80 years to the date Thursday, the Norris Dam began operations on the Clinch River.
The dam was a turning point for East Tennessee because it promised cheap electricity for residents urban areas like Knoxville, and greatly helped farmers.
WBIR put together an hour-long special celebrating the great dam, which aired at 7 p.m. Thursday. 10News reporters Jim Matheny and Michael Crowe partnered with The Heartland Series founder Steve Dean to produce the special.
George Norris’ determination combined with President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal goals of government-operated social and jobs programs helped to create the TVA act that passed Congress. The creation of the TVA in 1933 would kick-start the construction of the dam.
Matheny first took a look at the people who would pay the dearest price for this all to happen.
Crowe looked at the first leaders of the TVA.
The project of creating public acceptance of the dam fell to the new staff at the TVA offices in Knoxville. They were the point of contact between giant governmental agency and the small yeoman farmer.
The need for the dam and its electrical power was immediate.
TVA needed solved two problems: how to get machinery to the secluded site, and where house the thousands of men that would work there.
As construction on the dam kept up its relentless pace, time was running out for the mountain people who lived along the Clinch and Powell rivers. The TVA staff just had to convince them of it.
East Tennessee had an "over-the-top" reaction to the dam.
In a matter of days, entire communities would be underwater, and essentially gone forever. It was all, in some of their own words, "for the greater good."
Crowe found out what's different about the dam, the lake, and the town 80 years later.
And in conclusion, Matheny traveled the edges of the Norris basin in search of any remnants of the old mountaineer society.
In commemoration of the 80th anniversary of Norris Dam, the public will be allowed to tour portions of the powerhouse and wing wall of the dam Friday and Saturday. For security reasons, there have been no public tours of the facility since September 11th 2001.