The Green River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed June 13, 2011 tributary of the

Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...

that rises in Lincoln County in south central

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

. Tributaries of the Green River include the

Barren River The Barren River is a river in Southcentral Kentucky, United States, and a tributary of the Green River. The watershed of the Green River is the largest of the twelve major river watersheds in Kentucky. The Barren River rises near the Tennessee ...

, the Nolin River, the

Pond River The Pond River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed June 13, 2011 tributary of the Green River in western Kentucky in the United States.

and the

Rough River The Rough River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed June 13, 2011 tributary of the Green River in west-central Kentucky in the United States. It's located about 70 mile ...

. The river was named after

Nathanael Greene Major general (United States), Major General Nathanael Greene (August 7, 1742 – June 19, 1786) was an American military officer and planter who served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, Revolutionary War. He emerge ...

, a general of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

Route

The river rises from south of Miracle, Kentucky in central Lincoln County, and follows a meandering path, collecting several smaller streams along its way to its impoundment by a dam at Green River Lake near Campbellsville. It then continues in a westerly direction and is joined by the Little Barren River before entering the

Mammoth Cave National Park Mammoth Cave National Park is a national park of the United States in south-central Kentucky. It encompasses portions of Mammoth Cave, the longest known cave system in the world. The park's are located primarily in Edmonson County, with sma ...

. At the western end of the park, it receives the tributary Nolin River which exits Nolin River Lake. Then continuing westward it is joined by the

. It then takes a more northwesterly turn as it proceeds through western Kentucky. The river provided cooling water for the

TVA 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 ...

's now-shutdown Paradise Fossil Plant near Drakesboro, in Muhlenberg County. Near Sebree it provides coolant water for Robert Reed Power Station, a coal fired power plant, before it finally empties into the Ohio River at Spottsville.

History

Following the Revolutionary War, many veterans staked claims along the Green River as payment for their military service. The river valley also attracted several

vagrants Vagrancy is the condition of wandering homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants usually live in poverty and support themselves by travelling while engaging in begging, scavenging, or petty theft. In Western countries, ...

, earning it the dubious nickname Rogue's Harbor. In 1842, the Green River was

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...

ized, with a series of locks and dams being built to create a navigable channel as far inland as

Bowling Green, Kentucky Bowling Green is a city in Warren County, Kentucky, United States, and its county seat. Its population was 72,294 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Kentucky, third-most populous city in the stat ...

. Four locks and dams were constructed on the Green River, and one lock and dam was built on the Barren River, a tributary that passed through Bowling Green. In 1901, two additional locks and dams were opened on the Green River, which allowed river traffic to Mammoth Cave. The 1937 Ohio River flood caused Green River to back up, inundating much of McLean County. In 1941,

was established, and the two upper locks and dams closed in 1950. In 1965, Lock and Dam #4 at Woodbury that locked both the Green and Barren rivers failed.''The Kentucky Encyclopedia'': Butler County In 1969, the

United States Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wo ...

impounded a section of the river, forming Green River Lake. The lake is now the primary feature of

Green River Lake State Park Green River Lake State Park is a public recreation area found south of Campbellsville in Taylor County, Kentucky. The park encompasses , while Green River Lake, its major feature, covers . History The Army Corps of Engineers started construct ...

.''The Kentucky Encyclopedia'': Lakes The

Southern Cherokee Nation of Kentucky The Southern Cherokee Nation of Kentucky (SCNK) is an unrecognized tribe based in Kentucky, United States.unrecognized tribe These organizations, located within the United States, self-identify as Native American tribes, heritage groups, or descendant communities, but they are not federally recognized or state-recognized as Native American tribes. The U.S. Governmental ...

of persons claiming Cherokee ancestry, is located in Henderson County, near the lower Green River.

Locks and dams

The Green River flows through

, located along river miles 188 to 210. The river drains the cave and controls the master base level of the Mammoth Cave system: the construction of a dam at Brownsville in 1906 raised the water level in some parts of the cave system by as much as above its natural value. The heightened level of Green River probably kept the connection of Mammoth Cave and the nearby Flint Ridge Cave system underwater until a drought partially exposed it and made connection a reality, increasing the length of Mammoth Cave to over 360 miles in length. In 2017, multiple agencies along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers closed Green River Lock and Dam #6 and dismantled it after a hydraulic hole was discovered in the dam. Green River is now free-flowing throughout Mammoth Cave National Park though water levels are impacted by releases from Green River Lake upstream. This has allowed for increased canoeing and kayaking opportunities from Nolin Dam to Brownsville, and has added more land to the National Park on the west bank of Green River. The 2022 removal of Lock and Dam #5 near Reedyville will allow more opportunities for canoeing and kayaking along the river from Mammoth Cave to Rochester. The Green River, an important transportation artery for the

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 Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

industry, is open to traffic up to the closed Lock and Dam #3 (known as the Rochester Dam) at mile 108.5. In 2019, plans were underway at Lock and Dam #3 to repair the dam and potentially raise the slack water pool held behind it by as much as three feet.

Muhlenberg County Muhlenberg County () is a county in the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 30,928. Its county seat is Greenville and its largest city is Central City. History Muhlenberg County was formed in 1798 from ...

, once the largest coal-producing county in the nation, benefits greatly from access to the river, as does the

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

industry in Henderson County. In 2002, more than 10 million short tons were shipped on the river, primarily

sub-bituminous coal Sub-bituminous coal is a lower grade of coal that contains 35–45% carbon. The properties of this type are between those of lignite, the lowest grade of coal, and those of bituminous coal, the second-highest grade of coal. Sub-bituminous coal ...

petroleum coke Petroleum coke, abbreviated coke, pet coke or petcoke, is a final carbon-rich solid material that derives from oil refinery, oil refining, and is one type of the group of fuels referred to as Coke (fuel), cokes. Petcoke is the coke that, in parti ...

, and aluminium ore.

Biology

The Green River is home to more than 150 fish species and more than 70

mussel Mussel () is the common name used for members of several families of bivalve molluscs, from saltwater and Freshwater bivalve, freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other ...

species. This includes some of Kentucky's largest fish and some of the world's rarest species of mussels.

Mussels

Endangered species: *Ring Pink ''

Obovaria retusa ''Obovaria retusa'' is a rare species of freshwater mussel in the family Unionidae, the river mussels. Its common names include golf stick pearly mussel and ring pink. This mussel was native to Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsyl ...

'' *Rough Pigtoe '' Pleurobema plenum'' *Northern riffleshell '' Epioblasma torulosa rangiana'' Threatened species: *Long solid Mussel ''

Fusconaia subrotunda ''Fusconaia subrotunda'', the longsolid, long solid mussel or long solid naiad, is a species of freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve Bivalvia () or bivalves, in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is ...

'' *Pink Mucket '' Lampsilis abrupta'' *Pyramid Pigtoe '' Pleurobema rubrum''

In popular culture

In summers as a child, singer

John Prine John Edward Prine (; October 10, 1946 – April 7, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter of country-folk music. Widely cited as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation, Prine was known for his signature blend of humoro ...

would go with his parents to visit family in

near

Paradise, Kentucky Paradise was a ghost town in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, United States. It was located east-northeast of Greenville. Paradise was originally founded as Stom's Landing (sometimes incorrectly spelled Stum), in reference to its then-status as ...

. The visits, and seeing the devastation to the area brought by

strip mining Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which ...

for coal, inspired his song "

Paradise In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human ...

", which also references the River and the Rochester Dam. In the song, Prine asks to have his ashes dispersed on the Green River. After his death in 2020 from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

, this wish was fulfilled, and in 2022, the John Prine Memorial Park of Rochester Dam was officially opened.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control *

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...