Little Pigeon River (Tennessee) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Little Pigeon River |
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The mill dam of the Pigeon Forge Mill along the West Fork of the Little Pigeon River in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
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| Country | United States |
| State | Tennessee |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Main source | Middle Prong Little Pigeon River below Mount Guyot in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee 3,028 ft (923 m) 35°41′35″N 83°19′12″W / 35.69306°N 83.32000°W |
| 2nd source | Porters Creek near Charlies Bunion in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee 4,680 ft (1,430 m) 35°38′50″N 83°21′47″W / 35.64722°N 83.36306°W |
| River mouth | French Broad River near Sevierville, Tennessee 860 ft (260 m) 35°55′51″N 83°35′43″W / 35.93083°N 83.59528°W |
| Length | 30 mi (48 km) |
| Basin features | |
| River system | Tennessee → Ohio → Mississippi |
| Basin size | 373 sq mi (970 km2) |
The Little Pigeon River is a river located entirely within Sevier County, Tennessee. It rises from a series of streams which flow together on the dividing ridge between the states of Tennessee and North Carolina inside the boundary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The river has two main forks, East and West, with the West Fork further subdivided with two separate tributary|tributaries: Middle and East.
The East and Middle prongs are less notable divisions of the river, with the Middle Prong emerging from the Greenbrier area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and paralleled for most of its remaining length by State Route 416. The East Prong is the only division in which the main stem does not emerge from the park, formed by a series of small streams in the Camp Hollow and Jones Cove areas and running along State Road 339. The Harrisburg Covered Bridge is a landmark structure from the 1800's that crosses the East Prong. The East Prong and Middle Prong form a confluence near the Walters State Community College campus to form the East Fork. The West Fork is far better known because it drains the major tourist towns of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. The confluence of the two forks is at Sevierville at Forks of the River. From there the stream continues to flow northward, paralleled by State Route 66, until its confluence with the French Broad River just downstream from Douglas Dam.
Despite its name, it is not a tributary of the nearby Pigeon River, which flows into the French Broad well above Douglas Dam and the resultant reservoir.
