Pomme de terre is French for potato, a food Indians harvested in the area.

[4] Before the French explorers, the Osage people, who were historically indigenous to the region, had called it a name meaning Big Bone River, referring to the fossils of mastodons and other ancient creatures which they found along its eroding banks.

[5] The Pomme de Terre River is formed in Greene County in the Ozarks by the confluence of its short north and south forks, which rise in Webster and Greene counties, respectively.

The river flows generally northward through Dallas, Polk, Hickory and Benton counties, past the town of Hermitage.

In Hickory County a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam causes the river to form Pomme de Terre Lake.