Little River Canyon National Preserve
| Little River Canyon National Preserve | |
|---|---|
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| Location | Cherokee County & DeKalb County, Alabama, United States |
| Nearest city | Fort Payne, Alabama |
| Coordinates | 34°26′26″N 85°35′44″W / 34.44056°N 85.59556°WCoordinates: 34°26′26″N 85°35′44″W / 34.44056°N 85.59556°W |
| Area | 15,288 acres (61.87 km2) |
| Established | October 24, 1992 |
| Visitors | 201,442 (in 2005) |
| Governing body | National Park Service |
| Website | Little River Canyon National Preserve |
Little River Canyon National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located on top of Lookout Mountain near Fort Payne, Alabama, and DeSoto State Park. Created by an act of Congress in 1992, the 15,288-acre (6,187 ha) preserve protects what is sometimes said to be the nation's longest mountaintop river, the Little River. The canyon was historically called "May's Gulf", "gulf" being a common term throughout the Cumberland Plateau for this sort of feature (e.g. Savage Gulf in Tennessee, or Trenton Gulf nearby in Georgia, now renamed "Cloudland Canyon"). Prior to being assigned to the National Park Service, the canyon area formed the southmost unit of Alabama's DeSoto State Park.
The Little River flows for almost its entire length down the middle of Lookout Mountain in northeast Alabama. Over eons of geologic time, Little River has carved out one of the Southeast's deepest canyons as it winds its way from headwaters in Georgia before exiting the mountain and emptying into the Coosa River (Weiss Lake impoundment) near Leesburg, Alabama. Legend has it that a minor Civil War skirmish occurred on the rim.
The main stem of the river is formed by the confluence of the 17-mile-long (27 km) East Fork and the 25-mile-long (40 km) West Fork. The Little River flows another 23 miles (37 km) from the confluence of the forks, through the canyon, to its end at Weiss Lake.
The river is said to be among the cleanest and wildest waterways in the South, undammed aside from a small and derelict hydroelectric project at DeSoto Falls on the West Fork near Mentone, Alabama. Sandstone cliffs tower up to 600 feet (180 m) above the narrow canyon floor, frequently visible from the 23-mile (37 km) scenic drive known as Little River Canyon Rim Parkway (AL 176, Dekalb C.R. 148, Cherokee C.R. 275) on the canyon's western rim. The northern half of this road was built under federal supervision in the New Deal era. The southern half was built by local authorities.
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Wikipedia