Swannanoa River

The Swannanoa River flows through the Swannanoa Valley of western North Carolina, and is a major tributary to the French Broad River. It begins at its headwaters in Black Mountain, NC, however, it also has a major tributary near its headwaters: Flat Creek, which begins on the slopes of Mount Mitchell. The Swannanoa River ends when it meets the French Broad at Biltmore Estate in Asheville. The river is 22 miles or 35 kilometers long, and it flows entirely within the geographical boundaries of Buncombe County. It is a valuable resource to the county, providing drinking water to the Asheville metropolitan area, and numerous recreational opportunities. In September 2004, massive rains from the remnants of Hurricane Frances and Hurricane Ivan caused the Swannanoa to flood, causing major damage to the Biltmore Village section of Asheville, and to the other communities that it flows through.

Swannanoa River
Tributary to French Broad River
Swannanoa River at Asheville, North Carolina
Location of Swannanoa River mouth
Swannanoa River (the United States)
Location
CountryUnited States
StateNorth Carolina
CountyBuncombe
CityBlack Mountain
Swannanoa
Asheville
Physical characteristics
Sourcedivide between Swannanoa River and Catawba River
 • locationabout 0.25 miles south of Swannanoa Gap
 • coordinates35°37′11″N 082°17′40″W[1]
 • elevation2,790 ft (850 m)[2]
MouthFrench Broad River
 • location
Asheville, North Carolina
 • coordinates
35°34′05″N 082°33′49″W[1]
 • elevation
1,968 ft (600 m)[2]
Length24.83 mi (39.96 km)[3]
Basin size132.77 square miles (343.9 km2)[4]
Discharge 
 • locationFrench Broad River
 • average166.88 cu ft/s (4.726 m3/s) at mouth with French Broad River[4]
Basin features
Progressionwest
River systemFrench Broad River
Tributaries 
 • leftCamp Branch
Wolfpit Branch
Stepp Branch
Gashes Creek
Christian Branch
Sweeten Creek
Ram Branch
 • rightFlat Creek
Tomahawk Branch
North Fork Swannanoa River
Beetree Creek
Bull Creek
Grassy Branch
Haw Creek
Ross Creek
BridgesYates Avenue, Old US 70, Broadway Street, S Blue Ridge Road, I-40, US 70, Paton Hill Road, Riverwood Road, Davidson Road, Warren Wilson College Road, Tunnel Road (US 70), E Azalea Road, I-240, S Tunnel Road, Biltmore Avenue, Biltmore Estate Road

Tributaries

(Not necessarily in order.)

  • Sweeten Creek
  • Ross Creek
  • Haw Creek
  • Gashes Creek
  • Grassy Branch
  • Christian Creek
  • Bull Creek
  • Beetree Creek
  • Lower North Fork
  • Upper North Fork
  • Tomahawk Branch
  • Flat Creek
Swannanoa River flooding after Hurricane Frances, September 2004
gollark: Unrelatedly, PDF is an awful format for documents which aren't scanned.
gollark: That's very heavily compressed, too.
gollark: (Wikipedia's text content only (just current versions of main-content-thingy pages) is 15GB)
gollark: With an internet connection that fast, you could literally download Wikipedia (text only, no revisions/talk pages/images/whatever) in 0.6 seconds, and all of it in less than a minute probably, if they could serve it that fast.
gollark: It would just be 200Gbps between the phone and whatever you connect it to. Not to the wider interwebbernet.

References
  1. "GNIS Detail - Swannanoa River". geonames.usgs.gov. US Geological Survey. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
  2. "Swannanoa River Topo Map, Buncombe County NC (Asheville Area)". TopoZone. Locality, LLC. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
  3. "ArcGIS Web Application". epa.maps.arcgis.com. US EPA. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
  4. "Swannanoa River Watershed Report". Waters Geoviewer. US EPA. Retrieved 12 October 2019.



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