Douglas Lake HistoryDouglas Lake History Information

1943

Completion of Douglas Dam
The outbreak of World War II gave final impetus to the building of Douglas Dam as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Construction of the dam threatened valuable farmland, and Tennessee Senator Kenneth McKellar fought on behalf of the interests of the canning industry against TVA plans for Douglas Dam. Indeed, Jefferson County lost 40.5 square miles of the most fertile farmland to the TVA. But war demands for hydroelectricity took precedence over other concerns. The Cherokee Dam blueprint was used to build Douglas Dam. More than six thousand laborers worked around the clock and completed construction in 382 days, a world record for a project of this size. The hydroelectricity from Douglas and Cherokee Dams furnished power for two critical war industries, aluminum production and the Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge.

Douglas Dam is 202 feet high and stretches 1,705 feet across the French Broad River. It provides 513 miles of shoreline and about 28,420 acres of water surface for recreation activities.

The water used to generate power at Douglas is used again and again at the nine TVA hydroelectric plants located along the Tennessee River from Knoxville to Paducah, Kentucky.

Related Link: TVA Reservoirs and Power Plants - Douglas Reservoir

County: Sevier County

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