Seventy Six Falls, Waterfall in Clinton County, Kentucky, US.
Seventy Six Falls is a waterfall on Indian Creek in Clinton County that drops 38 feet (11.5 meters) before flowing into Lake Cumberland. The cascade moves through rocky terrain and forms a notable feature of the local watershed.
Before Wolf Creek Dam was built to create Lake Cumberland, this waterfall measured 84 feet (25.6 meters) in its natural state. The damming of water fundamentally altered the waterfall's size and flow.
The falls may take their name from the nearby community of Seventy Six, though the link is uncertain: the community was settled around 1806, and some trace its name to a survey marker or to the year 1776. A post office named Goodson, for its postmaster, opened in 1830 and was renamed Seventy Six by Charles D. Semple in 1834.
The falls sit on Indian Creek just above Lake Cumberland, and the land around the former mill site above them is now a park maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the lake. Water flow and the drop vary with the lake level, so the falls look different depending on conditions. The Corps manages access to the site.
The name is often said to come from the falls' height, but before Lake Cumberland was impounded the drop was about 84 feet, not 76. Another claim, that it counted breaks on Indian Creek above the cataract, is unlikely because water flow changes the number. The nearby community may be the real source of the name.
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