Calfkiller River - History

History

According to Goodspeed's History of White County, the Calfkiller River is likely named after a Cherokee chief who lived in the valley when the first white settlers arrived in the area around 1800. Throughout the early 19th century, the river was harnessed to power numerous small gristmills. In the years before the Civil War, an iron works and a cotton mill operated along the banks of the river in the vicinity of the TN-111 bridge.

A number Civil War skirmishes were fought along the Calfkiller. On August 9, 1863, Union forces under Charles Minty attacked a scouting detachment under George Dibrell near Wildcat Creek, eventually scattering the Confederates after intense fighting. Another skirmish occurred on November 30 of that year, when a band of Confederate guerillas unsuccessfully ambushed a detachment of the U.S. First Tennessee Cavalry at Yankeetown. On February 22, 1864, a band of Confederates under John Hughs attacked a detachment of the Fifth Tennessee Cavalry along the river in what became known as the "Battle of Dug Hill." Hughs reportedly captured and executed over a dozen federals. Confederate guerilla leader Champ Ferguson, who lived in the Calfkiller Valley, is buried in France Cemetery, along the banks of the river near the Putnam-White county line.

In 1902, the Sparta Light and Power Company built a small waterwheel-powered electric plant just downstream from Sparta. After this plant burned in 1907, it was replaced by a more modern plant that used a concrete dam to divert water through a flume to a powerhouse located downstream. The plant operated until the 1930s, when the Tennessee Valley Authority began providing electricity to the area. The dam is still visible from the TN-111 bridge, and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.