The Little Emory River rises in Morgan County, Tennessee near the town of Coalfield

Coalfield, Tennessee

Coalfield is an unincorporated community in Morgan County, Tennessee, United States.Coalfield is between Wartburg and Oliver Springs on Tennessee State Route 62. To the west are Frozen Head State Park and the community of Joyner, Tennessee....

. It is one of the major tributaries to the Emory River

Emory River

The Emory River is a stream draining a portion of Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau.-Hydrography:The Emory River rises on the slopes of Frozen Head and Bird Mountain, prominent peaks in that part of the Cumberland Plateau in Morgan County, Tennessee. Frozen Head is the focus of a Tennessee state park...

. It crosses into Roane County, where it soon becomes an embayment of Watts Bar Lake

Watts Bar Lake

Watts Bar Lake is a reservoir on the Tennessee River created by Watts Bar Dam as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority system.-Geography:Located about midway between Chattanooga and Knoxville, the lake begins as the Tennessee River below Fort Loudon Dam in Lenoir City, Tennessee and stretches...

 several miles upstream of its mouth into the Emory. (Watts Bar Lake is a relatively deep reservoir  and causes "slack water" conditions many miles up several Tennessee River

Tennessee River

The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names...

tributaries, not just the main stream.)