Norris Dam

Coordinates: 36°13′27″N 84°05′29″W / 36.22417°N 84.09139°W / 36.22417; -84.09139
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Norris Dam
Francis-type
Installed capacity132 MW[4]

Norris Dam is a

George Norris (1861–1944), a longtime supporter of government-owned utilities in general, and supporter of TVA in particular. The infrastructure project was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 2016.

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 126 megawatts.[5]

Location

The Clinch River flows southwestward for 300 miles (480 km) from its headwaters in

Powell River, which empties into the Clinch 10 miles (16 km) upstream from Norris Dam. The dam's tailwaters are part of Melton Hill Lake, which stretches for 56 miles (90 km) along the Clinch from Norris to Melton Hill Dam
.

Norris Freeway, a section of

U.S. Highway 441 widened in the 1930s to aid in dam construction, crosses the top of Norris Dam and connects the area to Interstate 75 at Rocky Top, Tennessee to the west and Knoxville, Tennessee 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 largely undeveloped area a few miles upstream.

Background and construction

Workers at Norris Dam, Tennessee Valley Authority, 3 November 1933
Design plan for Norris Dam, c. 1933

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

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.[1]

The Tennessee Valley Authority was formed in 1933 as part of President

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.[7] Construction began on October 1, 1933.[8]

"Arthur Roberts and Sam Mynatt drilling in lateral test shaft for examination of substrata at base of Norris Dam." Photograph taken by Lewis Hine October 27, 1933

The building of Norris Dam and its accompanying reservoir required the purchase of over 152,000 acres (62,000 ha) of land. 2,841 families and 5,226 graves were relocated. The community of Loyston, located about 20 miles (32 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-foot (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.[1] The town of Norris, Tennessee was initially built as a planned community to house the workers involved in the construction of this dam.[9]

Norris Dam was completed and the gates closed on March 4, 1936, constructed at a cost of $36 million (equivalent to $622 million in 2023[10]). The dam's first generator went online on 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 before Norris Dam.[1]

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.[11] Notable visitors to the dam included President Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, journalist Ernie Pyle, Swiss architect Le Corbusier, track star Jesse Owens, and Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.[12] In 1941, the dam was the subject of a photography exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.[12]

Legacy

Curt Stiner, a farmer from the Sharps Chapel area of Union County, was among those displaced for Norris Dam. Stiner criticized the TVA's property acquisition methods, having to sell his farm to TVA for an amount less than he had paid to his father before constructing new farm buildings on it as well.[13]

The project's intent of providing aid to residents of the Clinch and Powell watershed has been argued by scholars and historians,[14] specifically regarding the TVA's acquisition of roughly 150,000 acres (61,000 ha) of farmland, and the displacement of an estimated 3,000 families and 5,300 graves. Many of the dead buried in cemeteries that were to be flooded by the dam reservoir were disinterred and reburied in four "re-interment cemeteries" established by the TVA: Baker's Forge Memorial Cemetery, Cumberland View Cemetery, Big Barren Memorial Cemetery, and New Loyston Memorial Cemetery.[15]

Union County, the most negatively impacted county of the Norris Project, would encounter the inundation of the unincorporated town of Loyston and other scarce communities of the Big Valley region of Union County.[14] The town of Big Barren and the settlement of Baker's Forge were also inundated.[16] After the project's completion, the Big Valley region of Union County, promised its electrification by the project's end, would not receive electricity until the late 1940s and early 1950s. Some of the displaced in the aftermath of the Norris Project would commit suicide, unable to bear the stress of the loss of their lifestyles.[17]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Tennessee Valley Authority (1940). The Norris Project: A Comprehensive Report on the Planning, Design, Construction, and Initial Operations of the Tennessee Valley Authority's First Water Control Project. United States Government Printing Office. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  2. ^ "The history of TVA's Norris Dam". Knoxville News Sentinel. July 25, 2016. Retrieved January 3, 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Norris Dam". National Performance of Dams Program, National Inventory of Dams. Stanford University. Retrieved 2012-10-10.
  4. ^ "Hydroelectric Plants in Tennessee". IndustCards. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  5. ^ Tennessee Valley Authority, Norris. Retrieved: 27 February 2020.
  6. Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 73–17, 48 Stat. 58
    , enacted May 18, 1933.
  7. ^ TVA — Design for the Public Good. Retrieved: 9 January 2009.
  8. ^ "WPA/TVA Archaeological Photographs: McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture". diglib.lib.utk.edu. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  9. ^ "The Planned Community of Norris, Tennessee". Retrieved: 9 January 2009.
  10. Gross Domestic Product deflator
    figures follow the MeasuringWorth series.
  11. ^ Bob Fulcher, "The Songs of Norris Dam", The Tennessee Conservationist, July 2000.
  12. ^ a b Jack Neely, "Norris Dam Turns 80 This Month", Knoxville Mercury, 21 July 2016.
  13. ^ Stiner, Curt (1983). "Interview with Curt Stiner". The Electric Valley (Interview). Interviewed by Ross Spears. Sharps Chapel, Tennessee: James Agee Film Project.
  14. ^
    ISBN 9781572331648
    . Retrieved July 4, 2021.
  15. ^ Stephens, Joseph (2018-06-04). "Beneath the Waters of Norris Reservoir". Historic Union County, Tennessee. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
  16. ^ Carey, Bill (2021-06-02). "Tennessee's Underwater Ghost Towns". The Tennessee Magazine. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
  17. ^ Stephens, Joseph (May 2018). "Forced Relocations Presented More of an Ordeal than an Opportunity for Norris Reservoir Families". Historic Union County. Retrieved June 15, 2021.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Norris Dam.
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