Norris Dam
Encyclopedia
Norris Dam is a hydroelectric and flood
control structure located on the Clinch River
in Anderson County
and Campbell County, Tennessee
, USA. Its construction in the mid-1930s was the first major project for the Tennessee Valley Authority
, which had been created in 1933 to bring economic development to the region and control the rampant flooding that had long plagued the Tennessee Valley. The dam was named in honor of Nebraska
Senator
George Norris
(1861-1944), a longtime supporter of government-owned power in general, and supporter of TVA in particular.
Norris Dam is a straight concrete gravity-type dam. The dam is 1860 feet (570 m) long and 265 feet (81 m) high. Norris Lake, the largest reservoir on a tributary of the Tennessee River
, has 33,840 acres (137 km²) of water surface and 809 miles (1302 km) of shoreline. The dam has a maximum generating capacity of 131,400 kilowatts.
through the rugged, sparsely-populated hills of northeastern Tennessee before emptying into the Tennessee River
near Kingston
. Norris Dam is located at just over 79 miles (127.1 km) upstream from the mouth of the Clinch, immediately downstream from the river's confluence with Cove Creek, which joins the river from the northwest. The reservoir includes parts of Anderson, Campbell, Union, Claiborne, and Grainger counties. Norris Reservoir spans a 73 miles (117.5 km) stretch of the Clinch from the dam to River Ridge at the Claiborne-Grainger county line. The reservoir also covers the lower 56 miles (90.1 km) of the Powell River, which empties into the Clinch 10 miles (16.1 km) upstream from Norris Dam. The dam's tailwaters are part of Melton Hill Lake, which stretches for 56 miles (90.1 km) along the Clinch from Norris to Melton Hill Dam
.
Norris Freeway, a section of U.S. Highway 441 widened in the 1930s to aide in dam construction, crosses the top of Norris Dam and connects the area to Interstate 75
at Lake City, Tennessee to the west and Knoxville
to the south. Along with the reservation maintained by TVA for the operation of Norris Dam, most of the lower Norris Reservoir is surrounded by conservation lands, including Norris Dam State Park
adjacent to the reservation, the Cove Creek Wildlife Management Area across the lake to the north, and the Chuck Swan State Forest, which protects a large undeveloped area a few miles upstream.
As early as 1911, the present site of Norris Dam— initially called the "Cove Creek site"— was identified as a prime location for a sizeable dam. Several government and private entities believed that a dam in the upper Tennessee Valley, working in conjunction with dams at Muscle Shoals, Alabama
, could provide badly needed flood control to East Tennessee and help keep the Tennessee River consistently navigable year-round. In the early 1920s, several entities— including the Tennessee Electric Power Company (TEPCo), the Knoxville Power & Light Company, and Union Carbide
— applied for permits to build a dam at the Cove Creek site, although all were eventually withdrawn or rejected. Part of the opposition was from Senator Norris, who advocated a government-sponsored dam at the site, arguing that a private entity would be almost wholly concerned with power generation rather than flood control and coordination with projects elsewhere in the valley. Norris proposed constructing a network of dams throughout the valley to help regulate its outflow into the lower Mississippi River
. Throughout the late 1920s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers made several proposals to build a dam at the site, but all were rejected by Congress or vetoed by President Calvin Coolidge
.
The Tennessee Valley Authority was formed in 1933 as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's
New Deal
legislation. The act authorizing TVA's establishment (signed on May 18, 1933) authorized TVA to immediately begin construction on a dam at the Cove Creek site. On July 30, TVA renamed the Cove Creek project for Senator Norris and began preparations for the dam's construction. As the agency lacked any engineering or dam construction experience, it relied heavily on the Army Corps' original design, and received ample consulting from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Hungarian-American architect Roland Wank
(1898-1970) revised the initial plans from Bureau of Reclamation engineers, and gave the poured-concrete Norris Dam a modernist style
, which was controversial and advanced for the era of construction, but the result would eventually succeed in elevating Roland Wank to the position of Chief Architect for TVA from 1933 through 1944. Construction began on October 1, 1933.
The building of Norris Dam and its accompanying reservoir required the purchase of over 152000 acres (61,512.3 ha) of land. 2,841 families and 5,226 graves were relocated. The community of Loyston
, located about 20 miles (32.2 km) upstream from the dam site, was entirely inundated. Approximately one-third of Caryville, at the head of the reservoir's Cove Creek embayment, was flooded and a number of structures in the town had to be moved. Several smaller 30 feet (9.1 m) earthen dams were built along reservoir tributaries to house fish hatcheries. As the project called for the construction of recreational areas along the lakeshore, TVA built two supplemental dams— Caryville Dam and Big Ridge Dam— to impound Cove Lake and Big Ridge Lake, respectively, and ensure these small lakes would remain filled year-round. The Civilian Conservation Corps
built recreational facilities and aided in the removal of various structures. The town of Norris, Tennessee
was initially built as a planned community
to house the workers involved in the construction of this dam.
Norris Dam was completed and the gates closed on March 4, 1936, constructed at a cost of $36 million. The dam's first generator went online July 28, 1936. Although Norris was the first dam built by TVA, it is not the oldest dam owned and operated by the agency. TVA subsequently purchased the assets of the former Tennessee Electric Power Company, including some dams which had been built prior to Norris Dam. The building of Norris Dam and the changes it brought to the region inspired films, books, stage plays, and songs. Folk songs from the construction period express enthusiasm for the benefits that the dam project brought to the region.
Flood
A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...
control structure located on the Clinch River
Clinch River
The Clinch River rises in Southwest Virginia near Tazewell, Virginia and flows southwest through the Great Appalachian Valley, gathering various tributaries including the Powell River before joining the Tennessee River in East Tennessee.-Course:...
in Anderson County
Anderson County, Tennessee
Anderson County is a U.S. county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2010 census, its population is 75,129. Its county seat is Clinton.It is included in the Knoxville, Tennessee, Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
and Campbell County, Tennessee
Campbell County, Tennessee
Campbell County is a U.S. county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2010, the population was 40,716. Its county seat is Jacksboro. The Census Bureau has identified the county as a Micropolitan Statistical Area, designated the LaFollette Micropolitan Statistical Area for the largest...
, USA. Its construction in the mid-1930s was the first major project for the Tennessee Valley Authority
Tennessee Valley Authority
The Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected...
, which had been created in 1933 to bring economic development to the region and control the rampant flooding that had long plagued the Tennessee Valley. The dam was named in honor of Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
George Norris
George William Norris
George William Norris was a U.S. politician from the state of Nebraska and a leader of progressive and liberal causes in Congress...
(1861-1944), a longtime supporter of government-owned power in general, and supporter of TVA in particular.
Norris Dam is a straight concrete gravity-type dam. The dam is 1860 feet (570 m) long and 265 feet (81 m) high. Norris Lake, the largest reservoir on a tributary of the Tennessee River
Tennessee River
The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles 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...
, has 33,840 acres (137 km²) of water surface and 809 miles (1302 km) of shoreline. The dam has a maximum generating capacity of 131,400 kilowatts.
Location
The Clinch River flows southwestward for 300 miles (482.8 km) from its headwaters in VirginiaVirginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
through the rugged, sparsely-populated hills of northeastern Tennessee before emptying into the Tennessee River
Tennessee River
The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles 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...
near Kingston
Kingston, Tennessee
Kingston is a city in and the county seat of Roane County, Tennessee, United States, and is adjacent to Watts Bar Lake. Kingston, with a population of 5,264 at the 2000 United States census, is included in the Harriman, Tennessee Micropolitan Statistical Area....
. Norris Dam is located at just over 79 miles (127.1 km) upstream from the mouth of the Clinch, immediately downstream from the river's confluence with Cove Creek, which joins the river from the northwest. The reservoir includes parts of Anderson, Campbell, Union, Claiborne, and Grainger counties. Norris Reservoir spans a 73 miles (117.5 km) stretch of the Clinch from the dam to River Ridge at the Claiborne-Grainger county line. The reservoir also covers the lower 56 miles (90.1 km) of the Powell River, which empties into the Clinch 10 miles (16.1 km) upstream from Norris Dam. The dam's tailwaters are part of Melton Hill Lake, which stretches for 56 miles (90.1 km) along the Clinch from Norris to Melton Hill Dam
Melton Hill Dam
Melton Hill Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Clinch River just south of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. The dam is operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the early 1960s to extend the Tennessee Valley's continuous navigation channel up the Clinch as far as Clinton and to...
.
Norris Freeway, a section of U.S. Highway 441 widened in the 1930s to aide in dam construction, crosses the top of Norris Dam and connects the area to Interstate 75
Interstate 75
Interstate 75 is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. It travels from State Road 826 and State Road 924 in Hialeah, Florida to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, at the Ontario, Canada, border...
at Lake City, Tennessee to the west and Knoxville
Knoxville, Tennessee
Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
to the south. Along with the reservation maintained by TVA for the operation of Norris Dam, most of the lower Norris Reservoir is surrounded by conservation lands, including Norris Dam State Park
Norris Dam State Park
Norris Dam State Park is a state park in Anderson County and Campbell County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The park is situated along the shores of Norris Lake, an impoundment of the Clinch River created by the completion of Norris Dam in 1936. The park consists of managed by...
adjacent to the reservation, the Cove Creek Wildlife Management Area across the lake to the north, and the Chuck Swan State Forest, which protects a large undeveloped area a few miles upstream.
Background and construction
Muscle Shoals, Alabama
Muscle Shoals is a city in Colbert County, Alabama, United States. As of 2007, the United States Census Bureau estimated the population of the city to be 12,846. The city is included in The Shoals MSA. It is famous for its contributions to American popular music.-Geography:Muscle Shoals is located...
, could provide badly needed flood control to East Tennessee and help keep the Tennessee River consistently navigable year-round. In the early 1920s, several entities— including the Tennessee Electric Power Company (TEPCo), the Knoxville Power & Light Company, and Union Carbide
Union Carbide
Union Carbide Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company. It currently employs more than 2,400 people. Union Carbide primarily produces chemicals and polymers that undergo one or more further conversions by customers before reaching consumers. Some are high-volume...
— applied for permits to build a dam at the Cove Creek site, although all were eventually withdrawn or rejected. Part of the opposition was from Senator Norris, who advocated a government-sponsored dam at the site, arguing that a private entity would be almost wholly concerned with power generation rather than flood control and coordination with projects elsewhere in the valley. Norris proposed constructing a network of dams throughout the valley to help regulate its outflow into the lower Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
. Throughout the late 1920s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers made several proposals to build a dam at the site, but all were rejected by Congress or vetoed by President Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
.
The Tennessee Valley Authority was formed in 1933 as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
legislation. The act authorizing TVA's establishment (signed on May 18, 1933) authorized TVA to immediately begin construction on a dam at the Cove Creek site. On July 30, TVA renamed the Cove Creek project for Senator Norris and began preparations for the dam's construction. As the agency lacked any engineering or dam construction experience, it relied heavily on the Army Corps' original design, and received ample consulting from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Hungarian-American architect Roland Wank
Roland Wank
Roland A. Wank was a Hungarian modernist architect, best known for his work for the Tennessee Valley Authority in the United States.Wank was educated at the Royal Joseph Technical University in Budapest...
(1898-1970) revised the initial plans from Bureau of Reclamation engineers, and gave the poured-concrete Norris Dam a modernist style
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
, which was controversial and advanced for the era of construction, but the result would eventually succeed in elevating Roland Wank to the position of Chief Architect for TVA from 1933 through 1944. Construction began on October 1, 1933.
The building of Norris Dam and its accompanying reservoir required the purchase of over 152000 acres (61,512.3 ha) of land. 2,841 families and 5,226 graves were relocated. The community of Loyston
Loyston, Tennessee
Loyston was a community in Union County, Tennessee, USA, that was inundated by the waters of Norris Lake after the completion of Norris Dam in 1935. Established in the early 19th century around a foundry built by its namesake, John Loy, over subsequent decades the community's location along State...
, located about 20 miles (32.2 km) upstream from the dam site, was entirely inundated. Approximately one-third of Caryville, at the head of the reservoir's Cove Creek embayment, was flooded and a number of structures in the town had to be moved. Several smaller 30 feet (9.1 m) earthen dams were built along reservoir tributaries to house fish hatcheries. As the project called for the construction of recreational areas along the lakeshore, TVA built two supplemental dams— Caryville Dam and Big Ridge Dam— to impound Cove Lake and Big Ridge Lake, respectively, and ensure these small lakes would remain filled year-round. The Civilian Conservation Corps
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D...
built recreational facilities and aided in the removal of various structures. The town of Norris, Tennessee
Norris, Tennessee
Norris is a city in Anderson County, Tennessee, United States. Its population was 1,446 at the 2000 census. It is included in the Knoxville, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
was initially built as a planned community
Planned community
A planned community, or planned city, is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are less frequent in planned communities since...
to house the workers involved in the construction of this dam.
Norris Dam was completed and the gates closed on March 4, 1936, constructed at a cost of $36 million. The dam's first generator went online July 28, 1936. Although Norris was the first dam built by TVA, it is not the oldest dam owned and operated by the agency. TVA subsequently purchased the assets of the former Tennessee Electric Power Company, including some dams which had been built prior to Norris Dam. The building of Norris Dam and the changes it brought to the region inspired films, books, stage plays, and songs. Folk songs from the construction period express enthusiasm for the benefits that the dam project brought to the region.
External links
- Norris Reservoir — official TVA site
- "Slopes of Norris Dam Rising to Tame a River" Popular Mechanics, October 1935
- Images of Norris Dam at Norris Lake, TN
- Photo Gallery, Norris Dam, TN at New Deal Network
- Norris Reservoir — Tennessee Wildlife Resources AgencyTennessee Wildlife Resources AgencyThe Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is an independent state agency of the state of Tennessee with the mission of managing the state's fish and wildlife and their habitats, as well as responsibility for all wildlife-related law enforcement activities...
fishing information for Norris Reservoir - Map of Norris Reservoir
