National Register of Historic Places

Watauga Hydroelectric Project

Elizabethton, Carter County, Tennessee
Listed
August 11, 2017
Type
District
Period
Listed
Ref No.
100001463

About this property

Watauga Dam is a hydroelectric and flood control dam on the Watauga River in Carter County, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the 1940s as part of efforts to control flooding in the Tennessee River watershed. At 318 feet (97 m), Watauga is the second-highest dam in the TVA river and reservoir system (behind only Fontana), and at the time of its completion was one of the highest earth-and-rock dams in the United States. The dam impounds the TVA Watauga Reservoir of 6,430 acres (2,600 ha), and its tailwaters feed into Wilbur Lake. Its namesake, the Watauga River, was named after a Cherokee settlement—the Watauga Old Fields—once located along the river at modern Elizabethton. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 11, 2017. The top of the dam is crossed by the Appalachian Trail,

Location

774 Wilbur Dam Rd.
Elizabethton, Carter County, Tennessee

Categories

ENGINEERINGENTERTAINMENT/RECREATION
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Questions about this property

When was Watauga Hydroelectric Project listed on the National Register?

Watauga Hydroelectric Project was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 11, 2017.

What type of historic resource is Watauga Hydroelectric Project?

Watauga Hydroelectric Project is classified as a district in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Watauga Hydroelectric Project?

The period of significance for Watauga Hydroelectric Project is recorded as the listed era.

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