The Little Pigeon River is located entirely within Sevier County. It rises from a series of streams which flow together on the dividing ridge between Tennessee and North Carolina inside the boundary of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The river has three primary tributaries: East, Middle and West.
Despite its name, it is not a tributary of the nearby Pigeon River, which flows into the French Broad well above Douglas Dam and the resultant reservoir
The East and Middle prongs are less notable divisions of the river, with the East Prong beginning at the confluence of Dunnâs Creek and Long Branch, and the Middle Prong emerging from the Greenbrier area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park where Ramsey Prong joins Porters Creek.