I was watching the latest episode of American Horror Stories entitled “Lake”. The beginning had a familiar backstory, a dam is built and the town of Reedsville, Population 103, is flooded to build a lake. Creepiness ensues.
It is a story that is very familiar in our area as we have two lakes that are not only manmade but consist of flooded towns, homes, and cemeteries. In neighboring Campbell County, I have family that was initially buried in the Indian Creek cemetery, including my Great Great Grandfather, William Allen, who was buried only to be dug up and moved to another location 25 years later due to TVA’s Norris Dam Grave Relocation Project.
According to TVA, Surveys were conducted on all cemeteries in the project areas. Beginning in 1933, more than 69,000 graves were investigated, and over 20,000 graves were relocated, which shows in numbers just how many of the dead were forgotten and flooded in the name of progress. In the case of my Grandfather and several other members of the Allen family, by a strange turn of fate, they were moved to land originally owned by the Suttons, who willed the property to Cumberland View Baptist Church. My Great Grandmother, Nannie Sutton, joined the Allens when she wed William’s son, Lewis Allen, in 1896.
Some families refused to be moved. After all, they had farmed the land, bled for it, and lived with it, for generations. Mattie Randolph, whose story was partially used in the 1960s movie “Wild River”. The Slate has an excellent write-up about “The Family that wouldn’t leave” that I highly recommend. As you can read in the newspaper article enclosed though, it shows a good snapshot of the times and the grit of the people.
As Joseph Stephens wrote in his article about the relocation: “Flooding was not a problem for Campbell County farmers along the Clinch and Powell Rivers. If anything, occasional flooding enriched the soil of the fertile bottom lands. TVA put some of East Tennessee’s best farmland under water. Neither were most people desperately poor. My mother was born at what is now Spangler Point on July 26, 1925 in a better house than most area residents live in today.“
Surprisingly, In regard to the dead of those communities, Joseph writes: “TVA did provide grave relocations for those buried in cemeteries that would be flooded or difficult to reach because existing roads would be flooded when the lake was filled. Unlike the National Park Service and Tennessee State Parks, TVA has not provided continuing maintenance to cemeteries in depopulated communities.“
The dead hold sway under the depths in neighboring Kentucky as well. As Carol L. Sanders writes: “In the early 1940’s the United States Army Corps of Engineers began acquiring some 56,830 acres of land for the Wolf Creek Dam, built near the city of Jamestown, Kentucky in Russell County. The 105 mile long Lake Cumberland Reservoir begins near Jamestown, Kentucky and extends through parts of Wayne and Pulaski Counties in Kentucky. During the land acquisition, eighty-four cemeteries within the project were to be relocated. In the early part of 1980, a crack was detected deep in the bottom of the concrete Dam, resulting in the lowering of the water level of the Lake to make the necessary repairs. Due to the low water level, a cemetery was exposed on an island in the middle of the lake in August, 1980 which raised many questions as to whether the cemeteries had indeed been relocated.”
This weekend, I was speaking with my friend Nathan Isaac from the Penny Royal podcast about the various dams and what ensued. He reminded me of the island. Cemetery Island is part of Kentucky Lake, when the dam there was built by the TVA IN 1944, in the late Fall and Winter months, the water lowers to expose this strip of land, and at least one marker, that of Jey Whaley. From various reports, unsuspecting boaters often accidentally knock the marker over, which explains why the extra support blocks have been added for stability.
Nearby Wolf Creek Dam which created Cumberland Lake was completed in 1951. The US Army Corps of Engineers moved some cemeteries before the land was flooded, but they weren’t aware of all burials. Some were unmarked, and others were on private land. While the “only town by the lake”, Burnside, may proclaim “Life’s Better by the Lake” I wonder how many of the thousands of visitors to one of the largest man-made lakes in the nation have so much hidden beneath?
As many of the dead now resides in the dark depths of TVA’s actions, there lie just as many ghost towns. Including Birmingham Kentucky, where over 600 residents had to be relocated, some of them twice, due to the creation of Lake Barkley, in the 1960s. Meanwhile, Loyston Tennessee is now under a mile-wide section of Norris Lake known as the “Loyston Sea,” located along Big Shore State Park. Willow Grove, Tennessee, Known today as “the town that drowned.” was taken in 1942. The community had a final picnic on July 18th, to bid farewell to their homes and beloved land.
In times of drought, many of these places can be seen in the shallow, skeletal structures that serve as a reminder of what is hidden from our everyday existence. From the thousands of lives that were affected by the various projects to the thousands more that were moved or forgotten…
…So the next time you are swimming in the waters, remember that thing that touched your foot may not be a fish after all, but something from what lies beneath.
House of Wyrd 