| | | |
 Uploading ....The first news that a lake and an earthen dam would be constructed on the Hiwassee River near Hayesville began with a rumor published in a local Georgia newspaper on May 29, 1941: “...sixty engineers are in the Hayesville and Woodsgrove communities making surveys about the new dam that is proposed for the Hayesville community…and that core-drilling for underlying rock strata is underway in various locations.” The article continued, projecting that “a figure of up to 500 families (for both states) could be affected by the dam.” This rumor and others proved to be true. Congress passed the resolution and, on July 10, 1941, the President signed into law “appropriations of $40,000,000 for the Hiwassee Watershed Project, which included construction of four dams and lakes in both North Carolina and Georgia: Appalachia, Ocoee Number 3, Nottely, and the purchasing of land and constructing Chatuge Dam, which was estimated to cost $5,000,000” (Ibid., TVA Technical Report).
The entire project had two purposes: supplying vast amounts of electricity for the manufacturing of aluminum for war planes; and for controlling floods throughout the Hiwassee River Basin. Work officially started in July 194l, with land purchases beginning the same month and transactions to be completed in September that year (Ibid.).
For building the Dam, the T.V.A. had considered two locations, based upon their rock strata underlying the proposed sites: 1) Blair Creek, two miles below the site that was finally chosen, and 2) the present site of the Dam, at the junction of Shooting Creek and the Hiwassee River. The total land required for the project was 11,061 acres, which was obtained either through outright purchases or by easement agreements (means to acknowledge the U.S. Government’s right to use land). Of this, 8,681 acres were purchased at an average of $50 per acre; and the remaining 2,380 acres were acquired through “flowage easement agreements” with private owners whose land was adjacent to the project area (Ibid.).
Many difficulties arose over land acquisition, such as the following, reported in November 7, 1941: Both purchasing lands and easement agreements caused problems. Basically, the TVA valued all lands at the same rate, both the fertile bottoms along the streams and the not-so-fertile wooded or uplands. The problem was perceived as very unfair to the extent that it prompted Georgia Congressman Welch to write a letter to President Roosevelt on October 28, 1941. But, unfortunately, very few adjustments were made as a result of this correspondence, but it was clear to all that the easement agreement was mandatory. The easement agreement, called the 1933 Flood Line Agreement, required that the original land owner had to continue paying taxes on any property under water. This rule is still in effect today: an individual who has lakefront property above the 1933 Flood Line may also own acreage below this line, which is controlled by TVA’s easement right. Consequently, the landowner is required to pay taxes on all land, even land in the flooded area (information provided by Clay County Tax Assessor, October 2006).
Most of the people around the lake were farmers, having an annual average income of $344; other non-agricultural jobs, $778 (Ibid., TVA Technical Report). So having to relocate their farms and their lives was an extreme hardship. The TVA’s purchasing of land and relocation of families and farms, churches and cemeteries, and roads, plus building the Dam all had to be done in two years, to meet the June 1942 deadline (Ibid.). Therefore, reservoir clearing began immediately in July 1941 and ended February 16, 1942. “In the clearing process, 278 families were displaced by the purchase of land for the Chatuge Reservoir. These families were allowed to remove their houses, barns, crops, and livestock along with fencing”…and “many businesses and houses were moved (or burned) in tact from the area to be flooded” (The Atlanta Journal, “Grandpa Penland’s Mighty Sick, so TVA’s Chatuge Dam Waits,” February 1942). The task was greatly hindered due to only a small number of workers and house movers assigned to this job, and the short time frame for accomplishing it (Ibid.).
The Base Penland homestead was moved from the Elf Community to Hayesville, first for a home and later converted into the School Superintendent’s office until November 2005; a house now located on School Street and currently owned by Mrs. Kathleen (Moss) Smith; and Mr. Dale Long’s home, which was moved to a location on Matheson Cove Road, off NC Highway 69 South. The original Long homestead was located about 300 yards below the present-day Gibson Cove Carolina Wildlife’s boat launching pad on Myers Chapel Road, approximately 2.5 miles off U.S. Highway 64 East. In an interview with Mr. Long in October 2006, he related that the monies received from TVA allowed him to purchased 58 acres of land for $300 and enough monies for moving his house and for adding an additional room.
All cemeteries had to be moved. A survey made of graveyards and churches affected by construction of all the dams in the Hiwassee Watershed Project “disclosed a total of 20 cemeteries with 2,199 graves. Three of these cemeteries located in North Carolina were below the 1933 Flood Elevation…it was necessary to move 133 monuments and 532 of the 58l graves in the three cemeteries affected by the reservoir” (Ibid.). One of those required to be moved was the entire original Philadelphia Church Graveyard, which was relocated on Jackrabbit Drive, off NC Highway 175 South, approximately nine miles southeast from Hayesville. Several original settlers are buried in this relocated graveyard, such as the Ledfords and the Davises. A brick monument stands today at the relocated cemetery, called the “Old Philadelphia Cemetery.” To commemorate the original Philadelphia Baptist Church and its cemetery, which were both covered by the Lake, this monument was erected to honor those who were once buried there but who are now reburied at this site.
As reported in the news, Chatuge Dam flood gates were scheduled to close and start allowing the new lake to fill in late January 1942. However, illness of one of the displaced persons delayed closing the flood gates. Local doctors informed TVA that, in their opinion, moving Mr. J. H. Squire Penland, age 92, who had suffered a severe stroke, would cause his immediate death. Not wishing to upset their fragile relationship with the citizenry and not wishing to assume the responsibility of moving him, TVA delayed closing the gates until after Mr. Penland’s death (Ibid., The Atlanta Journal, “…Penland”).
Besides eliminating much of the best farmland along the Hiwassee River, construction of the TVA Chatuge Dam had other significant impacts on the local economy in the early 1940s. During the planning and building phase of the Dam, hundreds of jobs were created and many were filled by locals along with several hundreds of men from other areas, who brought their families.
Excavating the site and building the dam started in August 1941, and the public could view the work in progress from a guard house–observation building on a ridge above the construction site, as shown here.
Observers could watch the workers build the impervious rolled earth fill that would protect against wave action on both slopes by riprap (stones and boulders piled on the embankments). When completed, the main embankment was 2,850 feet long with a maximum height of 144 feet. The principal construction quantities were 2,218,700 cubic yards, which included l,287,700 cubic yards of rock fill and 21,900 cubic yards of concrete. As explained previously in this Chapter, all this had been put in place to complete the dam by February l942 (Ibid., TVA Technical Report).
The final cost for constructing Chatuge Dam was $7,036,526.90, approximately two million dollars over projected cost. This figure also includes the building of a saddle dam (Ibid.), which is one-half mile east from the main dam and is accessed by following U. S. Highway 64 East out of Hayesville, going approximately one and one-half miles to Hinton Rural Life (H. R. L.) Road. There, turn right and follow H. R. L Road about two miles to the TVA access road that leads to the dam.
The saddle dam is 300 feet wide by 12 feet high. In 1954 both the saddle dam and the main dam were raised ten feet. Total cost of adding footage is classified and TVA will not release the figure (information from telephone conversation with TVA staff in main office, February 6, 2006).
After the end of WWII in 1945, the TVA began converting electric power for public use because it was no longer used for the war effort. So the people in both Clay County and Towns County, Georgia, began to share the luxury of having electric power. In the late 1940s, the U. S. Government formed through the Rural Electric Development Act (REA) electric companies that brought service to rural areas. One was the Blue Ridge Electric Membership Co-op of Young Harris, Georgia, which also served Clay County. “The Co-op started with two employees, one truck, and a great deal of faith in the future. The first project was completed with less than fifty miles of power line carrying the magic of electricity to a scant 124 members” (Jerry Hemphill, Lamplight to Satellites). It took three men to set a pole, which was a blighted chestnut tree. A blight had “struck the mountains a few years before” but “had left many tall trees sound enough for poles” (Ibid.).
The first electric meter was installed by the Co-op, connecting to the Willard Ledford resident on Cherry Mountain.
Facts about Chatuge Dam The word “Chatuge” has two different meanings: (l) “Beautiful” and (2) in the Cherokee language, “Land where the waters meet.” The meeting of the waters is where Shooting Creek and the Hiwassee River merge, which is now underwater.
Not only did all four dams in the TVA Hiwassee River System generate electricity for an aluminum plant at Alcoa, Tennessee, for building airplanes in the war effort; but recently released information tells that, at that same time, electricity was also supplied in powering the Atomic Bomb Research Center at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Chatuge Dam was the highest earthen dam ever constructed, until the Aswan Dam was built in Egypt in 1964.
It took l,521,831 man-hours to complete, with only one fatality.
Total area affected by construction of the Dam and Lake Chatuge is 8,100 acres; however, the normal operating level (flooded area) affects only 7,150 acres. The flooded area fluctuates throughout the year, usually beginning in late August, when a draw-down of the water level begins and lasts until April, in anticipation of spring rains.
Chatuge Dam Today its big and scarey and has cow ghosts. In the Clay County Tax Office a book of Deeds contains records of plats showing lands purchased from property owners for building Lake Chatuge. Pieced together from these records and with the aid of the TVA, a large map showing the same information is displayed in the Clay County Historical and Arts Museum.
Construction of the Dam and Lake Chatuge has certainly carried its stated purposes: flood control, providing electricity, economically improving a rural area, and providing recreational opportunities. On the up side, the impacts of the Dam made electricity available to hundreds, improving their living standards. On the down side, it also caused losses of riverside living space and forced relocation of homes and honored cemeteries. Looking back over the years, the positive effects outweigh the negative, because several generations have enjoyed a large meandering lake and more entertainment opportunities, the growth of businesses connected with lake recreation, such as first-class restaurants, motels, and convention centers. And the area is fast becoming noticed for its championship golf courses and for its excellent boating and fishing opportunities.
All residents of western North Carolina and northeast Georgia have benefited from tourism and the construction industry, especially Towns County, Georgia, and Clay County. Chatuge Dam has had a significant impact on the entire southeastern section of the nation by creating a water reservoir (one of many) that helps control flooding all the way from Clay County to the Gulf of Mexico.
Overall, the impact has been positive and, especially with the increase in population, the Dam’s existence has boosted economy and increased the County’s tax base.
The presence of both the National Forest and the TVA has greatly impacted Clay County’s economy in the past and both will continue to cooperate with the local government in supporting various projects. For example, the Forest Service has assisted as a co-law enforcement agency and has helped the school system from the sale harvested timber. TVA has cooperated with the County’s environmental goals in building water and sewer projects, and helped in economic development, such as assisting in financing an industrial park.
|
|
|
| | | |
|
