Walters Dam is a hydroelectric dam in Haywood County of western North Carolina, in the

Great Smoky Mountains The Great Smoky Mountains (, ''Equa Dutsusdu Dodalv'') are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge ...

. The concrete arch dam is high by 800 ft long, impounding the Pigeon River, near

Interstate 40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...

. The brick powerplant actually stands from the dam. A tunnel long stretches north from the dam to the power plant, near the state line. The Walters Dam was started in 1927 and was completed in 1930. The project was started by

Carolina Power & Light Carolina Power & Light (CP&L), later doing business as Progress Energy Inc., was an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution utility based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The company was founded on July 13, 1908 as the result of the merge ...

and was completed by its affiliate Phoenix Electric Co. The Carolina Power and Light Company established the community of Waterville at the mountain's northern base, near the confluence of Big Creek and the Pigeon River. Waterville provided the labor force needed to operate the company's Walters Plant, which housed the powerhouse for the Waterville Lake reservoir further upstream. The dam is now owned and operated by

Duke Energy Duke Energy Corporation is an American electric power and natural gas holding company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Overview Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Duke Energy owns 58,200 megawatts of base-load and peak generation in ...

as an active hydroelectric facility, with a rated capacity of 112 MW. It was designated as a North Carolina Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1980.

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flick photo of Walters Dam
{{authority control Dams on the French Broad River Buildings and structures in Haywood County, North Carolina Dams in North Carolina Reservoirs in North Carolina Duke Energy dams Dams completed in 1930 1930 establishments in North Carolina