Guntersville Dam
Template:Use mdy dates Script error: No such module "Type in location".Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Expression error: Unexpected < operator. Guntersville Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River in Marshall County, in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is one of nine dams on the river owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the late 1930s as part of a New Deal era initiative to create a continuous navigation channel on the entire length of the river and bring flood control and economic development to the region. The dam impounds the Guntersville Lake of Script error: No such module "convert"., and its tailwaters feed into Wheeler Lake.
Guntersville Dam is named for the city of Guntersville, Alabama, which is located about Script error: No such module "convert". upstream.[1] The city is named for its first settler, John Gunter (d. 1836), who arrived in the late 18th century.[2]
Location
Guntersville Dam is located Script error: No such module "convert". above the mouth of the Tennessee River, at a point where the southwestward-flowing river begins to change its course to a more northwestwardly direction. The dam's reservoir stretches for nearly Script error: No such module "convert". to the base of Nickajack Dam, and includes parts of Marshall and Jackson counties in Alabama and Marion County in Tennessee. The reservoir's backwaters have formed embayments on the lower parts of Browns Creek and Spring Creek to the west and east of the city of Guntersville, respectively, effectively placing the city at the tip of a long peninsula.
Capacity
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Guntersville Dam is Script error: No such module "convert". high and Script error: No such module "convert". wide, and has a generating capacity of 140,400 kilowatts of electricity. The dam's 18-bay spillway has a total discharge capacity of Script error: No such module "convert".. Its reservoir has a storage capacity of Script error: No such module "convert".,[3] with Script error: No such module "convert". reserved for flood control. The reservoir is the most stable reservoir in the TVA system, fluctuating just Script error: No such module "convert". per year.[4]
Guntersville Dam is serviced by a Script error: No such module "convert". navigation lock. The lock can lift and lower vessels up to Script error: No such module "convert". between Guntersville Lake and Wheeler Lake. The dam's original Script error: No such module "convert". lock is now used as an auxiliary lock.[1][4]
Background and construction
In the early 1900s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers investigated several possible dam sites in the Guntersville vicinity in hopes of flooding a significant stretch of the river upstream from the city, which had unreliable water levels and had long been an impediment to major navigation in the upper Tennessee Valley. The Corps recommended building a dam at a site approximately Script error: No such module "convert". upstream from the present dam site in 1914, but never obtained the necessary funding from Congress. More extensive investigations in the 1920s identified several more sites, including the present dam site, which they called the Coles Bend Bar site. After the Tennessee Valley Authority was formed in 1933, the Authority assumed control of all navigation and flood control projects in the Tennessee Valley. In 1935, TVA followed up the Army Corps investigations, deeming a dam at Guntersville necessary to extend the navigation channel beyond Wheeler Lake, which at that time was under construction. Guntersville Dam was authorized November 27, 1935, and construction began a few days later on December 4.[1]
The construction of Guntersville Dam and its reservoir required the purchase of Script error: No such module "convert". of land, of which Script error: No such module "convert". were forested and had to be cleared. 1,182 families, 14 cemeteries, and over Script error: No such module "convert". of roads had to be relocated. A large dike was built to protect the city of Guntersville from reservoir backwaters, and substantial dredging was necessary to extend the navigable Script error: No such module "convert". channel up to Hales Bar Dam (this dam has since been dismantled and replaced by Nickajack Dam, shortening Guntersville Lake). Widows Bar Dam, a small dam and lock approximately Script error: No such module "convert". upstream from Guntersville Dam, was partially dismantled and submerged under the lake waters.[1]
Guntersville Dam was completed on January 17, 1939, at a cost of $51 million. The dam's lock was designed by the Army Corps of Engineers and went into operation on January 24, 1939. The dam's first generator went online on August 8, 1939.[1] The hydroelectric project's components were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
See also
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- Dams and reservoirs of the Tennessee River
- List of crossings of the Tennessee River
- List of Alabama dams and reservoirs
References
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- ↑ a b c d e Tennessee Valley Authority, The Guntersville Project: A Comprehensive Report on the Planning, Design, Construction, and Initial Operations of the Guntersville Project, Technical Report No. 4 (Knoxville, Tenn.: Tennessee Valley Authority, 1941), pp. 1-14, 44, 243, 256, 265.
- ↑ Lake Guntersville Chamber of Commerce, History of Guntersville Template:Webarchive. Retrieved: 15 January 2009.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ a b Tennessee Valley Authority, Guntersville Reservoir. Retrieved: 15 January 2009.
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External links
- Guntersville Reservoir (TVA site)
Template:Tennessee River Dams Script error: No such module "Navbox".
- Pages with script errors
- Pages with broken file links
- Dams on the Tennessee River
- Dams in Alabama
- Buildings and structures in Marshall County, Alabama
- Hydroelectric power plants in Alabama
- Tennessee Valley Authority dams
- Huntsville-Decatur, AL Combined Statistical Area
- Dams completed in 1939
- Energy infrastructure completed in 1939
- National Register of Historic Places in Marshall County, Alabama
- Dams on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama