Wilson Dam

Last updated

Wilson Dam
Wilson Dam.jpg
View of Wilson Dam from the power house end of the dam.
Location Shoals Area, Alabama
Coordinates 34°48′03″N87°37′33″W / 34.80083°N 87.62583°W / 34.80083; -87.62583
Construction began1918
Opening date1924
Construction cost$47,000,000 (equivalent to $663 million in 2023 [1] )
Operator(s) TVA
Dam and spillways
Impounds Tennessee River
Height137 ft (42 m)
Length4,541 ft (1,384 m)
Reservoir
Creates Wilson Lake
Total capacity640,200  acre⋅ft (789,700,000 m3)
Surface area15,500 acres (6,300 ha)
Wilson Dam
USA Alabama location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Nearest city Florence, Alabama
Coordinates 34°48′3″N87°37′33″W / 34.80083°N 87.62583°W / 34.80083; -87.62583
Area20 acres (8.1 ha)
Built1925 (1925)
ArchitectArmy Corps of Engineers
NRHP reference No. 66000147
Significant dates
Added to NRHPNovember 13, 1966 [2]
Designated NHLNovember 13, 1966 [3]

Wilson Dam is a dam on the Tennessee River between Lauderdale and Colbert counties in Alabama. Completed in 1924 by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, it impounds Wilson Lake, and is one of nine Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) dams on the Tennessee River. It was declared a National Historic Landmark on November 13, 1966, for its role as the first dam to come under the TVA's administration. [3] [4] The dam is named for Woodrow Wilson.

Contents

Description

Wilson Dam is located at river mile 259.4 of the Tennessee River, spanning the river in a roughly north–south orientation between Florence and Muscle Shoals in northern Alabama. [4] The dam is 137 feet (42 m) high and 4,541 feet (1,384 m) long. [5] The dam cost almost $47 million (equivalent to $663 million in 2023 [1] ). [6] The main lock at Wilson Dam is 110 feet (34 m) wide by 600 feet (180 m) long. [7] The lock lift is 94 feet (29 m). [7] It is the highest single lift lock east of the Rocky Mountains. [5] An auxiliary lock has two 60 feet (18 m) wide by 300 feet (91 m) long chambers that operate in tandem. Over 3,700 vessels pass through Wilson Dam's locks each year. [5]

The net dependable capacity of Wilson Dam is 663 megawatts of electricity. [5]

History

The origins of the dam lie in the treacherous Muscle Shoals section of the Tennessee River, an area of dangerous shallows and turbulent currents, impeding commerce and navigation. [8] The expansion of steamboat travel and plantation agriculture along the Tennessee Valley inspired many largely unsuccessful efforts in the late 19th century to tame the shoals, including a canal around the area. [8] This final effort to tame the Muscle Shoals was spurred on by the possibility of US entry into the First World War. US Officials feared that the German Navy could disrupt the supply of nitrates, used in the manufacturing of explosives, which were primarily imported in the form of bat or bird guano from Chile. The National Defense Act of 1916 mandated the construction of two nitrate plants, powered by an adjacent hydroelectric plant in order to create a domestic supply of this vital resource. [9] Federal Engineers decided on Muscle Shoals after determining that it had the greatest hydroelectric potential east of the Rocky Mountains. [10]

Construction of Wilson Dam by the Army Corps of Engineers began in 1918 under the supervision of Hugh L. Cooper and was the largest hydroelectric installation in the world at the time of construction. [5] During construction, the site briefly became a city in its own right, employing over 18,000 workers and consisting of over 1,700 temporary buildings, 236 permanent buildings, 185 residential units, 165 miles of sewage pipeline, and 685 miles of electrical cabling. [8] The settlement's mess halls served over 20,000 meals a day, and it also contained a school with capacity for 850 students, three barbershops, and a hospital. [8] [11] However the dam was not finished by the war's end in 1919 and did not contribute to its outcome. [8]

With peace, interest in the dam rapidly declined, and Congress was unwilling to front costs for more public works projects, yet wasting the millions of dollars in costs to that point was similarly anathema. [11] The Secretary of War, John Weeks sought private sector investment in order to complete the project in the post-war political climate. [11] In 1921, Henry Ford offered to take on a 99-year lease on the dam for 5 million dollars, in which he promised to finish the dam and construct a new one upstream. [11] Ford promised to use the dam and create a planned city in the yet-nonexistent Muscle Shoals which he would make the "Detroit of the South." [8] The dam would be used to fuel industrial development in his new planned city, and gathered widespread support among the populace and in the House of Representatives. [11] However, Senator George Norris believed that the dam would do more good in public hands than under Ford's ownership, and should be used as part of a large scale public works program and development scheme across the Tennessee Valley. [8] Norris' plan would address three major concerns affecting the Tennessee Valley, persistent flooding, soil erosion, and lack of electrical power. [12] Norris blocked the Ford proposal in the Senate, and Ford ultimately withdrew his bid in 1924, citing the delays. [8] [11]

Construction on the dam itself was finally finished in 1924, with the first electricity generating unit going into service in September 1925. [8] The finished dam and locks finally allowed free navigation of the Muscle Shoals for steamboats and barges. [8] Over the next few years only 40 percent of electric generating capacity was installed. [8] The debate over what the dam should be used for raged throughout the 1920s, with Norris' Muscle Shoals Bill being vetoed by President Herbert Hoover in 1931 as "socialistic." This all changed with the advent of the Great Depression and the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932. [8] After his election, President-elect Roosevelt inspected the dam and threw his support behind Norris' public works plan, and in 1933, the Tennessee Valley Authority was created, with Wilson Dam as one of the cornerstones in the new agency's plans. [13] [14]

TVA and Wilson Dam brought power to thousands in the Lauderdale and Colbert County areas as part of the TVA's overall plan of rural electrification and, in the words of one economist, gave residents "universally high standards of living, new jobs, leisure, freedom and an end to drudgery, congestion, noise, smoke and filth." [15] Wilson Dam also served as TVA's first headquarters, until it was gradually moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, where it is still based. [13] [16] The nitrate plants that Wilson Dam was initially constructed to power were used for the production of fertilizer throughout the 1930s, and by the Second World War Wilson Dam Was finally used for its initial purpose, as the nitrate and phosphorus plants in the area were used to produce munitions for the war effort. [12] These plants continued to serve throughout the Cold War, supplying a major portion of the phosphorus used in munitions by the United States Armed Forces. [17]

In 1959, a new lock was constructed for Wilson Dam, which was the largest single-chamber lock in the world at the time of construction. [8] This lock remains today the largest single-chamber lock in the continental United States east of the Rockies. [8] President John Fitzgerald Kennedy visited the dam in 1963 with Alabama Governor George C. Wallace to make remarks on TVA and Wilson Dam's role in the agency's success and the role of the Federal Government in the Valley's history. [18] In 1966, the Department of the Interior designated Wilson Dam a National Historic Landmark and added it to the National Register of Historic Places for its role as the first dam under TVA supervision. [4]

Wilson Dam is one of 29 conventional hydroelectric dams that provide flood control, navigation, electrical power, recreation, and water supply for the seven-state Tennessee Valley region and is the largest conventional facility in the TVA System. [8] Over 3,600 vessels pass through the locks each year and the dam currently serves as the training facility for all of TVA's hydroelectric workers. [12] [19] Wilson Lake provides 166 miles (267 km) of shoreline and 15,500 acres (6,300 ha) of water surface for recreational activities, and the adjoining reservation provides miles of hiking trails and campground. [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tennessee Valley Authority</span> American utility company

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. While owned by the federal government, TVA receives no taxpayer funding and operates similarly to a private for-profit company. It is headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, and is the sixth-largest power supplier and largest public utility in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bonneville Dam</span> Dam on the Columbia River, United States

Bonneville Lock and Dam consists of several run-of-the-river dam structures that together complete a span of the Columbia River between the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington at River Mile 146.1. The dam is located 40 miles (64 km) east of Portland, Oregon, in the Columbia River Gorge. The primary functions of Bonneville Lock and Dam are electrical power generation and river navigation. The dam was built and is managed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. At the time of its construction in the 1930s it was the largest water impoundment project of its type in the nation, able to withstand flooding on an unprecedented scale. Electrical power generated at Bonneville is distributed by the Bonneville Power Administration. Bonneville Dam is named for Army Capt. Benjamin Bonneville, an early explorer credited with charting much of the Oregon Trail. The Bonneville Dam Historic District was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1987.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clinch River</span> River in Virginia and Tennessee, US

The Clinch River is a river that flows southwest for more than 300 miles (480 km) through the Great Appalachian Valley in the U.S. states of Virginia and Tennessee, gathering various tributaries, including the Powell River, before joining the Tennessee River in Kingston, Tennessee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norris Dam</span> Dam in Tennessee, United States

Norris Dam is a hydroelectric and flood control structure located on the Clinch River in Anderson County and Campbell County, Tennessee, United States. The dam was the first major project for the Tennessee Valley Authority, which had been created in 1933 to bring economic development to the region and control the rampant flooding that had long plagued the Tennessee Valley. The dam was named in honor of Nebraska Senator George Norris (1861–1944), a longtime supporter of government-owned utilities in general, and supporter of TVA in particular. The infrastructure project was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Loudoun Dam</span> Dam in Tennessee, United States

Fort Loudoun Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River in Loudon County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The dam is operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which built the dam in the early 1940s as part of a unified plan to provide electricity and flood control in the Tennessee Valley and create a continuous 652-mile (1,049 km) navigable river channel from Knoxville, Tennessee to Paducah, Kentucky. It is the uppermost of nine TVA dams on the Tennessee River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melton Hill Dam</span> Dam in Tennessee and Lenoir City, Tennessee

Melton Hill Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Clinch River just south of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States. The dam is operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the early 1960s to extend the Tennessee Valley's continuous navigation channel up the Clinch as far as Clinton and to increase TVA's overall power-generating capacity. The dam impounds the 5,470-acre (2,210 ha) Melton Hill Lake, and is the only TVA tributary dam serviced by a navigation lock. The dam and associated infrastructure were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wheeler Dam</span> Dam in Alabama, United States

Wheeler Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River between Lauderdale County and Lawrence County in Alabama. It is one of nine dams on the river owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the mid-1930s as part of a New Deal-era initiative to improve navigation on the river and bring flood control and economic development to the region. The dam impounds the Wheeler Lake of 67,070 acres (27,140 ha) and its tailwaters feed into Wilson Lake.

The Birmingham District is a geological area in the vicinity of Birmingham, Alabama, where the raw materials for making steel - limestone, iron ore, and coal - are found together in abundance. The district includes Red Mountain, Jones Valley, and the Warrior and Cahaba coal fields in Central Alabama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blackstone Canal</span> United States historic place

The Blackstone Canal was a manmade waterway, linking Worcester, Massachusetts, to Providence, Rhode Island, and Narragansett Bay, through the Blackstone Valley, via a series of locks and canals in the early 19th century. Construction started in 1825, and the canal opened three years later. After the opening of the Boston and Providence Railroad (1835), the canal struggled for business. Its transportation role was taken over by the Providence and Worcester Railroad, which completed a parallel line in 1847. The canal shut down in 1848. Several segments of the canal are preserved, and the canal alignment and remains are on the National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pickwick Landing Dam</span> Dam in Tennessee, United States

Pickwick Landing Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River in Hardin County, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. The dam is one of nine dams on the river owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the 1930s as part of a New Deal-era initiative to create a continuous navigation channel between the river's mouth and Knoxville, and bring economic development to the area. The dam impounds the 43,100-acre (17,400 ha) Pickwick Lake and its tailwaters are part of Kentucky Lake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lock and Dam No. 1</span> Dam in Minnesota, United States.

Ford Dam, officially known as Lock and Dam No. 1, is on the Upper Mississippi River and is located between Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota just north of the confluence of the Mississippi with the Minnesota River at Mississippi River mile 847.9, in Minneapolis. The powerhouse portion was previously owned by the Ford Motor Company, which operated a hydroelectric power station to feed electricity to its Twin Cities Assembly Plant on the east side of the river. It was sold to Brookfield Power Co. in April 2008. The dual-lock facility and dam was built and is operated by the St. Paul district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Mississippi Valley Division.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nickajack Dam</span> Dam in Tennessee, United States

Nickajack Dam is a hydroelectric dam in Marion County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is one of nine dams on the Tennessee River owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the mid-1960s to replace the outdated Hales Bar Dam 6 miles (9.7 km) upstream. The dam impounds the 10,370-acre (4,200 ha) Nickajack Lake and feeds into Guntersville Lake. Nickajack Dam is named for a Cherokee village once located just upstream from the dam. The village was the namesake for Nickajack Cave, which was partially flooded by the reservoir.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chickamauga Dam</span> Dam in Tennessee, United States

The Chickamauga Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. The dam is 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 improve navigation and bring flood control and economic development to the Tennessee Valley. The dam impounds the 36,240-acre (14,670 ha) Chickamauga Lake and feeds into Nickajack Lake. The dam and associated infrastructure were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kentucky Dam</span> Dam in Kentucky, United States

Kentucky Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River on the county line between Livingston and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of Kentucky. The dam is the lowermost of nine dams on the river owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the late 1930s and early 1940s to improve navigation on the lower part of the river and reduce flooding on the lower Ohio and Mississippi rivers. It was a major project initiated during the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, to invest in infrastructure to benefit the country. The dam impounds the Kentucky Lake of 160,000 acres (65,000 ha), which is the largest of TVA's reservoirs and the largest artificial lake by area in the Eastern United States. It was designated as an National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1996 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bankhead Lake</span> Reservoir in Alabama, US

Bankhead Lake is a reservoir along the Black Warrior River that begins in Walker County in the state of Alabama. The lake forms the border between Jefferson and Tuscaloosa County, as well as the border dividing Jefferson and Walker County. It eventually empties into Holt Lake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hales Bar Dam</span> United States historic place

Hales Bar Dam was a hydroelectric dam once located on the Tennessee River in Marion County, Tennessee, United States. The Chattanooga and Tennessee River Power Company began building the dam on October 17, 1905, and completed it on November 11, 1913, making Hales Bar one of the first major multipurpose dams and one of the first major dams to be built across a navigable channel in the United States. It began operation on November 13, 1913.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holt Lock and Dam</span> Dam in Alabama, USA

The Holt Lock and Dam is a lock built on the Black Warrior River near Holt, Alabama in Tuscaloosa County. Opening for navigation in 1966, it served as a replacement for a series locks and dams built in the early 20th century. The lock and dam impounds Holt Lake 19 miles (31 km) upstream to the John Hollis Bankhead Lock and Dam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherokee Dam</span> Dam in Tennessee, United States

Cherokee Dam is a hydroelectric dam located on the Holston River in Grainger County and Jefferson County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The dam is operated and maintained by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the early 1940s to help meet urgent demands for energy at the outbreak of World War II. Cherokee Dam is 175 feet (53 m) high and impounds the 28,780-acre (11,650 ha) Cherokee Lake. It has a generating capacity of 136 megawatts. The dam was named for the Cherokee, a Native American tribe that controlled much of East Tennessee when the first European settlers arrived in the mid-18th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaukauna Locks Historic District</span> Historic district in Wisconsin, United States

The Kaukauna Locks Historic District is a lock and dam system in Kaukauna, Wisconsin, United States, that carried boat traffic around a rapids of the Fox River starting in the 1850s as part of the Fox–Wisconsin Waterway. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 for its significance in engineering and transport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Village Number 1, Alabama</span> Unincorporated community in Alabama, United States

Village Number 1, also known as The Village and Nitrate Plant Number 1 Reservation Subdivision, is an unincorporated community in Colbert County, Alabama, in the United States.

References

  1. 1 2 Johnston, Louis; Williamson, Samuel H. (2023). "What Was the U.S. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth . Retrieved November 30, 2023. United States Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the MeasuringWorth series.
  2. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  3. 1 2 "Wilson Dam". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on January 11, 2008. Retrieved October 28, 2007.
  4. 1 2 3 Polly M. Rettig and Horace J. Sheely, Jr. (February 1976) National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Wilson Dam, National Park Service and Accompanying 2 photos, 1 aerial and 1 from below, undated.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "TVA Website" . Retrieved May 16, 2007.
  6. "US Army Corps of Engineers Website". Archived from the original on January 9, 2009. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
  7. 1 2 "Lock Characteristics General Report" (PDF). General Characteristics of Locks. US Army Corps of Engineers. December 29, 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 10, 2011. Retrieved July 22, 2010.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "Wilson Dam and Reservoir". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
  9. "The Gazette Times - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
  10. "A Dam for the People". TVA.com. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 O'Donnell, Tommy (February 1, 2019). "Henry Ford's Muscle Shoals". Urban Utopias. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
  12. 1 2 3 pls4e (September 6, 2018). "Wilson Dam". SAH ARCHIPEDIA. Retrieved January 17, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. 1 2 "Public Power Transforms Real Lives". TVA.com. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
  14. "Roosevelt Visits Wilson Dam". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
  15. "Nashville District > About > History > Wilson Lock and Dam". www.lrn.usace.army.mil. Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
  16. "T.V.A. Fights Order to Move Headquarters From Tennessee to Alabama (Published 1979)". The New York Times. February 6, 1979. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved January 17, 2021.
  17. "A New Beginning for the Muscle Shoals Reservation". TVA.com. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
  18. Daily, Rob Hammond Special to The (May 18, 2013). "Kennedy visit to Shoals led to frank talk with Wallace". TimesDaily. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
  19. 1 2 "Wilson". TVA.com. Retrieved January 17, 2021.