The Tuckasegee River (variant spellings include Tuckaseegee and Tuckaseigee) flows entirely within western North Carolina. It begins its course in Jackson County above Cullowhee at the confluence of Panthertown and Greenland creeks. It flows in a northwesterly direction into Swain County and through the center of Bryson City, North Carolina. The river passes around the Bryson City Island Park, where it then enters Fontana Lake and then the Little Tennessee River.
The name Tuckasegee may be an anglicisation of the Cherokee word daksiyi— in the local Cherokee variety—‘Turtle Place.’ The river is dotted with stone fishing weirs most easily viewed when water levels are low.
Fishing, hiking and paddling are among the recreational opportunities along the river.
Famous quotes containing the word river:
“There are knives that glitter like altars
In a dark church
Where they bring the cripple and the imbecile
To be healed.
There’s a woden block where bones are broken,
Scraped clean—a river dried to its bed”
—Charles Simic (b. 1938)