Apalachia Dam

Apalachia Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Hiwassee River in Cherokee County, in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The dam is the lowermost of three dams on the river owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the early 1940s to provide emergency power for aluminum production during World War II. While the dam is in North Carolina, an 8.3-mile (13.4 km) underground conduit carries water from the dam's reservoir to the powerhouse located 12 miles (19 km) downstream across the state line in Polk County, Tennessee. The dam and associated infrastructure were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017. Apalachia Dam is classified by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a high-hazard dam, meaning a dam failure may pose a deadly threat to nearby residents. The dam's condition is not made available to the public due to security concerns. Apalachia Dam is named for the crossroads community of Old Apalachia, located near the dam site in North Carolina, and the community's L&N railroad stop, known simply as Apalachia, which was further downstream on the Tennessee side of the state line.

Apalachia Dam is located nearly 66 miles (106 km) upstream from the mouth of the Hiwassee River, where it joins the Tennessee River near Birchwood, Tennessee. The Hiwassee River rises in Northern Georgia, flows northwestward into Western North Carolina, then into Eastern Tennessee, before emptying into Chickamauga Lake, which is a reservoir of the Tennessee River created by the Chickamauga Dam in East Tennessee. The Apalachia dam is situated near the center of a scenic and relatively isolated valley sliced by the river as it winds its way through the southwestern fringe of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Unicoi Mountains rise to the north of the dam, and the Nantahala National Forest surrounds the dam and its reservoir on all sides.

Dam data from Wikidata (CC0) plus curated additions. Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).