The Big Sandy River, called Sandy Creek as early as 1756, is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 29 miles (47 km) long, in western West Virginia and northeastern Kentucky in the United States. The river forms part of the boundary between the two states along its entire course. Via the Ohio River, it is part of the Mississippi River watershed.
The Cumberland River is a major waterway of the Southern United States. The 688-mile-long (1,107 km) river drains almost 18,000 square miles (47,000 km2) of southern Kentucky and north-central Tennessee. The river flows generally west from a source in the Appalachian Mountains to its confluence with the Ohio River near Paducah, Kentucky, and the mouth of the Tennessee River. Major tributaries include the Obey, Caney Fork, Stones, and Red Rivers.
The Levisa Fork is a tributary of the Big Sandy River, approximately 164 miles (264 km) long, in southwestern Virginia and eastern Kentucky in the United States.
The Licking River is a partly navigable, 303-mile-long (488 km) tributary of the Ohio River in northeastern Kentucky. The river and its tributaries drain much of the region of northeastern Kentucky between the watersheds of the Kentucky River to the west and the Big Sandy River to the east. The North Fork Licking River, in Pendleton County, Kentucky, is one of its tributaries. The South Fork Licking River, in counties including Harrison County, Kentucky, is another.
Alasmidonta atropurpurea, common name Cumberland elktoe, is a species of freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve mollusk in the family Unionidae, the river mussels.
The Russell Fork is a 51.9-mile-long (83.5 km) tributary of the Levisa Fork in southwestern Virginia and southeastern Kentucky in the United States. Known for its whitewater, it rises in the Appalachian Mountains of southwest Virginia, in southern Buchanan County at the base of Big A Mountain, and flows northwest into Dickenson County. The Russell Fork continues to flow through the town of Haysi, Virginia, the Breaks Interstate Park, and the town of Elkhorn City, Kentucky, in Pike County, to the community of Millard, Kentucky where it flows into the Levisa Fork which, together with the Tug Fork, form the Big Sandy River.
