Cumberland River
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The Cumberland River is an important waterway in the southern United States. It is 687 miles (1,106 km) long, and it starts in Letcher County in eastern Kentucky on the Cumberland Plateau and flows through southeastern kentucky before crossing into northern Tennessee, then curves back up into western Kentucky. It drains into the Ohio River at Smithland, Kentucky. The Cumberland River is a wild river above the headwaters of Lake Cumberland. Cumberland Falls, a 68-foot waterfall on this section of river, is one of the largest waterfalls in the eastern United States, and the only place in the Western Hempisphere where a moonbow can be seen. Most of the river below Lake Cumberland's Wolf Creek Dam is navigable because of a number of locks and dams.
Dams at various locations of the Cumberland River have created large reservoirs for recreation such as Lake Barkley in western Kentucky and Lake Cumberland (the deepest lake in the Tennessee and Cumberland river valleys) in southern Kentucky, and Old Hickory Lake to the east of Nashville. Laurel Lake, on the Laurel River in southern Kentucky, the Dale Hollow Reservoir on the Obey River in northeast middle Tennessee, and Percy Priest Lake on the Stones River in Nashville are each created by dams just upstrem from their respective confluence with the Cumberland River.
Several American Civil War battles occurred near the Cumberland River, including the battle for Fort Donelson.
Before European settlers came into the area of the river, it was known by the locals as the Warioto and the Shawanon.