Membership is good for one year from the time of joining or renewing. Dues are only $20!
Membership forms can be found in every newsletter. Click here for Membership Application
Please printout/mail-in with your information. Extra newsletters can sometimes
be found at the following locations: River Sports and Earth Traverse on Sutherland Ave.,
Outdoor Outfitters on Chapman Highway, Little River Trading Co. in Maryville
and Blue Ridge Mountain Sports at Western Plaza, Knoxville location, or the Village Green,
Farragut location.
Our Mailing Address is:
Chota Canoe Club
P.O. Box 8270, University
Station
Knoxville, TN 37996
Chota Constitution and By-Laws as of 9/13/01
We will provide our Quarterly Newsletter (with monthly postcard updates),
which notes our current contact information
for local, regional, and
long distance paddlesport trips. Our activities include canoe
and kayak whitewater trips (class 3 and above) and hairless trips (class 1,2/3),
canoe/kayaking
camping trips, touring kayak trips (day and self-contained),
youth activities which include
evening day trips, and family outings.
Additionally we provide our Annual Chota Whitewater
Canoe/Kayak School and
Sea Kayaking School, Safety Clinics, and Conservation Activities along
with social events, roll sessions and trips scheduled every weekend.
Club members are entitled to discounts (usually 10%) at the locations listed below.
You may be asked to show a copy of the club newsletter with your address label
affixed.
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January: Fontana Touring Overnighter |
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February: Chili Cook-Off |
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March: Polar Bear Weekend |
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April: Chota Spring Confluence |
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May: West Virginia Weekend (Memorial Day) |
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June: Canoe and Kayak School |
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August: Safety Clinic Ocoee Tandem Trip |
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September: Gauley Festival Trip |
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| October: Oct-Chota-Fest |
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November: Officer elections |
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December: Holiday party |
Chota Canoe Club was founded as a whitewater club in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1969.
Its members usually number between 200 and 300, and are primarily from Knoxville, Oak Ridge,
and Maryville/Alcoa, but also other locations in East Tennessee and neighboring states.
Despite its name, there are many whitewater decked, and touring kayak boaters in the club.
Knoxville, while located in the relatively flat Tennessee Valley, is surrounded by whitewater rivers and lakes.
The Ocoee River, site of the 1996 Olympic whitewater slalom, is less than 2 hours' drive from Knoxville.
With the Smokies to the east and south and the Cumberland Plateau to the north and west, there is a
tremendous variety of whitewater and flatwater, along with touring paddlesport activities.
Contact information for each area of activity is provided in our Quarterly Newsletter.
The following thumbnail history of the club was provided by longtime member Anne Phillips.
The club was founded in about 1969 by John and Beverly Hiscox, who cranked out a monthly newsletter in their home on a mimeograph machine and also fed us breakfast before we set out on our paddling exploits.
John is now known as Johnny Canoeseed, as he has also founded clubs in Jackson, Tennessee and Macon, Georgia. There may have been about 12 charter members ; club membership rose to around 50 by the mid-1970's. Now we are 240 strong.
The name of the club, Chota, comes from the ceremonial capital of the Cherokee nation along the banks of the Little Tennessee River, just downstream of the Citico Creek confluence. We chose the name both for its alliteration (CCC) and in support of efforts to prevent flooding of the site by the proposed construction of the Tellico Dam downstream. Unfortunately the controversial dam was completed in 1979 and the site now lies under Tellico Lake. Chota was also the Cherokee word for "peace".
In the beginning, people paddled whitewater in aluminum canoes, then fiberglass became popular since it slid over rocks more easily and could be patched at home (if you could stand the fumes, and carry the increasingly heavy boat). The first ABS canoe was introduced to the club in 1973, a Blue Hole OCA, #13.
Whitewater canoeing education was a learn-as-you-go process for several years. Our annual Chota Canoe School weekend began in the mid- 1970's, when we also had decked boat rolling sessions in the Westside Y pool in the winter.
Finding good river segments within day trip distance of Knoxville was also learn-as-you- go, as was finding feasible routes through those rivers. And we were all beginners. Results were not surprising: lots of cold swims. People survived wearing only wool clothing and ponchos or K-Mart style rain suits for one or several seasons before crashing through and purchasing a diver's wetsuit, which they then sometimes altered to create more room for shoulder movement and circulation behind the knees. Drysuits and fleece are very recent improvements.
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