Watauga Lake

The Watauga Lake is a reservoir northeast of Elizabethton in North East Tennessee.

It was created by the damming of the Watauga River by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA ) operated Watauga Dam. The Cherokee National Forest surrounds the Watauga Lake and the effluent directly located Wilbur Lake.

History

The construction of the Watauga Dam began in early 1942, but was interrupted because of the 2nd World War. From 1946 to the end of 1948, the work was finally completed and the two rivers Watauga River and Elk River dammed for the purpose of flood control and power generation. The place was flooded Butler here.

The Watauga Lake covers portions of Johnson County and Carter County.

Data

According to the 2004 TVA River and Reservoir Operations Study of the dam has a length of 26 km and a shoreline of 169 km. The water area is 26 km ². With 597 m of the Watauga Lake is the highest reservoir of all TVA lakes.

The water level of the lake has an annual variation of 2.7 m. In the dry summer months, additional water is discharged into the effluent by river system. The retention volume of the dam is 188 512 000 m³.

Leisure Activities

Over half of the shoreline of Watauga Lake is part of the Cherokee National Forest. Among the recreational activities at the lake include boating, water skiing and camping. The additionally provided runoff into the surrounding bodies of water effluent allows there in the summer months, whitewater rafting, fishing and kayaking.