North Fork Kentucky River Explained

North Fork Kentucky River
Length:148mile
Discharge1 Location:Hazard gage stattion (1940 - 1991)
Discharge1 Min:158cuft/s
Discharge1 Max:1099cuft/s
Discharge2 Location:Cowan Creek (at mouth) (1991)
Discharge2 Min:0.64cuft/s
Discharge2 Max:1.22cuft/s
Source1:Payne Gap
Source1 Coordinates:37.1554°N -82.651°W
Source2:The Forks of Troublesome
Source2 Coordinates:37.3348°N -82.9809°W
Source3:Rockhouse Creek headwaters
Source3 Coordinates:37.2506°N -82.707°W
Mouth:Kentucky River
Mouth Location:just upstream of Beattyville
Mouth Coordinates:37.5866°N -83.6701°W

North Fork Kentucky River is a river in Kentucky in the United States.It is a fork of the Kentucky River that it joins just upstream of Beattyville.It is nearly 148mile long with an average slope of, and an overall basin size (at Jackson) of

Basin and hydrology

The river rises at Payne Gap in Letcher County, in the Appalachian plateaus, flowing initially westward past Whitesburg in the Kanawha section (of the Cumberland Plateau) north of Pine Mountain.Several of its early tributaries flow off the north side of Pine Mountain into it, one of the principal ones being Cowan Creek.The basin size within Letcher County is .

The discharge rate at Hazard varies seasonally, being high in the winter and spring and low in the summer and autumn.This is brought about by higher rainfall during the first half of the calendar year, and regularly causes floods in the spring.

Water quality, and connections to mining

0.5% of the area of the North Fork Kentucky River basin has been disturbed by mining.As a result of these land disturbances, the annual sediment yield for the North Fork basin is roughly 15 times the yield over the entire Kentucky River basin, at an estimated .Three quarters of the sediment load is deposited between Jackson and Heidelberg, estimated by the USGS and KGS to be mostly just upstream of the latter.

Because of the mining, the North Fork is also one of the three major sources of dissolved solids in the Kentucky River system.It is the origin of one third of the dissolved sulphates found in the Kentucky River, and the location of the highest concentrations of iron (more than 4 times the concentration over the whole Kentucky River basin), and manganese.The measured increases in dissolved solids over the years 1976 - 1986, between 3% and 10% per year, matched the increase in coal production during those same years.

Calcium and magnesium cations, one of the causes of water hardness, are elevated in the North Fork because of surface mining disturbances of calcium and magnesium bearing rock, the overall Kentucky River system being classified as hard to very hard, with exceptions in tributaries that are unaffected by Eastern Kentucky Coalfield mining.The North Fork is responsible for one third of the Kentucky River's dissolved magnesium and one tenth of its dissolved calcium.

Not enough data are available to explain the elevated aluminium concentrations in the North Fork, as few samples have been taken with highly fluctuating measurements, but the elevated barium concentrations correlate with the suspended sediment measurements and are thus attributed to underclay disturbances caused by mining, as do its elevated copper concentrations which are thus likewise attributed.The elevated concentrations of manganese are considered to be of natural origin, because although they are high in the mined parts of the North Fork basin, they are also high in other parts of the Kentucky River basin where there is no mining and no correlation with suspended sediment measurements.

Floods

The Kentucky River basin, including North Fork and its tributaries such as Troublesome, suffered a major flood in January and February 1957, although that did not exceed the highest on record for Troublesome itself at that point, which had been the flood of February 1939.The worst hit place was Hazard; but most of the settlements along the various tributaries were damaged to some degree.

Biota

The North Fork was the location of seven species of freshwater mussels as of 1975, and their habitat had suffered from significant reduction since the start of the 20th century.The reservoir at Carr Fork has been classified as eutrophic because of the sedimentation.

Contrastingly, whilst Buckhorn Creek has been affected by mining activity, its biota were found to be surviving fairly well, with 42 species of fish observed in the 1960s and 1970s and several species of algae and benthic invertebrates.It is an important recolonization source for downstream Troublesome Creek.

Tributaries and other locations

Connections

A gap connects Whitaker Branch to a minor branch of Tolson Branch.

A trail leads from the Jakes Branch of Line Fork to the Stony Fork of Leatherwood Creek.A gap leads from Little Colly Creek to Camp Branch.Over a ridge from Daniels Branch in one direction is Little Carr Creek and in the other is the Trace Fork of Rockhouse Creek.Over a ridge from Sandlick Creek is the Camp Branch of Rockhouse Creek.

A road leads from the Little Sandlick Branch past Polly and over a gap to Sandlick Branch.A gap from Indian Creek leads to Millstone.A gap from Trace Fork of Smoot Creek leads to Little Colly Creek.

Mines

In 1916, Caudill Branch was the location of Nancy Caudill's and Ison Caudill's mines.

The Swift Coal and Timber Company had mines on Turkey Creek; Line Fork just downstream of Defeated Creek (on land owned by Mose Ison); Defeated Creek itself, and its Wilson Fork and Wolfpen Branch; and many other locations on Line Fork from Cornetts Branch all of the way to Line's headwaters including on Picture Branch, Shipley Fork, Long Branch, Coyle Branch, and Jakes Branch.

See also

Sources

Further reading

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