250px|right|thumb|The Hiwassee drainage basin, which includes the Ocoee River, located within the upper Tennessee drainage basin

The Toccoa River and Ocoee River are the names in use for a single river that flows northwestward through the southern Appalachian Mountains of the southeastern United States. It is a tributary of the Hiwassee River, which it joins in Polk County, Tennessee, near the town of Benton. Three power generating dams are operated along it.

The river is called the Toccoa for its through Georgia, Toccoa comes from a Cherokee word meaning "Catawba place" or "beautiful".

On February 16, 1990 flooding of the river submerged much of the central business district of the riverfront towns of Copperhill, Tennessee and McCaysville, Georgia. The area was once heavily mined for copper ore from the Copper Basin and polluted by smelting operations. Extensive logging and plant-destroying smog depleted topsoil and released polluted acid and metals into the area's streams. The area has since been cleaned and greened. Olympic kayaker Joe Jacobi led a successful effort to bring the Atlanta Olympic white-water event to the Ocoee River in 1996, and his wife Lisa, a former CNN news producer, left her job to open a downtown bed-and-breakfast and become a local internet entrepreneur. The Middle Section contains some 20 named Class III and IV rapids and provides recreational opportunities throughout its eight-month season. One of the largest rapids on the Middle Ocoee, "Hell's Hole," runs right beneath the bridge leading to the power station, with "Powerhouse", a significant ledge with a strong hydraulic, right after it. Upstream (to the southeast), TVA also operates Blue Ridge Dam, which creates Lake Blue Ridge (called Blue Ridge Reservoir by TVA).

thumb|right|TVA's Ocoee Dam No. 3 on the Ocoee River in Polk County, Tennessee, ca. 1945

Whitewater kayaking and rafting

The Canoe slalom events during the 1996 Summer Olympics were conducted on a half-mile Olympic whitewater course that is fed by releases of water from Ocoee #3. The Ocoee Whitewater Center was built by the U.S. Forest Service for this purpose, including a large building along U.S. 64, whose eastbound lanes were originally built for traffic which are now converted to be used as a parking and staging area. A 4.5-mile whitewater rafting area farther downstream is fed by water released from Ocoee Dam #2. The Olympic section was not open to the public until after the Olympics, while the middle section had been open to the public since the late 1970s. After the Olympics, rafting tours (including bus transportation) are provided by several different companies located in both directions on U.S. 64, which runs next to the river for a few miles (several kilometers). These outfitters provide other activities on and along the river such as biking, hiking, kayaking and lodging. Whitewater rafting is the most popular and is led by trained river guides through a number of rapids.

thumb|Detail of a bridge built over the river for the 1996 Olympics.

Rapids on the Middle:

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Mile !! Name !! Difficulty

|-

| 0.0 || Dam No. 2 ||

|-

| 0.0 || Entrance/Grumpy || IV

|-

| 0.2 || Staging Eddy || III

|-

| 0.3 || Gonzo Shoals || III

|-

| 0.7 || Broken Nose || III+

|-

| 0.8 || Second Helping || III

|-

| 1.1 || Slice-n-Dice || III

|-

| 1.1 || Moonshoot || III

|-

| 1.2 || Double Suck || III+

|-

| 1.4 || Double Trouble || III

|-

| 1.6 || Left Right Left || III

|-

| 1.9 || Flipper || III

|-

| 2.8 || Surprise || III

|-

| 3.1 || Tablesaw || IV

|-

| 3.2 || Diamond Splitter || III

|-

| 3.9 || Accelerator || III

|-

| 4.1 || Cat's Pajamas || III

|-

| 4.2 || Hell's Hole || IV

|-

| 4.3 || Powerhouse Ledge || IV

|-

| 4.6 || Outfitter Takeout ||

|-

| 5.4 || Private Boater Takeout ||

|}

Twenty-four rafting companies make use of the river and at peak times more than 750 people raft the river each day, as of 2025. Rafting on the Ocoee Olympic course takes place 34 days a year (usually on weekends) and rafting on the middle section takes place five days a week each summer. The Ocoee ranks as one of the top ten sites for whitewater rafting in the nation. As of 2025, more than 5 million people have rafted the river, the industry brings in approximately $43 million annually in economic benefits, and it supports more than 600 jobs.

  • Taccoy River
  • Tacoy River

See also

  • Passiflora incarnata (also known as the purple passionflower or "Ocoee" in Cherokee)
  • Pityopsis ruthii (Pityopsis ruthii is a rare species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name Ruth's golden aster. It is endemic to the US state of Tennessee, where it is known only from Polk County. It is threatened by the modification of its habitat. It is a federally listed endangered species.)
  • Noontootla Creek
  • Shallowford Bridge
  • List of rivers of Tennessee
  • Ocoee Supergroup

References

  • TVA Toccoa dam page
  • TVA Ocoee dams page
  • American Whitewater page