Watauga Dam

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. The Appalachian Trail crosses the top of Watauga Dam.

Watauga Dam is named after the Watauga River. The river was named after a Cherokee settlement— the Watauga Old Fields— once located along the river at modern Elizabethton.

Location

Watauga Dam is located 37 miles (60 km) above the mouth of the Watauga, at a point where the westward-flowing river veers north to slice a water gap through the middle of Iron Mountain. The dam is about 5 miles (8.0 km) downstream from Butler, Tennessee and 10 miles (16 km) upstream from Elizabethton. Watauga Lake stretches for 16.7 miles (26.9 km) along the river, nearly reaching the Tennessee-North Carolina state line, and includes parts of Carter County and Johnson County in Tennessee. Roan Creek, Cobb Creek, and the Elk River form substantial embayments along the reservoir.