Dirty Bird...Lost Treasure

[Onslow]

Several rivers have seen remarkable improvements since the sunset of the dirty industrial era such as the Ararat, Tuck, Deep, Haw, Eno, South Fork Catawba, Pigeon. Some river will be drowned for what may seem an eternity.  Some the most exquisite treasures lost are the Yadkin under Badin, and Falls Lake, the Little Tennessee under Cheoah, and Calderwood, and the Pigeon.

Of all the rivers the cross the NC/TN spine, the Pigeon has/had the most stupendous scenery, and rapids. As the River passes Hepco, and enters what is now Waterville Lake, the first of two gorges appears.  The river picks up to a sustained gradient of 50 fpm through the lake area and eases up briefly down near Harmen Den.  The YT video above picks up the river below Harmen Den, and continues down to the TN border.  The water from Waterville is diverted through a tunnel except for a several days a year.  Here it is fully watered.

[Yallerhammer]

That was filmed really close to where I live. Wild to see that much water in the old riverbed, it's usually down to pretty much the flows of Hurricane and Cold Springs creeks in that area. I've lived most of my life along the Pigeon. It still needs a lot of work, but there has been a vast improvement in it since I was a kid forty years ago. Back then, it was a stinking, black, foamy cesspool with almost nothing living in it but carp and goldfish.