Description
Obed Wild and Scenic River consists of sections of four different streams--Daddys Creek, Clear Creek, Emory River and the Obed--within one watershed. Together these waterways have created a rugged landscape of lands and waters found in few places east of the Mississippi.
Cutting deeply into the sandstone of the Cumberland Plateau, the Obed and its tributaries have carved spectacular gorges 500 feet deep. Huge sandstone boulders and overhanging bluffs once sheltered Native Americans who made these narrow river valleys their home.
Why TNC Selected This Site
The Conservancy acquired this preserve in the 1980s as a gift from the landowner.
What TNC Has Done/Is Doing
The Obed Wild and Scenic River was added to the National Park Service by Act of Congress in 1976. The preserve is managed by TNC and the National Park Service as part of the Obed Wild & Scenic River corridor.
Working with the Tennessee Hemlock Conservation Partnership and private landowners, TNC has treated more than 100 hemlock trees on this property to protect them from the woolly adelgid, which is deadly to hemlocks.
