Fontana Dam (also known as Fontana Village) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in Graham County,

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 ...

, United States. Fontana Dam is located on

North Carolina Highway 28 North Carolina Highway 28 (NC 28) is an primary state highway in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The highway runs north–south through the Nantahala National Forest in Western North Carolina. Route description NC 28 is pa ...

near the

Fontana Dam Fontana Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Little Tennessee River in Swain and Graham counties, North Carolina, United States. The dam is operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the early 1940s to satisfy the skyrocketin ...

and the

Little Tennessee River The Little Tennessee River is a tributary of the Tennessee River that flows through the Blue Ridge Mountains from Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, into North Carolina, and then into Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. It drains portio ...

. The town incorporated in 2011 and has a full-time population of 33.

History

The town is based around the village built to support the dam construction from 1942 to 1944, so that the dam could produce electricity to power the ALCOA (Aluminum Company Of America) in nearby

Alcoa, Tennessee Alcoa is a city in Blount County, Tennessee, Blount County, Tennessee, United States, south of Knoxville, Tennessee, Knoxville. Its population was 10,978 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is part of the Knoxville, Tennessee Metropol ...

which is south of

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state's ...

. The company was producing aluminum to make military aircraft during World War II. The cottages now rented out for visitors were employee houses. The dining hall is now a cafeteria and the commissary is now the village store. The old lodge was once a hospital and a school was also on the grounds. The children who grew up there during the dam construction times now have an association called "Dam Kids" and they keep in touch and have reunions. The property was transferred to Guest Services of America (GSA) then sold to Peppertree Corporation of Asheville NC in 1987. The CEO, Wayne Kinzer was later convicted of a felony and the property changed hands several times thereafter. Police services were once handled by village company police of the resort, but with Kinzer's felony conviction, the agency disbanded. The TVA police also patrolled the property which was part of a 100-year ground lease from TVA. With the disbanding of TVA police in 2012, the Graham County Sheriff Department and the NC Highway Patrol are the only police services to the area now.

Incorporation

Fontana Dam incorporated as a Town in June 2011.

Demographics

Economy

The town's main employer is the Fontana Village Resort, which serves 100,000 visitors annually. Fontana Dam has a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

with ZIP code 28733. In addition to residents and resort guests, the post office also serves hikers on the

Appalachian Trail The Appalachian Trail (also called the A.T.), is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.Gailey, Chris (2006)"Appalachian Tr ...

, which crosses the Fontana Dam; it is the first post office on the trail north of its southern end in

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 ...

. The Fontana Dam post office was one of several scheduled to be closed in 2011, though the closings have since been postponed.

Slot Cut

The dam gets cut along slots every four to five years to stop its growth (alkali aggregate reaction) from causing cracks at top of the dam which expands quickly.

References

{{authority control Towns in Graham County, North Carolina Towns in North Carolina Communities of the Great Smoky Mountains