Calderwood Dam

Calderwood was a community once located along the Little Tennessee River in Blount County, Tennessee, United States. Established in 1912 as a base for the Aluminum Company of America's Little Tennessee Valley hydroelectric development operations, the community continued to house construction personnel and dam maintenance personnel for nearby Calderwood Dam until the 1960s. Although the community's houses were razed after its abandonment, three buildings located in the community— the Calderwood Dam service building, the Calderwood School, and a Quonset hut used as a theater— were included in a supplementary listing for Calderwood Dam on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.Alcoa began developing the Little Tennessee Valley in 1909 to provide the ample amounts of electricity necessary to power its planned aluminum smelting operations in Blount County. Under the leadership of Alcoa engineer Isaac Glidden Calderwood (1871–1941), three dams— Cheoah (1919), Santeetlah (1928), and Calderwood (1930)— were completed in a remote section of the valley along the Tennessee-North Carolina border. The community of Calderwood was initially known as "Alcoa," but was renamed in I. G. Calderwood's honor after the company reapplied the name "Alcoa" to its main company town in northern Blount County.

The Cheoah River is a tributary of the Little Tennessee River in North Carolina in the United States. It is located in Graham County in far western North Carolina, near Robbinsville, and is approximately 20 miles in length. Its headwaters are in the Appalachian Mountains where it flows northwest near Robbinsville, to the Lake Santeetlah and flows towards the Tennessee border with a terminus at the Little Tennessee between the Cheoah Dam and Lake Calderwood.

The Cheoah Dam is a hydroelectric complex located in Graham and Swain counties, North Carolina, on the Little Tennessee River between river miles 51 and 52. The Cheoah Development consists of a dam and powerhouse, the first of several constructed by the Tallassee Power Company (now Tapoco), a subsidiary of Aluminum Company of America (now Alcoa), in order to generate electricity to smelt aluminum in Alcoa, Tennessee. The Cheoah project began in 1916 as a construction camp at the Narrows, where the Little Tennessee River flowed through a narrow gorge, and it was completed in 1919. Cheoah Dam created the long, narrow Cheoah Reservoir, which covers approximately 644 acres (261 ha) of the normal full pool area and a drainage area of 1,608 square miles (4,160 km2). The elevation of Cheoah Reservoir is 1,276.8 feet (389.2 m) (USGS). A scenic highway runs the length of the reservoir.The water inflow for Cheoah, like that of Calderwood and Chilhowee, is primarily dependent on releases from TVA's Fontana Dam, the primary flow control facility for the lower Little Tennessee River. Tapoco operated the Cheoah Development until 2012, when it was sold to Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners, forming Brookfield Smoky Mountain Hydropower.When completed in 1919, the 225-foot (69 m) dam was the world's highest overflow dam. The turbines were the largest in the world, and the 150,000-volt transmission line had the highest voltage and the longest span for a transmission line—5,010 feet (1,530 m) across the river below Cheoah Dam. The dam and associated structures were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.The dam was used as a filming location for the 1993 movie The Fugitive, starring Harrison Ford.

Deals Gap (el. 1,988 ft (606 m)) is a mountain pass along the North Carolina–Tennessee state line, bordering the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and near the Little Tennessee River. At 0.7 miles (1.1 km) south of the gap is the unincorporated community that shares the same name, located at the intersection of US 129 and NC 28. The area is popular with sports car and motorcycle enthusiasts, who cross the gap into Tennessee to drive along the "Tail of the Dragon", famous for its 318 curves in 11 miles (18 km).

Tapoco is an unincorporated community in Graham County, North Carolina, United States. Tapoco is located on U.S. Route 129 near the Little Tennessee River, 11 miles (18 km) northwest of Robbinsville. Named for the acronym of the former Tallassee Power Company, Tapoco had a post office until it closed on October 26, 1995.

The Snowbird Mountain Lodge is an historic hotel property in rural Graham County, North Carolina. It is located on the Cherohala Skyway, about 11 miles (18 km) west of Robbinsville. The main lodge was designed by Asheville architect Ronald Greene, and was built in 1940–1941 for Arthur and Edwin Wolfe; it was one of the last of a series of architecturally significant mountain lodges built in the region in the first half of the 20th century. The property features commanding views of the surrounding Nantahala National Forest and Lake Santeetlah.The lodge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

The Tapoco Lodge Historic District encompasses a historic mountain lodge and resort in Robbinsville, North Carolina. The lodge was developed in the 1930s by Tapoco, formerly the Tallassee Power Company, which developed hydroelectric power projects in the area. The lodge and associated cabins were built to provide housing for Tapoco employees working in the area. The main lodge, a 2-1/2 story Colonial Revival structure, was built in 1930, and the facilities were gradually enlarged during the next decade to include a number of guest cabins. Around 1950 a theater, guard house, and other utility buildings were added to the complex. Gazebos and tennis courts were added in the late 1990s.The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.

Abrams Creek is a creek in Blount County, Tennessee. Its headwaters are in Cades Cove, and it is a tributary of the Little Tennessee River. It is named after the Chilhowee Cherokee chief Old Abraham ("Abram"). Visitors swim and fish in the creek. The creek was deliberately poisoned in 1957 to kill fish in potential competition with rainbow trout; many fish species were extirpated from the river and have never recovered.

Chilhowee (Cherokee: ᏧᎷᎾᎢ, romanized: Tsulunawe) was a prehistoric and historic Native American site in present-day Blount and Monroe counties in Tennessee, in what were the Southeastern Woodlands. Although now submerged by the Chilhowee Lake impoundment of the Little Tennessee River, the Chilhowee site was home to a substantial 18th-century Overhill Cherokee town. It may have been the site of the older Creek village "Chalahume" visited by Spanish explorer Juan Pardo in 1567. The Cherokee later pushed the Muscogee Creek out of this area. Although Chilhowee was destroyed by Euro-American frontiersmen who fought the Cherokee in the late 18th century, the village's name is still used for various entities throughout East Tennessee. Along with Chilhowee Dam and its reservoir, places and entities named after Chilhowee include a mountain, a geologic formation, several churches and schools, and a park and neighborhood in Knoxville.

Chilhowee Dam is a hydroelectric dam located in Blount and Monroe counties, Tennessee, United States, between river mile 33 and 34 on the Little Tennessee River. Construction by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) began in 1955 and was completed in 1957. The dam's reservoir (Chilhowee Lake) covers approximately 1,734 acres (702 ha) at normal full pool and has a drainage area of 1,977 square miles (5,120 km2). The elevation of Chilhowee Reservoir is 874 feet (266 m) above mean sea level (USGS). Chilhowee's powerhouse is equipped with three Kaplan turbines that have a combined generating capacity of 48 megawatts.Like Calderwood and Cheoah, Chilhowee is controlled by Fontana Dam. Fontana Dam is the primary flow control facility for the lower Little Tennessee River. Tapoco built and operates the Chilhowee Development. Chilhowee Dam and its powerhouse are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Chilhowee Hydroelectric Development. When the lake is drawn down for maintenance, the remains of the original bridge of US 129 over Abrams Creek can be seen.

Tallassee is an unincorporated community in Blount County, Tennessee. Its ZIP code is 37878.Tallassee is located along U.S. Route 129 (Calderwood Highway) approximately a half mile west of Chilhowee Dam along the banks of the Little Tennessee River.

Tallassee (also "Talassee," "Talisi," "Tellassee," and various similar spellings) is a prehistoric and historic Native American site in present-day Blount and Monroe counties, Tennessee in the southeastern United States. Tallassee (Cherokee: ᏔᎵᏏ, romanized: Talisi) was the southernmost (and furthest upriver) of a string of Overhill Cherokee towns that existed along the lower Little Tennessee River on the west side of the Appalachian Mountains in the 18th century. Although Tallassee receives scant attention in primary historical accounts, it is one of the few Overhill towns to be shown on every major 18th-century map of the Little Tennessee Valley. Salvage excavations conducted in the 1950s prior to construction of a dam on the Little Tennessee River also revealed much earlier indigenous habitation here, dating to the Woodland period (1000 B.C.–1000 A.D.). The site was occupied throughout much of the South Appalachian Mississippian culture period (900–1600 A.D.). A prehistoric substructure platform mound was found, which was likely constructed about 1000 AD in this period. Evidence of the historic Cherokee included more than two dozen burials, with grave goods showing established European trading, as well as refuse pits and remnants of a burned house. The Tallassee site is now submerged by Chilhowee Lake, an impoundment of the Little Tennessee River created by the completion of Chilhowee Dam downriver in 1957. The shoreline above the site is occupied by the Calderwood Hydroelectric Development Area, which was established by the Aluminum Company of America in the 1920s. It was a base for the construction of Cheoah, Santeetlah, and Calderwood dams further upriver. The modern hamlet of Tallassee was not established until the early 20th century. It is located 7 miles (11 km) downstream, near Chilhowee Dam.