Little Tennessee River in the context of Nantahala National Forest

The Tennessee River is a 652 mi (1,049 km) long river located in the southeastern United States . Flowing through the Tennessee Valley in the states of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, it begins at the confluence of French Broad and Holston rivers at Knoxville, and drains into the Ohio River near Paducah, Kentucky. It is the largest tributary of the Ohio, and drains a basin of 40,876 sq mi (105,870 km).

Its tributary, the Little Tennessee River, flows into it from Western North Carolina and northeastern Georgia.

Tellico Dam is a concrete gravity and earthen embankment dam on the Little Tennessee River that was built by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in Loudon County, Tennessee. Planning for a dam structure on the Little Tennessee was reported as early as 1936 but was deferred for development until 1942. Completed in 1979, the dam created the Tellico Reservoir and is the last dam to be built by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Unlike the agency's previous dams built for hydroelectric power and flood control, the Tellico Dam was primarily constructed as an economic development and tourism initiative through the planned city concept of Timberlake, Tennessee. The development project aimed to support a population of 42,000 in a rural region in poor economic conditions.

Fontana Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Little Tennessee River in Swain and Graham counties, North Carolina, United States. The dam is operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the early 1940s to satisfy the skyrocketing electricity demands in the Tennessee Valley to support the aluminum industry at the height of World War II; it also provided electricity to a formerly rural area.

At 480 feet (150 m) high, Fontana is the tallest dam in the Eastern United States; at the time of its construction, it was the fourth-tallest dam in the world. The dam and associated infrastructure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.

The Cheoah Dam is a hydroelectric dam located in Graham and Swain counties, North Carolina, on the Little Tennessee River between river miles 51 and 52. The Cheoah Development consists of a dam and powerhouse, the first of several constructed by the Tallassee Power Company (now Tapoco), a subsidiary of Aluminum Company of America (now Alcoa), in order to generate electricity to smelt aluminum in Alcoa, Tennessee. The name Cheoah comes from the Cherokee Native American word for "otter."

The Cheoah project began in 1916 as a construction camp at the Narrows, where the Little Tennessee River flowed through a narrow gorge, and it was completed in 1919. Cheoah Dam created the long, narrow Cheoah Reservoir, which covers approximately 644 acres (261 ha) of the normal full pool area and a drainage area of 1,608 square miles (4,160 km). The elevation of Cheoah Reservoir is 1,276.8 feet (389.2 m) (USGS). A scenic highway runs the length of the reservoir.

Calderwood Dam is a hydroelectric dam located along the Little Tennessee River in Blount and Monroe counties, in the U. S. state of Tennessee. Completed in 1930, the dam is owned and maintained by Tapoco, a subsidiary of the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa), although the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) controls the dam's reservoir levels from Fontana Dam further upstream. Calderwood Dam is named for Alcoa engineer Isaac Glidden Calderwood (1871–1941), who supervised much of the company's early Little Tennessee River operations.

Calderwood Dam was one of four dams—along with Cheoah, Santeetlah, and Chilhowee—built in the Little Tennessee Valley by Alcoa in the 20th century to provide electricity to its aluminum smelting operations in Blount County. The dam was one of the last to be completed in the Tennessee River watershed before TVA took control of the watershed in 1933. Alcoa developed the community of Calderwood, Tennessee, just downstream from the dam to house construction and maintenance crews for its Little Tennessee Valley operations. In 1989, Calderwood Dam was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The listing was expanded in 1990 and again in 2004 to include most of the dam's substructures.

Chilhowee Dam is a hydroelectric dam located in Blount and Monroe counties, Tennessee, United States, between river mile 33 and 34 on the Little Tennessee River. Construction began in 1955 and was completed in 1957 to provide power for the operation of the Alcoa Aluminum plant in nearby Alcoa, TN. The dam is now owned and operated by Brookfield Smoky Mountain Hydropower. The dam's reservoir (Chilhowee Lake) covers approximately 1,734 acres (702 ha) at normal full pool and has a drainage area of 1,977 square miles (5,120 km). The elevation of Chilhowee Reservoir is 874 feet (266 m) above mean sea level (USGS). Chilhowee's powerhouse is equipped with three Kaplan turbines that have a combined generating capacity of 48 megawatts.

Like Calderwood and Cheoah, Chilhowee is controlled by Fontana Dam. Fontana Dam is the primary flow control facility for the lower Little Tennessee River. Tapoco built and operates the Chilhowee Development. Chilhowee Dam and its powerhouse are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Chilhowee Hydroelectric Development. When the lake is drawn down for maintenance, the remains of the original bridge of US 129 over Abrams Creek can be seen.