Concept

Pigeon (rivière)

Résumé
The Pigeon River of Western North Carolina and East Tennessee rises above Canton, North Carolina, is impounded by Walters Dam, enters Tennessee, and flows into the French Broad River, just past Newport, Tennessee. The river traverses the Pisgah National Forest and the Cherokee National Forest, and drains much of the northeastern Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The river takes its name from the passenger pigeon, an extinct bird whose migration route once included the river valley in North Carolina. The Pigeon River arises in southeastern Haywood County, North Carolina, and flows basically northwest for most of its length. However, near Pressley Mountain it turns northeast for about four miles and in the town of Canton, where it is utilized by the local paper mill, it turns north. After Canton it turns almost due west for about five miles, before resuming its northwest trend at about Clyde. From Canton, the Pigeon River flows roughly parallel to Interstate 40 for many miles. It is impounded by the Walters Dam of Progress Energy creating the long, narrow Waterville Lake. It enters Tennessee just after the village of Waterville, and continues with I-40 in the same valley northwestward through Hartford to Newport, where I-40 heads west, and the Pigeon River flows north into the French Broad River. The Pigeon River dam was started in 1927 and was completed in 1930. The project was started by Carolina Power & Light and was completed by its affiliate Phoenix Electric Co. The concrete dam is high by 800 ft long. The brick power plant (visible from I-40) is actually from the dam. A tunnel long stretches from the dam to the power plant. The floods following the series of storms spawned by Hurricanes Frances and Ivan in September 2004 have changed the character of the river. The rains lasted days and flooding was severe. Portions of the towns of Canton and Clyde were completely underwater, and there was significant damage to a large portion of both towns. Farther upstream the water levels reached unprecedented levels.
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