Red River (Kentucky River tributary)

This article is about the tributary to the Kentucky River in eastern Kentucky. For the tributary to the Cumberland River, see Red River (Tennessee-Kentucky). For other uses, see Red River (disambiguation).
Red River
Red River in the Red River Gorge Geological Area
Map
Location
CountryUnited States
StateKentucky
Physical characteristics
Discharge 
 • locationClay City, Kentucky
 • average507 cu/ft. per sec.[1]
TypeWild, Recreational
DesignatedDecember 2, 1993
Wild and Scenic Red River in Wolfe County
Autumn river landscape on the lower Red River

The Red River is a 97.2-mile-long (156.4 km)[2] tributary of the Kentucky River in east-central Kentucky in the United States. Via the Kentucky and Ohio rivers, it is part of the Mississippi River watershed.

It rises in the mountainous region of the Cumberland Plateau, in eastern Wolfe County, approximately 15 miles (24 km) east of Campton. It flows generally west, through Red River Gorge in the Daniel Boone National Forest, then past Stanton and Clay City. It joins the Kentucky approximately 11 miles (18 km) southeast of Winchester.

In 1993, a 20-mile (32 km) stretch of the river in the Red River Gorge was designated by the federal government as a National Wild and Scenic River.

The book The Unforeseen Wilderness by Wendell Berry was written to deter the Army Corps of Engineers from damming the Red River Gorge in 1971.

  1. ^ "USGS Current Conditions for USGS 03283500 RED RIVER AT CLAY CITY, KY".
  2. ^ U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map, accessed June 13, 2011