Hiwassee Lake is a man-made reservoir in

Cherokee County, North Carolina Cherokee County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It borders Tennessee to its west and Georgia to its south. As of the 2020 census, the population was 28,774. The county seat is Murphy, elevation 1604 ft. History ...

. It lies along 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 ...

created by the

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 ...

which finished construction in 1940. Hiwassee Lake stretches along the river for approximately to the town of

Murphy, North Carolina Murphy is a town in and the county seat of Cherokee County, North Carolina, United States. It is situated at the confluence of the Hiwassee River, Hiwassee and Valley River, Valley rivers. It is the westernmost county seat in the state of North Ca ...

. It has of shoreline, a storage capacity of , and of flood storage. Hiwassee Lake is . Its tailwaters are part of Apalachia Lake.Tennessee Valley Authority, ''The Hiwassee Project: A Comprehensive Report on the Planning, Design, Construction, and Initial Operations of the Hiwassee Project'' (Hiwassee Valley Projects Volume 1), Technical Report No. 5 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946), pp. 1-8, 39-40, 211, 230, 242, 248. The reservoir's operating level varies by roughly in a typical year.Tennessee Valley Authority
Hiwassee Reservoir
Retrieved: 25 January 2009. The southwestern arm of the reservoir over Persimmon Creek is known as Persimmon Lake. It reaches to a smaller dam which contains Cherokee Lake. The

Nottely River The Nottely River is a river in the United States. The river originates in the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The river flows for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataT ...

also flows into Hiwassee Lake from North Georgia.

History

Hiwassee Lake is named after the Hiwassee River. Two 18th century Cherokee towns along the river were named Hiwassee.James Mooney, ''Myths of the Cherokee and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee'' (Nashville, Tenn.: C and R Elder, 1972), p. 512. The river's name comes from the

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 ...

word for large meadow, or

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

. 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 ...

started work creating Hiwassee Lake in 1936. The reservoir was completed in 1940. The

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

tested torpedos in Hiwassee Lake in 1942 during

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 ...

. The lake was chosen due to its isolation and its depth – more than in places. The Navy Bureau of Ordnance installed a launcher, net, and underwater camera. Torpedos sometimes landed in nearby farmland as the net didn't always work. Bear Paw Resort opened on the lake in 1973.

References

{{Reflist Reservoirs in North Carolina