by Jerry Hay
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since and now the Tennessee River Guidebook is available in our bookstore. This 652 mile river has a
huge amount of information to reveal to those interested in exploring
it. As with my other guidebooks, I have found that there is a need
for a true guidebook with good maps for this river and I am excited
about seeing it in print. For those of you planning a trip on the Tennessee River, I suggest you get this guidebook and study it in the winter months to help with your planning. To see a log of a Tennessee River trip CLICK HERE |
The Tennessee River begins at the
confluence of the Holston and French Broad Rivers, just east of
Knoxville, TN. The entire length of the Tennessee River is navigable,
being maintained by the U.S. Army Corp on Engineers, the Tennessee
Valley Authority (TVA) and the U.S. Coast Guard. It is a beautiful
waterway that offers a variety of scenery and characteristics. It is
a boater friendly river with plenty of marinas and anchorage
opportunities, along with some great river towns. Above all, my most
memorable experiences on the Tennessee River are my encounters with
the helpful, friendly people along the river.
The Tennessee River is not entirely in
Tennessee. It begins in the namesake state but also flows across
northern Alabama, along the corner of Mississippi, back into
Tennessee and then through Kentucky as it ends flowing into the Ohio
River. On this modern-day course it forms many lakes, due to the TVA
dams with the largest being Kentucky Lake. On a downriver trip, one
will experience a river that gradually widens into the lakes, then
becomes a river again immediately below each lock & dam. There
are nine locks between Knoxville and Paducah. The locks are
user-friendly with the Kentucky Dam lock being the busiest. It is
often faster to take the Barkley canal to the Cumberland River and
lock through the Barkley Lock to get to the Ohio River. This is one
of the many tips that will be found in the upcoming Tennessee River
Guidebook.
Having traveled the Tennessee River
from Paducah to Chattanooga many times while working on the Delta
Queen Steamboats, I became very familiar with the river and many of
the communities. That experiences provided me with a basis for
created a guidebook for the river but that alone was not enough. In
June of 2009 I traveled from Kentucky Lake to Knoxville in my 22ft
boat to gain small craft experience on the Tennessee. Anyone who has
traveled rivers knows that they seem different going downriver than
upriver. In fact they are, insomuch as line of site and currents.
That is why a separate trip is required that will take me downriver
from Knoxville to Paducah. One cannot make every stop along the river
to gather important information and we often cannot tell what is
available along the shore from the river, so another step is to drive
the entire length of the river on both sides, cross every bridge and
scout all locations that could be helpful for traveling boaters. Even
after experiencing the river by boat and car, aerial views were done for a birds eye view of important details.
I always enjoyed the Tennessee River
from the deck of a large steamboat, but that did not compare with the
adventure of traveling the river in a small craft. Being able to
explore tributaries, coves and other out of the way places made my
journeys a whole new experience. A great deal of research and
map-making has been done
Jerry Hay
The entire 652 miles from Knoxville, TN to Paducah, KY
©2006 Indiana Waterways
