| Lake in the Sky | |
|---|---|
  Lake in the Sky  Lake in the Sky | |
| Coordinates | 35°39′19″N83°54′27″W / 35.655187°N 83.907398°W |
| Primary inflows | Flat Creek |
| Primary outflows | Flat Creek |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Max. length | 3,000 feet (910 m) |
| Max. width | 500 feet (150 m) |
| Surface area | 52.5 acres (21.2 ha) |
| Surface elevation | 2,008 feet (612 m) |
Lake in the Sky is an artificial lake in Blount County, Tennessee, formed by damming Flat Creek. It lies in the center of Top of the World, an unincorporated community.
Lake in the Sky is a small mountain lake located on the slopes of Chilhowee Mountain. Foothills Parkway passes just to the northwest, and the boundary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park lies just to the southeast. [1] The lake lies in an area called The Flats, on a spur of Chilhowee Mountain. The surrounding country is rugged. [2] Lake in the Sky is at an elevation of 2,008 feet (612 m) above sea level. [3] The nearest major town is Townsend, Tennessee. [4]
The lake is part of the watershed of the Little River. It is near the head of Flat Creek, a tributary of Hesse Creek. [2] The Flat Creek dam is at the north end of the lake. The dam was built in 1966, forming the 52.5-acre (21.2 ha) lake. [5] Flat Creek is non-navigable. [6]
Lake in the Sky is not operated for flood control purposes, but it is one of several dams in Blount County that may provide some protection against flooding. [7]
Specimens of the freshwater jellyfish Craspedacusta sowerbii , an exotic species that is widespread in the United States, have been found in the lake. [8] Downstream of Lake in the Sky, Flat Creek had elevated iron concentrations in fall and summer of 2003. This is a concern since the creek is a direct tributary to a stocked trout stream. [9]
Juan Pardo may have visited the future site of the lake during his 1567–68 expedition. He found a small reddish stone, which was examined by Andrés Suarez, a "melter of gold and silver". Suarez considered that it contained silver. [10] [lower-alpha 1]
The lake today is surrounded by a small community at 35°39′12″N83°54′36″W / 35.6534181°N 83.9099010°W named the Top of the World Estates. [12] The Blount County Fire Protection District has its station #8 at 5714 Flats Road, on the east shore of the lake. [13]
Blount County is a county located in the East Tennessee Grand Division of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, its population was 135,280. The county seat is Maryville, which is also the county's largest city. Blount County is included in the Knoxville metropolitan area.
The Little Tennessee River is a 135-mile (217 km) tributary of the Tennessee River that flows through the Blue Ridge Mountains from Georgia, into North Carolina, and then into Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. It drains portions of three national forests— Chattahoochee, Nantahala, and Cherokee— and provides the southwestern boundary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains and form part of the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province. The range is sometimes called the Smoky Mountains, and the name is commonly shortened to the Smokies. The Smokies are best known as the home of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which protects most of the range. The park was established in 1934 and, with over 11 million visits per year, is the most visited national park in the United States.
Little River is a 60-mile (97 km) river in Tennessee which drains a 380-square-mile (980 km2) area containing some of the most spectacular scenery in the southeastern United States. The first 18 miles (29 km) of the river are all located within the borders of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The remaining 42 miles (68 km) flow out of the mountains through Blount County to join the Tennessee River at Fort Loudon Lake in Knox County.
The Foothills Parkway is a national parkway which traverses the foothills of the northern Great Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee, located in the southeastern United States. The 72.1-mile (114 km) parkway will connect U.S. Route 129 along the Little Tennessee River in the west with Interstate 40 (I-40) along the Pigeon River in the east.
The Fresno River is a river in Central California and a major tributary of the San Joaquin River. It runs approximately 83 miles (134 km) from the Sierra Nevada Range to the San Joaquin River if measured from the source of Rainier Creek, near Raymond Mountain in Yosemite National Park. Although called the 'Fresno' River, it is one of the largest and longest river systems in Madera County.
Western North Carolina is the region of North Carolina which includes the Appalachian Mountains; it is often known geographically as the state's Mountain Region. It contains the highest mountains in the Eastern United States, with 125 peaks rising to over 5,000 feet in elevation. Mount Mitchell at 6,684 feet, is the highest peak of the Appalachian Mountains and mainland eastern North America. The population of the region, as measured by the 2010 U.S. Census, is 1,473,241, which is approximately 15% of North Carolina's total population.
Happy Valley is an unincorporated community in Blount County, Tennessee, near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Although it is not a census-designated place, the ZIP Code Tabulation Area for the ZIP Code (37878) that serves Happy Valley had a population of 529 as of the 2000 U.S. Census.
Chilhowee Dam is a hydroelectric dam located in Blount and Monroe counties, Tennessee, United States, between river mile 33 and 34 on the Little Tennessee River. Construction by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) began in 1955 and was completed in 1957. The dam's reservoir covers approximately 1,734 acres (702 ha) at normal full pool and has a drainage area of 1,977 square miles (5,120 km2). The elevation of Chilhowee Reservoir is 874 feet (266 m) above mean sea level (USGS). Chilhowee's powerhouse is equipped with three Kaplan turbines that have a combined generating capacity of 48 megawatts.
Walland is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Blount County, Tennessee. Its population was 281 as of the 2020 census. Walland is the site of a post office and is the place name associated with zip code 37886, which covers an area beyond the Walland community.
Chilhowee Mountain is the name of two non-contiguous ridges in the U.S. state of Tennessee. The ridges run in a northeastern to southwestern direction. The northern section is at the outer edge of the Great Smoky Mountains, stretching from the Little Pigeon River watershed at the northeast to the Little Tennessee River and Chilhowee Dam to the southwest. The southern section runs from Tellico Plains to the Ocoee River in Polk County. The northern section is traversed by the Foothills Parkway from Walland to its terminus near Chilhowee.
Citico is a prehistoric and historic Native American site in Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The site's namesake Cherokee village was the largest of the Overhill towns, housing an estimated Indian population of 1,000 by the mid-18th century. The Mississippian village that preceded the site's Cherokee occupation is believed to have been the village of "Satapo" visited by the Juan Pardo expedition in 1567.
Chilhowee was a prehistoric and historic Native American site in present-day Blount and Monroe counties in Tennessee, in what were the Southeastern Woodlands. Although now submerged by the Chilhowee Lake impoundment of the Little Tennessee River, the Chilhowee site was home to a substantial 18th-century Overhill Cherokee town. It may have been the site of the older Creek village "Chalahume" visited by Spanish explorer Juan Pardo in 1567. The Cherokee later pushed the Muscogee Creek out of this area.
Tallassee is a prehistoric and historic Native American site in present-day Blount and Monroe counties, Tennessee in the southeastern United States. Tallassee was the southernmost of a string of Overhill Cherokee towns that existed along the lower Little Tennessee River on the west side of the Appalachian Mountains in the 18th century. Although Tallassee receives scant attention in primary historical accounts, it is one of the few Overhill towns to be shown on every major 18th-century map of the Little Tennessee Valley.
Chiaha was a Native American chiefdom located in the lower French Broad River valley in modern East Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. They lived in raised structures within boundaries of several stable villages. These overlooked the fields of maize, beans, squash, and tobacco, among other plants which they cultivated. Chiaha was at the northern extreme of the paramount Coosa chiefdom's sphere of influence in the 16th century when the Spanish expeditions of Hernando de Soto and Juan Pardo passed through the area. The Chiaha chiefdom included parts of modern Jefferson and Sevier counties, and may have extended westward into Knox, Blount and Monroe counties.
U.S. Route 129 is a north–south United States highway that runs for 52.8 miles (85.0 km) in East Tennessee, from the North Carolina state line, near Tapoco, to Knoxville. In Tennessee, the highway is completely overlapped by unsigned State Route 115. In the Greater Knoxville area, US 129 serves as a six-lane controlled-access highway known as Alcoa Highway.
The Ocoee Scenic Byway is a 26-mile (42 km) National Forest Scenic Byway and Tennessee Scenic Byway that traverses through the Cherokee National Forest in East Tennessee. It is part of both U.S. Route 64 and U.S. Route 74 and features the Ocoee Whitewater Center and scenic bluffs along Ocoee River and Gorge.
State Route 73 is west-north state highway in East Tennessee. For most of its length, it is an unsigned companion route to U.S. Route 321.
Top of the World is an unincorporated community in rural Blount County, Tennessee.
Abrams Creek is a creek in Blount County, Tennessee. Its headwaters are in Cades Cove, and it is a tributary of the Little Tennessee River. It is named after the Chilhowee Cherokee chief Old Abraham ("Abram"). Visitors swim and fish in the creek. The creek was deliberately poisoned in 1957 to kill fish in potential competition with rainbow trout; many fish species were extirpated from the river and have never recovered.
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