This article is about the Piney River of East Tennessee

East Tennessee

East Tennessee is a name given to approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee, one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. East Tennessee consists of 33 counties, 30 located within the Eastern Time Zone and three counties in the Central Time Zone, namely...

. For information about the Piney River of Middle Tennessee

Middle Tennessee

Middle Tennessee is a distinct portion of the state of Tennessee, delineated according to state law as the 41 counties in the Middle Grand Division of Tennessee....

, see Piney River (Middle Tennessee)

Piney River (Middle Tennessee)

The Piney River is a tributary of the Duck River in Middle Tennessee in the United States. Via the Duck River, the Tennessee River, and the Ohio River, it is part of the Mississippi River watershed. The headwater tributaries of the Piney River rise in Dickson County, Tennessee near the city of...

.

The Piney River is a stream

Stream

A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...

 that drains a portion of Middle Tennessee

Middle Tennessee

Middle Tennessee is a distinct portion of the state of Tennessee, delineated according to state law as the 41 counties in the Middle Grand Division of Tennessee....

's Cumberland Plateau

Cumberland Plateau

The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and western West Virginia, part of Tennessee, and a small portion of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia . The terms "Allegheny Plateau" and the "Cumberland Plateau" both refer to the...

 generally referred to in the area as Walden Ridge

Walden Ridge

Walden Ridge is a mountain ridge and escarpment located in Tennessee, in the United States. It marks the eastern edge of the Cumberland Plateau and is generally considered part of it. Walden Ridge is about long, running generally north-south...

. It rises near the Rhea County

Rhea County, Tennessee

Rhea County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2000, the population was 28,400. Its county seat is Dayton.-Geography:According to the U.S...

 – Bledsoe County line and is referred to in its upper reaches, roughly until its confluence with Duskin Creek, as Piney Creek. Its major tributary

Tributary

A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...

, Little Piney Creek, flows over two spectacular but largely inaccessible waterfall

Waterfall

A waterfall is a place where flowing water rapidly drops in elevation as it flows over a steep region or a cliff.-Formation:Waterfalls are commonly formed when a river is young. At these times the channel is often narrow and deep. When the river courses over resistant bedrock, erosion happens...

s near the community of Grandview which are located in a State Natural Area. The confluence of the two streams occurs below the falls of the smaller stream in an area referred to as "Shut-in Gap". The stream flows out of the gap and is bridged by State Route 68 just before that road begins its steep climb up the Cumberland Escarpment onto Waldens Ridge. The stream flows north of Spring City, Tennessee

Spring City, Tennessee

Spring City is a town in Rhea County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 2,025 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Spring City is located at ....

, and just east of that town it becomes slack as an embayment of Watts Bar Lake

Watts Bar Lake

Watts Bar Lake is a reservoir on the Tennessee River created by Watts Bar Dam as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority system.-Geography:Located about midway between Chattanooga and Knoxville, the lake begins as the Tennessee River below Fort Loudon Dam in Lenoir City, Tennessee and stretches...

, an empoundment of the Tennessee River

Tennessee River

The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names...

 caused by the Tennessee Valley Authority

Tennessee Valley Authority

The Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected...

's Watts Bar Dam

Watts Bar Dam

Watts Bar Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River in Meigs County and Rhea County, Tennessee, USA. The dam is one of nine dams on the main Tennessee River channel operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in early 1940s to provide flood control and electricity and...

 project. The mouth of the Piney is one of the larger embayments of Watts Bar Lake and contains several small island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

s.

Variant names

According to the Geographic Names Information System

Geographic Names Information System

The Geographic Names Information System is a database that contains name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features located throughout the United States of America and its territories. It is a type of gazetteer...

, Piney River has also been known historically as:

• Piney Creek
• Pine River