Clinch River

the Clich River (red) is one of the upper tributaries of the Tennessee River, as is the Powell River to the west and the Holston River to the east
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Streamer

The Clinch River stretches nearly 300 miles from its headwaters on the Virginia-West Virginia border near Tazewell to its confluence with the Tennessee River at Kingston, Tennessee. Within Virginia, there are 135 miles.¹

It apparently was known as the Pelisipi by the Cherokee, but the colonists chose to name it after an early explorer. Dr. Thomas Walker recorded in his journal that his party crossed the river, probably at Looney's Gap near modern Sneedville, on April 9, 1750 before reaching Cumberland Gap:²

We travelled to a river, which I suppose to be that which the Hunters call Clinches River from one Clinch a Hunter, who first found it.

An alternative etymology is that in the early days of European settlement, someone crossing the river started to drown. Supposedly he yelled at others to grab and rescue him, calling out "Clinch Me."³

Pelisipi was the Cherokee name for the Clinch River
Source: Library of Congress, An accurate map of North America... (John Mitchell, 1775?)

The Clinch River is a tributary of the Tennessee River. At the peak of the Ice Age about 18,000 years ago, the ice sheet isolated the Tennessee River from its earlier connection with drainages in the Mississippi River Valley. That isolation led to evolutionary changes in the fish and mussel species in the upper Tennessee River tributaries; new species developed.

According to the Nature Conservancy:⁴

Rare and endangered species abound here. The Clinch River sustains 48 imperiled and vulnerable animal species, including 29 varieties of rare freshwater mussels and 19 species of fish. Rare plants, mammals and birds also thrive along the river's edge. Because of this concentration of rare animals, the Clinch River basin has been identified as the number-one hotspot in the U.S. for imperiled aquatic species.

the Clinch River flows into the Tennessee River downstream of Knoxville
Source: Wikipedia, List of rivers of Virginia

Rivers of Virginia

the Clinch River flowed in a meander west of St. Paul in 1935
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), St. Paul VA 1:24,000 scale topographic map (1935)

the former meander of the Clinch River, after a rechannelling project, is now Oxbow Lake Park
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), St. Paul VA 1:24,000 scale topographic map (2022)

oxbows form naturally when a river erodes a new channel that isolates an earlier meander
Source: National Park Service, Fluvial Features—Meandering Stream

Links

• Clinch-Powell Clean Rivers Initiative
• Clinch River Valley Initiative
• The Nature Conservancy
• Clinch Valley Program
• Teach the Clinch
• US Geological Survey (USGS)
• Eastern Region Initiative on the Clinch (ERIC)
• Water Data for Virginia
• real-time data for Clinch River at Cleveland, VA
• real-time data for Clinch River at Speers Ferry, VA
• Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources
• Clinch River
• Explore an Extremely Diverse Wild on the Clinch River from Clinchport
• Virginia Freshwater Mussel Restoration Strategy: Upper Tennessee River Basin
• Freshwater Mussel Survey of Clinchport, Clinch River, Virginia: Augmentation Monitoring Site: 2006
• Freshwater Mussels

References