Falling Water River - Course

Course

The river rises in Welch Hollow, a dissected portion of the Cumberland Plateau that lies just west of Monterey in eastern Putnam County, and descends more than 600 feet (180 m) before exiting the hollow at the southern edge of Buck Mountain. It passes under Interstate 40 near mile marker 291 before entering City Lake, a reservoir that provides water and water treatment for nearby Cookeville. Just beyond the City Lake Dam, the river passes under U.S. Highway 70 as it turns southwestwardly through rural southern Putnam County.

After flowing through a series of sharp bends, the river passes under Tennessee Highway 111 before entering northern White County, winding its way through a rural area to the north and west of the Upper Cumberland Regional Airport. The river again reaches (and forms) the Putnam-White county line before entering Burgess Falls Lake, a reservoir built in the early 1920s to provide electricity for Cookeville. The river passes under State Highway 135 just upstream from the reservoir's dam. Beyond the dam, the river enters a gorge and flows over a series of three waterfalls, culminating in the 136-foot Burgess Falls, as it drops from the Highland Rim to the Nashville Basin.

At the base of Burgess Falls, the river enters Center Hill Lake, an impoundment of the Caney Fork created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Center Hill Dam. The river passes a point where the counties of Putnam, White, and DeKalb intersect, and continues southwestward into DeKalb. It empties into the Caney Fork at just over 15 river miles above Center Hill Dam, and just above river mile 53.