The Pigeon River Is Perched, Which Is Geologically Bad News (2020)
princegeology.comI found this pretty fascinating; the two really are tremendously close to joining together, see [1] (closest point of Hominy creek) and [2] (closest point of the Pigeon River). Hominy sits slightly above the Pigeon at this closest point, so the capture would find flow reversing from dumping into the French Broad to dumping into the Pigeon.
[1] - 35.531518, -82.832689
[2] - 35.52846, -82.840061
I wonder if underground water tables can play a role in accelerating this last bit.
There are buildings on the last couple hundred meters. I also wonder if current-day maintenance and concrete-work helps.
Indeed, fascinating.
BTW this author also has a fantastic YouTube channel in which he live-draws geological diagrams with MS Paint https://www.youtube.com/@TheGeoModels