Chatuge Dam is a flood control and

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

dam on the

Hiwassee River The Hiwassee River has its headwaters on the north slope of Rocky Mountain in Towns County in the northern area of the State of Georgia. It flows northward into North Carolina before turning westward into Tennessee, flowing into the Tennessee Riv ...

Clay County Clay County is the name of 18 counties in the United States. Most are named for Henry Clay, U.S. Senator and statesman: * Clay County, Alabama * Clay County, Arkansas (named for John Clayton, and originally named Clayton County) * Clay County, Fl ...

, in the U.S. state of

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. The dam is the uppermost of three dams on the river owned and operated by the

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina ...

, which built the dam in the early 1940s for flood storage and to provide flow regulation at

Hiwassee Dam Hiwassee Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Hiwassee River in Cherokee County, in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is one of three dams on the river owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the late 1930s to ...

further downstream.Tennessee Valley Authority, ''The Hiwassee Valley Projects Volume 2: The Apalachia, Ocoee No. 3, Nottely, and Chatuge Projects'', Technical Report No. 5 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1948), pp. 1-8, 17-19, 50-55, 209, 214, 222, 232, 496-497. The dam impounds the

Chatuge Lake Lake Chatuge is a man-made reservoir in Towns County, Georgia, and Clay County, North Carolina. It lies along the Hiwassee River created by the Chatuge Dam which finished construction in 1942. The lake is relatively shallow with depths of and r ...

, which straddles the North Carolina-

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

state line.Tennessee Valley Authority, ''The Nickajack Project: A Report on the Planning, Design, Construction, Initial Operations, and Costs'', Technical Report No. 16 (Knoxville, Tenn.: Tennessee Valley Authority, 1972), pp. 10-11. While originally built solely for flood storage, a generator installed at Chatuge in the 1950s gives the dam a small hydroelectric output.Tennessee Valley Authority
Chatuge Reservoir
Retrieved: 28 January 2009. The dam and associated infrastructure was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2017. Chatuge Dam is named for an 18th-century

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...

village once situated near the dam site.

Location

Chatuge Dam is located above the mouth of the Hiwassee River, just north of the North Carolina-Georgia state line. Chatuge Lake extends southward for along the Hiwassee and eastward for roughly along Shooting Creek, which once emptied into the Hiwassee immediately upstream from the dam site. The dam and the North Carolina section of the reservoir are surrounded by the

Nantahala National Forest The Nantahala National Forest ( /ˌnæntəˈheɪlə/), is the largest of the four national forests in North Carolina, lying in the mountains and valleys of western North Carolina. The Nantahala is the second wettest region in the country, after the ...

, and the Georgia section of the reservoir is surrounded by the

Chattahoochee National Forest The Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida - Georgia border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the con ...

Hayesville, North Carolina Hayesville is a town in Clay County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 311 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Clay County. Geography Hayesville is located at (35.046630, −83.817883). According to the United States ...

(north of the dam) and

Hiawassee, Georgia Hiawassee is the county seat of Towns County, Georgia, United States. The community's population was 880 at the 2010 census. Its name is derived from the Cherokee—or perhaps Creek—word ''Ayuhwasi'', which means meadow, (A variant spelling, ...

(to the south) are the nearest communities of note.

Capacity

Chatuge Dam is an earth-and-rock dam high and long, and has a generating capacity of 10,000 kilowatts. The dam's concrete overflow "ski-jump" spillway consists of 50 bays with a combined discharge of . Chatuge Lake has a flood storage capacity of and of shoreline. Water passes Chatuge Dam via the dam's

intake tower An intake tower or outlet tower is a vertical tubular structure with one or more openings used for capturing water from reservoirs and conveying it further to a hydroelectric or water-treatment plant. Unlike spillways, intake towers are intended ...

(connected to the dam by a footbridge), from which a steel conduit carries the water under the dam and empties it downstream.

Background and construction

Various private entities recognized the hydroelectric potential of the Hiwassee in the early 1900s, although plans for dams were typically focused further downstream from the Chatuge site. After taking control of flood control operations in the valley in the 1930s, the Tennessee Valley Authority built Hiwassee Dam and carried out an extensive survey of the river (the waters of which were a major contributor to flooding in

Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...

) in which they identified the Chatuge site. The outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in Europe brought an emergency demand for electricity, mainly to power

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

production in East Tennessee, and TVA offered to meet this demand by building a series of dams on the Hiwassee and several other

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names, ...

tributaries. The Chatuge Dam project (originally called the Hayesville project), along with several other dam projects, was authorized July 16, 1941. Work on the dam began the following day. Chatuge-dam-culvert-tva1

The construction of Chatuge Dam and its reservoir required the purchase of of land, of which had to be cleared. 278 families, 532 graves, and of roads (including part of

U.S. Route 64 U.S. Route 64 (US 64) is an east–west United States highway that runs for 2,326 miles (3,743 km) from Nags Head in eastern North Carolina to just southwest of the Four Corners in northeast Arizona. The western terminus is at U.S. Route 1 ...

) had to be relocated. TVA kept the dam's design simple and relied on basic building materials (i.e., earth and rock) in order to complete the dam as quickly as possible in hopes of allowing the reservoir to collect the 1941-1942 winter rains. The dam was constructed of impervious earthen fill fortified on both sides by

riprap Riprap (in North American English), also known as rip rap, rip-rap, shot rock, rock armour (in British English) or rubble, is human-placed rock or other material used to protect shoreline structures against scour and water, wave, or ice erosion. ...

. The spillway was the only major part of the dam that required concrete. Since the reservoir would fill slowly and create

mosquito Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning " gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "li ...

-breeding environments, various measures were taken to prevent

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

outbreaks. Chatuge Dam was completed and its gates closed on February 12, 1942. The cost of the whole project was just over $9 million. For most of its early years, Chatuge was operated as a flood storage unit in conjunction with nearby

Nottely Dam Nottely Dam is a hydroelectric and flood storage dam on the Nottely River in Union County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. The dam is owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the early 1940s as a flood control s ...

(which has an almost identical design) to regulate water flow at Hiwassee Dam downstream. A small generator was installed at Chatuge in 1954.

References

External links

Chatuge Reservoir
— official TVA site {{Tennessee Valley Authority Facilities Dams on the Hiwassee River Tennessee Valley Authority dams Buildings and structures in Clay County, North Carolina Dams in North Carolina Hydroelectric power plants in North Carolina Dams completed in 1942 Energy infrastructure completed in 1942 1942 establishments in North Carolina Historic districts in North Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Clay County, North Carolina Dams on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina