| Cherokee Dam | |
|---|---|
 Cherokee Dam | |
  Location of Cherokee Dam in Tennessee | |
| Official name | Cherokee Dam |
| Location | Jefferson and Grainger counties, Tennessee, United States |
| Coordinates | 36°9′58″N 83°29′54″W / 36.16611°N 83.49833°W |
| Purpose | Flood control, electricity |
| Construction began | August 1, 1940 |
| Opening date | December 5, 1941 |
| Construction cost | US$30.3 million[1] (equivalent to $524,436,643 in 2023) |
| Operator(s) | Tennessee Valley Authority |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Impounds | Holston River |
| Height | 175 feet (53 m) |
| Length | 6,760 feet (2,060 m) |
| Reservoir | |
| Creates | Cherokee Lake |
| Power Station | |
| Commission date | 1942-1953 |
| Type | hydroelectric |
| Turbines | 2 x 35 MW, 2 x 33 MW Francis-type |
| Installed capacity | 136 MW[2] |
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.[1] 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.[3]
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in August 2017.[4]
- ^ a b Tennessee Valley Authority, The Cherokee Project: A Comprehensive Report on the Planning, Design, Construction, and Initial Operations of the Cherokee Project, Technical Report no. 7 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946), pp. 1-19, 32, 237.
- ^ "Hydroelectric Plants in Tennessee". IndustCards. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
- ^ Tennessee Valley Authority, Cherokee Lake. Retrieved: 7 January 2009.
- ^ Supplementary Listing Record: Cherokee Hydroelectric Project, United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 2017-08-11, NRIS Reference Number: 100001468, archived from the original on 2024-07-10