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lower than before the Improvement
was begun.
K: gineers concur In the opinion
that the moat satisfactory Improve
ment of the clinch river Is by locks
and diiß.fi. which ia estimated to
cost $1,460,000, to carry up to Coal
Ct ok out sevc-nty-flve miles from
its mouth, an extreme low water
depth of four feet. This would, at
the am’ time, s-cur.: the Improve
ment of ihc Emory river to Harri
man, Tenn.
Powell’s and Emory Rivers.
The principal tributaries of the
Clinch are Powells river, the gen
eral course of which is parallel to
the Cllm h, and whi’ h enters It on
the west about eighty-eight miles
above Its month, and the Emory
river, which Hows from the north
and enters the Clinch about four
Julies from Its mouth. The entire
basin drained by the Clinch and Its
tributaries hus on area of about
5,000 miles. Its total length Is about
250 miles.
The commerce of the Clinch river
as shown by the reports of the chief
years for the five years previous
to 1901. averaged about 180,0C0 to.is
of freight per annum and about 3,000
passengers. The business has In
creased since then, and during said
period of five years previous to 1901,
110,000,000 feet of logs have come
out of the river In rafts. The freight
is made up largely of farm products,
general merchandise, stone, sand
and Iron ore transported on steam
boats and barges.
The valley of the Clinch Is said
to be rich In coal, Iron ore, marble,
sine and building stone. A number
of coal mines are In operation In
the valley. At Brushy Mountain
extensive coal mines are operated
by the state of Tennessee, and at
Coal ('reek In 1900 they would have
nor deil 200 cars a day to move the
output, which was moved entirely
by rail.
An examination of the chart would
show that there are thirty-six places
between Coal Creek and the mouth,
where the navigation of the river at
low water Is Impossible by reason
of Insufficient depth of the channel,
or excessive velocity of the current.
The total distance covered by these
obstructions Is 17.04 miles, or a lit
tle over 23 per cent, of the whole
length of the river under considera
tion, and more than 82 per cent, of
the entire fall is concentrated at
these obstructions, giving to them
a slope of nearly live feet to the
mile.
Elk River.
The Elk river rises on the western
slope of the Cumberland mountains
In the South Central portion of Ten
nessee, flows In a southwesterly di
rection, and finally empties Into the
Tennessee river about thirty miles
above Florence, Ala.
Fayetteville, Tenn., Is regarded as
the head of its possible navigation.
Above this the river Is too email
and the fall too great to admit of
improvement. About flfty-slx miles
of the navigable portion lies in Ten
nessee and thirty-four mllefi In Ala
bama.
In Its original condition the river
was obstructed by low bridges, mill
dams, flsh-trap dams, rock reefs,
bowlders, snags and overhanging
trees. The project for Its Improve
ment provides for the removal of
surface obstructions below the
point where it Is crossed by the
Louisville & Nashville railroad thir
ty-four miles above Its mouth. The
project further contemplates cut
ting through the rock reef at the
mouth of the river, so as to permit
the easy entrance to It from the
Tennessee river.
During the year ending December
It, 1900, six steamboats and twenty
sight barges navigated the river,
carrying 6.937 tons of freight valued
t {109.931.33.
The only appropriation for ths
Improvement of this river was In
the rlvsr and harbor bill approved
March 8, 1599, which authorized ths
axpsndlture of $4,000.
Little Tennessee River.
The Little Tennessee river rises
tn the Blue Rtdgo mountains, near
Rabun, Clap, Ga. It flowß north
west, then west, emptying into the
Tennessee river at Lenoir City, 47
miles below Knoxville, Tenn. Its
total length is about 134 miles. It
crosses the state of North Carolina
In Its course, hut the navigable por
tion Is entirely In Tennessee.
The avernge width for the 25
miles from Its mouth to the Chfl
howee mountains is 800 feet. For
*0 miles above the Chilhowee moun
tains the river Is a succession of
fails and pools, forming a swift
mountain torrent, where In places
the river falls at a rate of 30 feet
per mile. The remafedng 79 miles
to lta source, Is In a more open
country with some fine farming
lands. * The average rate of fall
above the Chilhowee mountains Is
IS 1-2 feet per mile. The swiftest
and wildest portion of this river Is
where It breaks through the Smoky
mountains, forming a deep gorge
with banks formed of high walls of
rock.
The limit of flood height in the
upper portion of the river Is 24 feet,
and In the lower or navigable part.
60 feet. The Little Tennessee is fed
by numerous small tributaries, the
most Important of which Is the Tel
llco river, which Joins it 18 miles
from its mouth.
In 1874. an examination of the
Little Tennessee river was made
from its mouth to the Chilhowee
mountains, at the mouth of Cltico
creek, to which point steamers have
seine times ascended. Of the 25
miles estimated length of this exam
ination, 19 miles from the mouth
were found worthy of improvement
and could be improved with com
parative ease.
The estimated cost of removing
the principal obstructions, located
at 12 different shoals, was placed at
556,000. The obstructions, begin
ning at the mouth of the river, arc:
Lenoir's Island, Coytee (lower)
shoals, Davis shoal, Coytee (upper)
shoal, Carpenter Island shoals,
Blankenship shoal, Morgantown
upper and lower shoals, Crouses
shoal, and Old Dam above Wild Cat
Rock Island. Niles Ferry nnd Motley
Islands. From the head of the Mot
ley Inlands there Is a mile of good
water to Howard's Mill Dam, 19
milou. From Howard’s Mill Dam to
the Chilhowee mountains, Is 6 miles
by liver, hut only about 2 miles by
land. In the 6 miles there is a
series of rapids known as the Stilt
House Bhoals, 2 miles long, -with
rock ledges running across the river
at intervals of 100 yards.
It was proposed to improve the
lower 19 miles of the river and se
cure a channel 40 feet wide and 2
feet deep at low water. About
100,000 bushels of grain wbh shipped
each year and it is thought that the
completion of the improvement
ought to double the shipments.
On the Telllco river, the principal
tributary, large deposits of hema
tite iron ore and roofing slate are
found and have been worked. The
timber Interests along the river
were said to be good, consisting of"*
oak, poplar and ash and the slopes
of the Chilhowee mountains are
covered with pine. Abrams creek,
near the mouth of which there are
slate quarries, is 5 miles above the
mouth of Cltico creek, the highest
point of steamboat navigation.
In 1883, Major W. K. King made a
re-examination of the Little Ten
nessee river extending from the
mouth of the river to the mouth of
the Telllco river, an estimated dis
tance of 13 miles. This portion of
the river, with a few miles of Tel
jico river, were navigated by small
steamers during the winter months
whenever the trade would justify
them. The steamers usually went
from Lenoir's, on the East Tennes
see & Virginia railroad, or from
Loudon, on the Tennessee river, a
few miles below the mouth of the
Little Tennessee river. The valley
of this part of the river Is describ
ed as a rich agricultural region,
with large mineral resources, but
cut off from all means of trans
portation except by river or expen
sive wagon routes.
Since 1883, up to 1901, no work has
been done and no appropriation
made for the Improvement.
In hla annual report for 1887, Col.
J. W. Barlow, corps of engineers,
stated: "The prospective advantages
and present benefits to navigation of
continuing the proponed improve
ment to completion, are securing a
safe channel for rafts and flathoats
and the small steamers plying In the
upper Tennessee river, and then In
terests would be greatly extended by
opening up an Improved chanel for
a safe and economical line of transit
to the business centers on the Ten
nessee river."
The following commerce was re
ported in the Little Tennessee river
In 1883, by tho working party on
the river during that year: 222,000
feet of lumber b. m.i 46 rafts; 156
flathoats; 147,276 bushels of grain;
8,660 bales of hay, and 298 tons of
miscellaneous freight. In 1888, there
were 96,663 bushels of grain; 220,000
feet of lumber b. in.; 2,740,000 feet
of logs and 492 tons of merchan
dise.
In his report In 1900, Major Dan
C. Kingman found that the total
cost of Improving the Little Ten
nessee river from Its mouth to the
mouth of Silver creek, so as to af
ford a navigable low water channel
of ample width and of a depth of
2 1-2 feet, would he $208,605.
Holston River.
The Holston river rises In South
western Virginia and Hows in a
southwesterly direction through the
eastern portion of Tennessee and
finally unites with the French
Broad river, 4 1-2 miles above
Knoxville, to form the Tennessee
river.
A number of examinations and re
ports have been made from time to
time, looking to the permanent im
provement of the Holston river, the
first dating as far back as 1830,
when the state of Tennessee con
templated its improvement.
The latest estimates embodied In a
report by Major Kingman, of No
vember 30. 1900, were based upon the
Improvement of 142 miles, being
from Kingsport to its mouth.
This river is formed by the con
fluence of its north and south forks
at Kingston, below which point It
has no large or important tribu
taries.
The drainage basin of the Holston
as determined by planimeter meas
urement of the United States geo
logical survey charts, is 3,811 square
miles, of which about two-thirds
lie above “the forks,” the remain
ing one-third draining directly into
the Holston proper.
Below Kingsport the basin is uni
formly narrow, with an average
width of about 12 miles. In this re
spect it is very similar to the basin
of the Clinch river, and affords but
little reservoir capacity for keeping
up the low water flow. Above
Kingsport the basin widens out
rapidly into a fan-shaped area. l*o
miles in width at its widest part.
The greatest length of the whole
basin is 170 miles.
The final improvement of the river
by locks and dams is by no means
considered impossible of attain
ment. It will probably be brought
about in time by the desire to uti
lize the naturally fine water power
that this river affords. Its extreme
low water discharge has been de
termined to be 6*o cubic feet per sec
ond. Such a disc harge has a po
tential of about 74 horse power per
foot of fall. A dam 10 feet high
would therefore afford something
like 509 useful horse power, and
CLINCH COAL FIELDS MORE
ACCESSIBLE THAN PENNSYLVANIA’S.
(FROM REPORT MAJ. D. C. KINGMAN ON SURVEY OF CLINCH RIVER , 1900.) —c >
\ jjj CHART SHOWING THE
I \ 11 VL p* RELATIVE ACCESSIBILITY
j j W&/J yV . TO TIDE WATER
/ |N O. 1 MUCIN HAT! j[ J. y/N. /
1 * "” o '' Mmxawst >’
ltl \ OF THE
HO. x. „ y J CLINCH RIVER.
J f/fS , U C
K & H ' and
PENNSYLVANIA COAL FIELDS.
wf TCNINESSEE \ N CAR,
S'Ex’ _ /T\ “° ,H : and . . .
Af? I o it . • o, •
4/ i \ •*** mam coal : | ; i ;
*><f j \ : a s & - £ : " “
<os i ALABAMA \ ,RON = % S | J § : ° |
w/fi MISSISSIPPI I \ MARBLE, as * £ Z _ f H I £
sj | SLATE. ||| S | M tis |
I ZINC, c2:jj -g §□ 1~
cl - c i -5 2 > £ n £ £
l 'O JH w
. A IV 3 I O H <
* A* nfnMnvpAHPT a i 125 350 1 T9O. Morgantown!! 5,400,000
136 1.-350 1 240. Oil City 1.150,000 $13,701,000
Ay^ H r-a 3 ww A ' 95 1 000 654.4 Charleston 4,560,000
/ BIG slndY .™. 172 100 ! 513.4 Louisa. 430,000 4,600,000
K . OHIO 935 I
Si At Pittsburg I ’ ,o ° 425 10,783,000 6,500,000
At Cincinnati I >, 1
At Paducah j 28i.
St At Cairo z2,0C0 269.6
TENNESSEE 635 gO6 „ | 5,803,000 5.7C0.G00!
l‘t Chattanooga •::: 8.000 630.6 | j
C At N Co“ breek :::::: 75 I m\ mo l EO.OOOI i.Zie.OOOI
At Kingston I 2.990 7L.8 1 I
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there might be 36 such powers de
veloped between Kingsport and the
mouth of the Holston river. On ac
count of the high banks that the
river has, still higher dams might
be used without injurious overflow,
nnd the power thus concentrated
and the number of dams diminish
ed.
In connection witb the above, and
in conclusion, a short extract from
exhibit No. 1, showing table “D” in
Major John G. D. Knight’s an
nual report of 1901, will be of inter
est. 'lt is found in the report of
Mr. G. T. Nelles, assistant en
gineer, of November 5, 1900.
Quoting from that report, Mr.
Nelles says: “A preliminary study
of the maps, profiles, and other
NAME OF
TRIBUTARY.
Miles Feet Feet Miles Cubic Ft
French Broad 70 2.3 18.7 6.6 2.400 $19,000 $5,000
Little Tennessee 39 2.6 21.9 4.8 1,300 10.000 5,500
Clinch 75 1.4 17.6 4.9 950 16.000 4.000
Hiwassee 36 1.3 15.8 2.6 1,200 7,000 3,000
Holston 142 2.6 36.0 8.0 1,000
available data indicates the im
practicability of improving the Hol
ston by regulation methods, from
both a physical and commercial
standpoint—physically, because the
unusual fall at the various obstruct
ed localities and the comparatively
small low water discharge, make it
necessary to design the works for
the maximum allowable conditions
of length, slope, and velocity, and
at the same time provide the mini
mum width, depth and accommoda
tion for navigation; commercially
because the cost of such an im
provement would be out of all pro
portion to probable benefits. This
is made more evident by the fol
lowing tabulated comparison of the
chief characteristics and the cost of
The above is from the report of MaJ. D. C. Kingman on the survey at the Clinch river, 1899.
Improving, by regulation, the other
tributaries of the Tennessee river:
Table D. Characteristic features
and approximate cost of improving
by regulation the principal tribu
taries of the Tennessee river.
The cost given Is the estimated
cost of each improvement, and in
cludes all previous expevglitures,
as well as the estimated cost of
completing the works.
***♦* **
The esmated cost of Improving
the CUjKJEI under the third project
outlined jo report of July 5. 1900,
was $1,2i0,000, or nearly $13,000 per
foot lift. This project provided for
masonry locks, with movable dams
for regulating the pool levels. Ap
plying the above cost per foot of
Cost per mile of
length considered...
m
Cost per mile of ob
structed length
Assumed low water
discharged per
second
Fall at obstructions
per mile
Length obstructed...
Mean fall per mile
Length considered..
lift to the Holston river, where the
total fall to be overcome Is 360 feet,
we obtain $4,680,000 as the approx!-,
mate cost of a slack-water improve
ment from Kingsport to the mouth
of the Holston.
ROULHAC’S REPORT.
President Thos. R. Koulhae, of
the Tennessee River Improvement
Association, made this report at
the late convention of ihe associa
tion :
It must be exceedingly gratifying
to observe the full attendance of
the representative men of this sec
tion at this the seventh annual
meeting of our association, thus
giving evidence of the increasing
interest in the work you have un
dertaken, and offering a promise of
HON. WM. RICHARDSON, OF ALABAMA, IS OPTIMISTIC.
House of Representatives,
Washington, D. C.
Huntsville, Ala., Nov. 2, 1903.,
Editor The Sentinel, Knoxville, Tenn.:
Dear Sir: lam just In receipt of your favor of October 30. lam
just at present very much occupied in getting ready to leave for Wash
ington to attend the call of the special session of congress.
I am greatly Interested in the matter of the Improvement of the
Tennessee river and if I can find time, before I start to Washington, 1
will be glad to prepare for your special edition an article embodying my
thoughts on that important subject.
I feel confident that the Tennessee river convention, which met
at Chattanooga on the 22 of this month, has resulted In much good by
bringing the friends of the river In uniform action.
I am encouraged to believe that the prospects for the early naviga
tion of the river from Knoxville to Paducah is far more favorable than
it has ever been.
I am with great respect, Yours truly,
WILLIAM RICHARDSON.
continued effort, with increased and
increasing forces, toward the re
sults which we all so much desire,
and which are so pregnant with
material benefit to this valley, and
all its connected and tributary re
gion.
Since the last annual meeting
there has been nothing added in the
way of appropriations, to plans
theretofore adopted, or to different
points on the river where improve
ments must ultimately be made, to
the direct object of our association;
nor has there been any opportunity
of securing any. The short session
of the last congress expired before
legislation in many directions could
be perfected.
The project of our river, however,
has been thoroughly investigated
and considered. By these means
plans have been matured which
must and will produce the best and
most urgent results of a complete
system, the consummation of which
will surely and eventually realize
the opening and employment of the
Tennessee river as one of the coun
try's great waterways from the
base of the Blue ridge to the Ohio.
The attention of the public at home
among the public-spirited men of
other sections of the country has
heard and heeded our demand for
relief.
The consideration and sympathe
tic interest of the ablest and best
equipped committee on rivers and
harbors which has belonged to any
congress of our republic has been
aroused and its members and the
representatives and senators of the
United States have manifested their
interest in a substantial and grati
fying manner. A well defined policy
looking to the progressive develop
ment of safe and certain navigation
of the river and its available tribu
taries has been determined. The
commencement of indispensable
work towards the mouth of the
river, obtaining by its completion
uninterrupted navigation in con
junction with and beyond the point
at the Muscle Shoals, where its pre
vious chief experadventure and in
a speedy succession, the removal of
obstructions in the mountain flec
tion and nt and beyond the mad
rush of the Tennessee’s waters at
by the river’s bank and abroad
the base of old Lookout Mountain,
by the general government. Much
of this has been accomplished by
the very existence of this associa
tion, by its concerted action, by its
vigorous and constant determina
tion. It has been a task of no mean
proportions and its accomplished
facts are a just source of pride for
what has been done and as just an
assurance of what Is yet to be done
as ycur work and duty.
We should not fail in our ac
knowledgements of what congress
has accorded us, nor in our grateful
appreciation of the efforts of the
representatives from the districts
affected by the Improvement of this
great waterway, and the approval
and recommendation already refer
red to.
Let us all contribute to speed the
day, which I long to see, when will
be floated safely at all seasons on
the bosom of our river the live stock
and cereals, the lumber and finish
ed products, the stone and the ores,
the hay and cotton, the coal and
merchandise of this valley of abun
dance, and likewise the cargoes
from the sand pits and the Tlsh
mingo gravel of the First Mississip
pi district.
IMPROVE THE TENNESSEE.
Dr. T. ap R. Jones, of the South
Knoxville Maco.dam Cos., has this to
say concerning the importance of
river improvement:
“I am Interested in anything that
is for the benefit and Improvement
of this section. I have always been
interested in the improvement of the
rivers of East Tennessee, as this is
one of the Important means of
reaching many of the resources.
There is no section of the south
that is as crude as this, and it has
been settled longer than any of the
leading southern sections. The wa
ter-ways should all be Improved and
good roads built, as this will give
the people who constitute the re
liable and substantial citizenship an
equal chance with the capitalist
who is looking for resources. I con
sider that we have the best coun
try on earth and all that Is needed
is to develop it and river improve
ment will do this. One way to get
the river developed 13 to send a live,
hustling man to congress to deliver
the goods when congress does the
proper thing for our river. Look
what Brownlow has done for his
district, and he has no railroads nor
rivers to speak of, and the natural
advantages are not ns great by far
as they are in the Second congres
sional district, and especially in
Knox county.”