About Kyles Ford, TN

About Kyles Ford, TN

Kyles Ford, Tennessee, is a village in Hancock County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is located at the base of Clinch Mountain along the Upper Clinch River and houses the (TWRA) Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency's Kyles Ford Wildlife Management Area.

A portion of Kyles Ford is included an 850-acre parcel of land referred to as the Kyles Ford Preserve. The parcel was acquired by TWRA in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and other conservation groups in a combined effort to preserve the area's rare, threatened, and endangered species of freshwater mussels. The concerned area of the Upper Tennessee River watershed that includes the Powell River Tributary, contains one of the most biologically diverse concentration of freshwater mussels in the Continental United States. It is also among the most degraded and threatened concentrations of mussels, containing some species that are globally unique.

Clinch-Powell Resource Conservation and Development has been instrumental in working with the Kyles Ford Community in developing portions of the preserve with educational and low-impact ecotourism facilities such as The Clinch River Conservation Retreat and River Place on the Clinch as a means of raising awareness and supplementing the funding of ongoing biodiversity research and preservation efforts related to the area.

From where the Clinch River breaks through the Powell and Clinch Mountains, just north of Kyles Ford, it continues southwestward toward Norris Dam for 50 or so miles of smooth, slow-moving, Class I water with occasional spots of Class II water. Great for families and those looking for a leisurely drift through southern Appalachia.