made reservoir bordering Georgia and South Carolina and encompassing parts of the Savannah, Tugaloo, and Seneca rivers. Lake Hartwell is one of the Southeastern United States' largest recreation lakes. The lake was created ...

, formed by damming the Seneca and

Tugaloo Tugaloo (''Dugiluyi'' (ᏚᎩᎷᏱ)) was a Cherokee town located on the Tugaloo River, at the mouth of Toccoa Creek. It was south of Toccoa and Travelers Rest State Historic Site in present-day Stephens County, Georgia. Cultures of ancient ind ...

rivers, it is natural to refer to this section as the Seneca instead of its proper name. By the early eighteenth century the Cherokee occupied several towns along the upper Keowee River, which were referred to as the Lower Towns. These had long been occupied by indigenous peoples, and each of the larger towns had an earthwork

platform mound Platform may refer to: Technology * Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run * Platform game, a genre of video games * Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models * Weapons platform, a system or ...

s built by ancestral people of the

South Appalachian Mississippian culture The Mississippian culture was a Native American civilization that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1600 CE, varying regionally. It was known for building large, earth ...

era. The Cherokee typically constructed

townhouse A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residence ...

s, which were their form of public architecture, on top of such mounds if available.

was the principal town of the Lower Towns. Other Cherokee towns on the Keowee River included Etastoe (also spelled Estatoe), and Sugartown (''Kulsetsiyi'').

External links

References

Rivers of South Carolina Rivers of Oconee County, South Carolina Cherokee tribe Tributaries of the Savannah River {{SouthCarolina-river-stub