Hiwassee Lake

Hiwassee Lake
Hiwassee Lake is impounded by Hiwassee Dam
Location of Hiwassee Lake in North Carolina, USA.
Location of Hiwassee Lake in North Carolina, USA.
Hiwassee Lake
Location of Hiwassee Lake in North Carolina, USA.
Location of Hiwassee Lake in North Carolina, USA.
Hiwassee Lake
LocationUnited States
Coordinates35°09′36″N 84°09′54″W / 35.160°N 84.165°W / 35.160; -84.165
Surface area9.3 sq mi (24 km2)
Shore length1180 mi (290 km)
SettlementsMurphy
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

Hiwassee Lake is a man-made reservoir in Cherokee County, North Carolina. It lies along the Hiwassee River created by the Hiwassee Dam which finished construction in 1940. Hiwassee Lake stretches along the river for approximately 22 miles (35 km) to the town of Murphy, North Carolina. It has 180 miles (290 km) of shoreline, a storage capacity of 434,000 acre⋅ft (535,000 dam3), and 205,590 acre⋅ft (253,590 dam3) of flood storage.

Hiwassee Lake is 6,000 acres (2,400 ha). Its tailwaters are part of Apalachia Lake.[1] The reservoir's operating level varies by roughly 38 feet (12 m) in a typical year.[2] The southwestern arm of the reservoir over Persimmon Creek is known as Persimmon Lake. It reaches to a smaller dam which contains Cherokee Lake.[3] The Nottely River also flows into Hiwassee Lake from North Georgia.

  1. ^ Tennessee Valley Authority, The Hiwassee Project: A Comprehensive Report on the Planning, Design, Construction, and Initial Operations of the Hiwassee Project (Hiwassee Valley Projects Volume 1), Technical Report No. 5 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946), pp. 1-8, 39-40, 211, 230, 242, 248.
  2. ^ Tennessee Valley Authority, Hiwassee Reservoir[permanent dead link]. Retrieved: 25 January 2009.
  3. ^ Foster, Sarah (December 2023). "Bear Paw: The Community that Built Hiwassee Lake". Celebrating Our Communities of Cherokee County, Volume 1. Cherokee Scout. p. 17.