Deep River

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Map of the Cape Fear drainage basin showing Deep River

The Deep River is a tributary of the Cape Fear River, approximately 125 miles (200 km) long, in north central North Carolina in the United States.

Course

It rises in the piedmont country in western Guilford County, east of Kernersville. It flows southeast past High Point and Randleman, forming the Randleman Lake. It passes northeast of Asheboro, then flows east to Franklinville then to Ramseur, then passing north of Sanford. It joins Haw River near Haywood, just below the Haw's emergence from Jordan Lake, to form the Cape Fear River.

Dams

The river has 12 dams or relict dam structures and is the source river of the controversial Randleman lake project that will soon inundate 3000 acres (12 km²) of property on the river near U.S. Route 220. The river crosses the fall line of North Carolina, an area where rivers are quite rocky and have a moderately high gradient. This gradient was used to power mills along the river to support the early textile industry in North Carolina. The river, popular with canoeists, was a center of a great deal of activity during the American Revolution at places such as Franklinville and the House In The Horseshoe.

Until recently, the Deep River was host to the Carbonton Dam, the largest dam on the river at 17 feet (5.2 m) high and 270 feet (82 m) wide. In the fall of 2005, the dam was removed for the purpose of creating environmental mitigation credit by Restoration Systems, LLC, a leading environmental mitigation company in North Carolina. The project, which restored 10 miles (16 km) of the former impoundment around the House in the Horseshoe to free-flowing river, requires the company to monitor the Deep River for five years in order to document ecological and water chemistry changes as result of the removal.