Not only has this summer's drought not shut down the falls, no drought in recorded history has either, says park manager Danny Brown. Records show that at flood stage, flow over the falls often reaches 30,000 cubic feet per second. No current figure is available, Brown said, but flow this month is about average, he said. Nor will it stop this year, he said. The Cumberland is formed by the Poor Fork, Clover Creek and Martin's Fork in Harlan County.
Dams keep the Ohio navigable.
He didn't want to see dams on the river. DuPont, who in the late 1920s was a state senator in Delaware, was a Louisville native who spent most of his summers in the falls area. The purchase and property transfer was completed in 1931. Meanwhile, the flow of visitors, estimated at 750,000 to 1 million annually, continues at about the same level, Brown said. Attendance is calculated by vehicle, not by head count.