The Powell River, which also rises in southwestern Virginia, empties into the Clinch approximately 10 miles (16 km) upstream from Norris Dam.

Norris Lake spans a 73-mile (117 km) stretch of the Clinch from the dam to the base of River Ridge at the Claiborne-Grainger county line.

Other protected areas in the vicinity include the Cove Creek Wildlife Management Area, which spans most of the lake's north shore opposite the state park, and the vast 24,000-acre (97 km2) Chuck Swan State Forest, which covers parts of the Clinch River upstream from the park and the lower portions of the Powell River.

Norris Dam State Park is located entirely within the Appalachian Ridge-and-Valley Range, which is characterized by narrow elongated ridges flanked by broad, fertile river valleys.

The low rolling hills that dominate the park's terrain are underlain by sedimentary rocks— namely limestone, dolomite, shale, and sandstone— which were formed roughly 400-500 million years ago during the Paleozoic Era.

In anticipation of the creation of the Norris Reservoir in the mid-1930s, William Webb of the Smithsonian Institution conducted an extensive archaeological survey of the lower Clinch Valley.

Webb located 23 prehistoric sites (which included 12 burial mounds and 34 townhouses) along the Clinch and its immediate watershed between what is now Oak Ridge and Claiborne County.

[4] At Saltpeter Cave, located approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) above the mouth of the Powell River, Webb uncovered 13 Native American burials as well as numerous tools and pottery fragments dating to various prehistoric periods.

[6][7] Webb also speculated, based on his findings in the Norris Basin, that the Cherokee were relative newcomers in the Tennessee Valley, arriving in the area no later than the late 17th century.

Of the 2,841 families removed by the Tennessee Valley Authority for the reservoir's construction in the 1930s, nearly all lived on subsistence farms with an average size of 62.6 acres (253,000 m2).

In the 1920s, several private and public entities began lobbying the federal government for the construction of a dam at the confluence of Cove Creek and the Clinch River to control flooding in the Tennessee Valley (it had been determined that the large volume of water carried by the Clinch to the Tennessee River was partially responsible for rampant flooding in cities such as Dayton and Chattanooga which were downstream from this confluence).

[14] The east section of Norris Dam State Park was developed in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps as a "demonstration recreational project" of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

The older east section of Norris Dam State Park has 19 rustic cabins, a 40-site campground, and a convention house known as the "Tea Room".

Both the east and west sections of the park have several miles of short hiking trails which meander through the forest on the ridge slopes and along the lakeshore.

The museum includes an 1826 barrel organ, several 19th-century room displays, an early-20th century general store counter, and various tools from the early pioneer era in East Tennessee.