A driving tour of The French Broad River in the winter of 2020, near Asheville, NC in The Blue Ridge Mountains.

History

The French Broad River is often falsely believed to be one of the oldest in the world because it cuts through ancient rocks in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. However, the current topographic relief of the Southern Appalachians is relatively new, making it virtually impossible to estimate the age of the river.

The nearby Broad River was originally named the “English Broad River”.

The Indigenous Americans of this area, the Cherokee Indians, called it different names: Poelico, Agiqua (broad) in the mountains, Tahkeeosteh (racing waters) from Asheville down and Zillicoah above Asheville. The French called it the Agiqua, borrowing one of the Cherokee names.

Douglas Dam, built on the lower French Broad by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) during the 1940s, is one of the larger TVA developments on a tributary of the Tennessee River. (The two other very large ones are Norris Lake on the Clinch River and Cherokee Lake on the Holston River.)

In 1987, the North Carolina General Assembly established the French Broad River State Trail as a blueway which follows the river for 117 miles (188 km). The paddle trail is a part of the North Carolina State Trails System, which is a section of the NC Division of Parks and Recreation. A system of launch point locations was created along the river for the trail.

The portion of the French Broad River in Tennessee was designated a state scenic river by the Tennessee Scenic Rivers Act of 1968. Approximately 33 miles (53 km) of the river in Cocke County, starting at the North Carolina border and extending downstream to the place where it flows into Douglas Lake, are designated as a Class III, Partially Developed River.

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