Tennessee River History

Native Americans - Hernando De Soto

Historians believe that the first people to have lived in the Tennessee River Valley arriverd at least 8,000 years ago, based on excavations at Russell Cave in northern Alabama. The river was also home to the ancient Mound Builders who settled into the watershed more than 1,000 years ago. In 1540, Hernando De Soto’s Spanish expedition reached the Tennessee River exploring from the present location of Chattanooga, TN to the current location of Guntersville, AL. De Soto and his men set up camp on Shoal Creek during the winter of 1540 near the present location of Davy Crockett State Park in Lawrenceburg, TN. De Soto's expedition was the first recorded in the watershed by European explorers.


Hernando De Soto

For the next two hundred years Native American tribes, including the Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Creek, remained virtually undisturbed in the Tennessee River watershed. Most of their towns were on the river and Native American life in the valley was tied strongly to the river. In the 1700s, the French had established several trading posts along the river but lost them to the English after the French defeat in the French and Indian War of 1760. From 1760 to 1820, the English and early Americans began establishing new settlements along the River in Knoxville, Guntersville, Decatur, Florence, Sheffield, Tuscumbia and Paducah. By 1791, Knoxville had become the capital of the territory. Conflicts occurred between Native Americans and the new European Americans as both peoples sought to locate their settlements near the water. In the winter of 1837, the US Federal Government forced seventeen thousand Cherokee to move west in what became known as the Trail of Tears.

Civil War - Tennessee Valley Authority

During the Civil War (1861-1865) the Tennessee River was a key target for Union soldiers as they advanced toward the western part of the Confederacy. Major battles were fought in towns on the River including Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Shiloh, TN. Shiloh was one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, in the end more than 23,000 American soldiers died.


Battle of Shiloh, American Civil War by Thure de Thulstrup (1848-1930)

On May 18, 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act creating the TVA. The Tennessee Valley Authority was designed to modernize the region, using experts and electricity to combat problems in the region. A primary part of the plan was to create electricty and provide flood relief by constructing a series of dams throughout the Tennessee River and its tributaries. In 1933, construction began on the first massive dam, Norris Dam on the Clinch River, and was completed in 1936. The building of Norris Dam and the changes it brought to the region inspired films, books, stage plays, and songs. By 1945, the Tennessee Valley Authority had completed a 650-mile (1,050-kilometer) navigation channel the length of the Tennessee River and had become the nation's largest electricity supplier. In 1957, the construction of Chickamauga dam helped prevent Chattanooga from being covered by one of the largest floods in the river's history. The 1960s were years of unprecedented economic growth in the Tennessee Valley. Electric rates were among the nation's lowest and stayed low as TVA brought larger, more efficient generating units into service.

Modern Era - High Hazard Coal Ash

In the Summer of 1982, Knoxville hosted the World's Fair and cosntructed their landmark Sunsphere on the river. In the past 20 years, the number of marinas on the Tennessee River has doubled. Tourists now spend more than $25 million a year to recreate on the Tennessee River.

On December 22, 2008, an earthen dike at TVA's Kingston Fossil Plant broke, spreading one billion gallons of wet coal ash across 300 acres of land and into the tributaries of the Tennessee River. Today the TVA operates at least 45 dams and 11 coal fired power plants.