Rhea Springs was a community once located along the Piney River in
Rhea County, Tennessee
Rhea County (pronounced ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 32,870. Its county seat is Dayton. Rhea County comprises the Dayton, TN Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also incl ...
, in the southeastern United States. Originally established in the 19th century as a health resort, the community was inundated when the completion of
Watts Bar Dam
Watts Bar Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River in Meigs and Rhea counties in Tennessee, United States. The dam is one of nine dams on the main Tennessee River channel operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam i ...
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 Carolin ...
flooded the lower Piney Valley in 1942.Bettye Broyles Rhea County ''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', 2002. Retrieved: 13 January 2009.
Rhea Springs, known as "Sulphur Springs" before 1878, developed around a
spring
Spring(s) may refer to:
Common uses
* Spring (season)
Spring, also known as springtime, is one of the four temperate seasons, succeeding winter and preceding summer. There are various technical definitions of spring, but local usage of ...
rumored to have "healing" qualities. The spring flowed into the banks of the Piney approximately upstream from the river's mouth along the
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 name ...
. When the Tennessee Valley Authority began surveying the area for the construction of Watts Bar Dam and reservoir in the late 1930s, they reported a large hotel and seventeen small houses at Rhea Springs. After TVA acquired the community, most of its residents relocated elsewhere in the county or to Chattanooga.
Rhea Springs was the home of Congressman John R. Neal (1836–1889) and the birthplace of his son, Scopes Trial attorney John Randolph Neal, Jr. (1876–1959).Alice Howell, Lucile Deaderick (ed.), ''Heart of the Valley: A History of Knoxville, Tennessee'' (East Tennessee Historical Society, 1976), p. 582.