[7]: 40  Both Tennessee and Kentucky have designated their respective portions of the Big South Fork as Outstanding National Resource Waters, and cleanup and reclamation efforts by a number of organizations have been made.

By 1798, the Treaty of Tellico had officially expelled the native Cherokee peoples from the river basin, although the land, which was not well suited to agriculture, was mostly passed over by settlers until the founding of the ultimately failed colony of Rugby, Tennessee, by Thomas Hughes in the 1880s.

[6]: 137 The mining community of modern-day Blue Heron, Kentucky, was established in 1937 along the banks of the Big South Fork, and operated until 1962 when it was abandoned by the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company.

[11] The Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area was established by the United States Congress as part of the Water Resources Development Act of 1974.

[12] According to the text of the act, the purpose of the establishment was for: conserving and interpreting an area containing unique cultural, historic, geologic, fish and wildlife, archeologic, scenic, and recreational values, preserving as a natural, free-flowing stream the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River, major portions of its Clear Fork and New River stems, and portions of their various tributaries for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations, the preservation of the natural integrity of the scenic gorges and valleys, and the development of the area’s potential for healthful outdoor recreation.

[13]The legislation granted authority for land acquisition to the Army Corps of Engineers, and for managing the area to the United States Secretary of the Interior once established.

[14]: 11 The Big South Fork and its watershed is home to a large variety of plant and animal species, and has likely been continuously vegetated since before the last glacial period, ending approximately 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.

[6]: 112 The availability of “seeds, berries, nuts, buds, flowers, fleshy roots and twigs” encourages the presence of species such as the Bonasa umbellus (ruffed grouse), Meleagris gallopavo (turkey), Sciurus carolinensis (eastern gray squirrel).

[7]: 40  Forests of sugar maple, along with beech and yellow birch are found in low moist slopes,[6]: 117  and Tsuga canadensis (Canadian hemlock) along with undergrowth of Rhododendron maximum grow in coves along streams.