Elk River (Tennessee River tributary)

This article is about the Elk River which rises in Middle Tennessee and flows into northern Alabama. For other streams named Elk River, or places named Elk River, see the Elk River disambiguation page.

The Elk River rises in Grundy County, Tennessee in Burroughs Cove near the aptly-named tiny community of Elkhead. It is bridged for the first time by Tennessee Highway 50 near Pelham, Tennessee. At first it flows southwestward, and turns to flow more generally westward. It is then bridged by both U.S. Highway 41 and Interstate 24. Shortly below this point, it forms the Coffee County - Franklin County line. It is first impounded by Elk River Dam, forming Woods Reservoir, the empoundment of which extends upstream to about the same port where the stream ceases to server as the Coffee-Franklin County line and is entirely in Franklin County. This reservoir was built under the auspices of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, primarily to provide a large source of cooling water for the U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center, which has large wind tunnels and other military and scientific research equipment, and is also referred to as Arnold Air Force Station and Arnold Air Force Base in honor of aviation pioneer General "Hap" Arnold. This area is also used as a wildlife refuge. The reservoir is bridged by Tennessee Highway 127.

Only a few miles below Elk River Dam is the beginning of slack water caused by the Tims Ford Dam of the Tennessee Valley Authority. The slack water extends upstream to the vicinity of the small town of Estill Springs. Here it is bridged by U.S. Highway 41 Alternate. Backwaters of the Tims Ford project also extend into the nearby town of Winchester, county seat of Franklin County, even though the main channel of the Elk runs to its west. A considerable amount of leakage from the reservoir is observed along Tennessee Highway 50 in the form of what appear to be large springs along the north side of that road but are in fact leaking of the reservoir waters through the porous limestone rock of the area. This pehnomenon has resulted in a locally-popular source of water for livestock and othr uses for which flitration and treatment of the water to be used is unnecessary. Tennessee Highway 50 again crosses the Elk just below Tims Ford Dam.

Shortly below the dam, the stream becomes the boundary between Franklin County and Moore County, and then subsequently between Moore County and Lincoln County. The stream begins to meander severely. Several miles below the stream ceasing to serve as the county line is Dickey Island. It is bridged near the small community of Kelso, site of a cave used as a saltpeter mine by Confederates during the Civil War, by U.S. Highway 64. The Elk flows just south of the Lincoln County seat of Fayetteville. Until the late 1960s there was a "dry" stone masonry bridge (one in which the stones are held in place by the power of gravity forcing them against each other, not mortar) over the Elk here; it was destroyed in a flood. Several miles west of Fayetteville, it is crossed by Tennessee Highway 274, a highway built on a old railroad bed. It then crosses into Giles County, where it is bridged by the CSX Railroad and Interstate 65 before flowing just south of its small namesake town of Elkton, Tennessee, where it is bridged by U.S. Highway 31. Slightly southeast of Elkton is the mouth of Richland Creek, a fairly sizeable triubtary. A few miles below this point it crosses into Limestone County, Alabama where it meets the Tennessee River.