As the one river in Tennessee that isn’t a part of the Mississippi River system, the Conasauga is the reply to an fascinating trivia query.

It practically grew to become much more than that.

The Conasauga flows west via Polk and Bradley Counties, then turns south into Georgia. It later merges with the Oostanaula River, the Coosa River, the Alabama River, and finally empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

Actually, the Conasauga River’s odd geographic move made the river fairly alluring within the early 1800s.

Earlier than artifical dams, there have been critical limitations to navigation on the Tennessee River.

Downstream from present-day Chattanooga there have been rapids, shoals and currents with names such because the Suck, the Frying Pan and the Boiling Pot. 100 miles additional downstream, there was an much more infamous sequence of limitations generally known as the Mussel Shoals. There, the river widened and bought so shallow that boats would get caught for weeks at a time.

All of this will likely make the Tennessee River sound like a kayaker’s paradise. However rivermen of the nineteenth century didn’t see it that approach.

East Tennessee retailers had been continually in search of a substitute for the lengthy and harmful trek down the Tennessee River, all the way in which to the Ohio River, the Mississippi River and New Orleans. In 1821, some keelboat operators started taking the Tennessee River downstream to the Hiwassee River, then the Hiwassee upstream to the Ocoee, then the Ocoee upstream to some extent about 5 miles south of present-day Benton. Boats and cargo had been then lifted onto wagons and dragged 9 miles south, the place they had been lowered onto the Conasauga for the lengthy journey to Cellular Bay.

The portage on the Ocoee aspect was operated by a Cherokee household named Hildebrand, whereas the portage on the Conasauga finish was operated by a Cherokee household named McNair.

In the present day you’ll be able to nonetheless discover a street named for the Hildebrand household on the north finish of the route and the McNair household cemetery on the south finish. The street between these two take-out factors is thought regionally because the Outdated Federal Highway.

For a couple of technology, merchandise resembling flour and whiskey had been moved with regularity via this route.

The portage was an fascinating various, however not environment friendly from a industrial standpoint. No sooner did it begin turning into used than speak started of a canal connecting the Ocoee and Conasauga Rivers.

In the present day the notion of this canal may appear farfetched. However the 1820s was America’s “canal period.”

The 336-mile Erie Canal, connecting the Nice Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, was being constructed within the early 1820s, and plenty of different much less distinguished canals had been being developed as effectively.

Business boats had been a lot smaller then than they’re now. And any canal would have made navigation possible via a sequence of locks.

In 1826, the Tennessee Common Meeting granted a constitution to the Hiwassee Canal Firm, whose intent was the event of the canal. About that point, Gov. Joseph McMinn petitioned Congress to acquire the permission of the Cherokee Nation to construct the canal.

Had the Ocoee-Conasauga canal been constructed, Tennessee historical past may need turned out otherwise.

East Tennessee may need grown much more previous to the Civil Battle. Bradley and Polk counties may need bigger cities right now.

Nonetheless, the canal was by no means constructed. One motive was President Andrew Jackson’s lack of enthusiasm for inner enhancements sponsored by the federal authorities. However the principle motive seems to have been the opposition of the Cherokee Nation. It was, in any case, Cherokee land on the time. When requested to promote the land via which the canal could be dug, Cherokee chiefs rejected the notion outright.

“The representatives of this nation solemnly pledged themselves in Common Council that they might by no means dispose of 1 foot extra of land once more,” mentioned a doc signed by 22 Cherokee chiefs (together with John Ross) on Oct. 11, 1827.

In the present day, the Ocoee is thought for whitewater rafting. The Conasauga River is notable for the biodiversity of its fish, mussel, snail and crayfish populations.

Actually, the Conasauga has a minimum of 10 species of fish and mussels that are listed as endangered and threatened — and plenty of of them is likely to be passed by now had they as soon as related the remoted Conasauga system to the Tennessee River system. So possibly it’s simply as effectively that the Ocoee Conasauga canal was by no means constructed.

Invoice Carey is the founding father of Tennessee Historical past for Children, a nonprofit group that helps academics cowl social research.