Why this park
Ocoee River State Park, opened in 2025, gives access to more than 17 miles of the Ocoee in Polk County, much of it through the Cherokee National Forest. Other agencies hold much of what visitors use: TVA owns the three dams that decide when the river runs, and the Forest Service runs the Ocoee Whitewater Center at the Olympic course. The park's own sites, its page shows, include the Sugarloaf Mountain day-use area below Ocoee Dam No. 1 and Nancy Ward's grave near Benton.
What makes the place worth drawing is the flume. A wooden trough, first built in 1913 and since rebuilt, clings to the side of the gorge for about five miles, carrying the river's water to the Ocoee No. 2 powerhouse. While it runs full, the Middle Ocoee below is too low to raft. When TVA turns the water back into the river, the same rocks become five miles of nearly unbroken rapids.
The story
The Ocoee was Cherokee country. The Tennessee Encyclopedia says Nancy Ward, born at Chota in 1738, was chosen Beloved Woman of the Cherokees for her courage in battle and later pleaded for peace with the settlers at treaty talks. Driven from Chota when the Cherokees ceded land in 1819, she settled on the Ocoee near present-day Benton and ran an inn until she died in 1822. In 1835 a removal treaty took the Cherokees' last land in Tennessee. The Daughters of the American Revolution marked her grave in 1923.
Upstream, copper stripped the land. Mining at Ducktown began in the 1840s, the encyclopedia says, and by 1878 about fifty square miles of forest had been cut for the mines and smelters. After 1891, roasting ore in the open killed plants for miles and left bare, eroding red hills. The park's page says the pollution reached the river itself. The last mine closed in 1987.
The Eastern Tennessee Power Company dammed the river, opening Ocoee No. 1 in 1912 and No. 2 in 1913. TVA bought both in 1939 and finished Ocoee No. 3 upstream in 1942. For decades the riverbed below No. 2, and later No. 3, lay mostly dry.
In September 1976, American Whitewater says, TVA closed the flume for rebuilding, and the Middle Ocoee ran. Paddlers and outfitters followed, and while the flume was rebuilt they fought to keep the water; it took an act of Congress before TVA agreed to scheduled releases.
For the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, part of the dry Upper Ocoee was narrowed and reshaped into a slalom course. The Whitewater Center built for the Games burned on April 26, 2022.
The state took on the river in 1984, as one park with the Hiwassee, and split the two in 2025.
When to go, and what to wear
The river runs on TVA's schedule. The park's page lists Middle Ocoee releases on weekends from March to Memorial Day, Thursday to Monday through Labor Day, and weekends again into October. The Upper Ocoee runs only on weekends, from May to Labor Day. TVA can change the schedule without notice.
The nearest NOAA station with temperature normals, at Cleveland, about 16 miles northwest and 840 feet up, puts July at a high near 89°F and a low near 68°F in its 1991–2020 normals. The Whitewater Center is about 1,000 feet higher. In summer, raft in a swimsuit or quick-drying synthetics, with sunscreen and shoes or sandals that strap to your heel, since the park bans flip-flops. The Lower Ocoee, fed from deep in Parksville Lake, runs colder than the Middle.
Spring and fall are cooler. March, the wettest month, averages a high near 63°F and a low near 39°F; October, the driest, a high near 73°F and a low near 48°F. Cold water can make a swimmer gasp and inhale water, the National Weather Service warns, so dress for the water. Skip cotton and jeans, which stay wet and chill you. Wear synthetic layers or a wetsuit, and pack dry clothes. In September, look near Double Suck rapid for Ruth's golden aster, an endangered flower found only on the Ocoee and the Hiwassee.
Winter has no scheduled releases. January averages a high near 50°F and a low near 29°F, good weather for the Old Copper Road Trail in a warm jacket.
Know before you go
- On November 5, 2026, the river at Copperhill rose to 18.05 feet, a record, and the park closed. It reopened its land and day-use areas the next day, the state's emergency agency said, but TDEC has asked the public to avoid all contact with streams and lakes in the Ocoee watershed. The Forest Service has suspended all its access to the river and Parksville Lake and closed Thunder Rock Campground.
- Once both are lifted, the park recommends booking a raft trip with a permitted outfitter from its list; no experience is needed, but riders on the Middle and Upper Ocoee must be 12 or older. During a release, everyone on those sections must wear a Coast Guard-approved life jacket and a whitewater helmet.
- Swim on those two sections only when the dams aren't releasing. Glass, aluminum and foam containers aren't allowed on the river, and cell service is patchy.
- The park's office is still at Hiwassee Scenic River State Park's visitor center in Delano.
- Hours, fees and closures change, so check Ocoee River State Park's page before you go.
Sources: Tennessee Encyclopedia, "Polk County" (Marian Bailey Presswood), "Nancy Ward" (David Ray Smith), "Ducktown Basin Museum" (Carroll Van West) and "TEPCO" (James B. Jones, Jr.); The Living New Deal, "Ocoee Dam No. 3 – Turtletown TN"; American Whitewater, "Ocoee River: #2 Dam to #2 Powerhouse"; U.S. Forest Service, Cherokee National Forest, "Ocoee Whitewater Center" and alert of November 5, 2026; Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, "Flash Report #2 - Polk County Flooding" (November 6, 2026); U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ruth's Golden Aster 5-Year Status Review (2023); Shay Patterson, "Ocoee River crests at a record 18.05 feet after flooding in McCaysville and Copperhill," Local 3 News (November 5, 2026); Tyneisha Herring, "Polk County celebrates grand opening of a new State Park Saturday," NewsChannel 9 (September 20, 2025); Addison Howard, "Ocoee River State Park becomes Tennessee's newest state park," Local 3 News (September 22, 2025); Tennessee State Parks, "Tennessee State Parks Celebrates New Ocoee River State Park" (September 20, 2025); National Weather Service, "Cold Water Hazards and Safety" and observations at the Toccoa/Ocoee River at Copperhill gauge (November 5, 2026); NOAA, U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020, Cleveland Filter Plant station; Wikipedia; Ocoee River State Park, tnstateparks.com.
