This is an aerial view of the tallest dam in the Eastern USA. Fontana Dam. Ever heard of it? If so, you're one of the few. It's located in a remote area of the North Carolina mountains and was constructed in only three years (yes, that's right, three!) during the height of World War Two, January 1942 - January 1945. This photo was taken in early 1945. To give you a sense of the 480-foot height, notice the "tiny" building at the base of the dam to the right. That building is seven stories tall. Behind the dam is huge Fontana Lake, a man-make lake created when the dam was completed and water from the Little Tennessee River backed up and flooded over 7,276 cleared acres, including seven former towns. The lake extends 30 miles into the mountains, and its shore line measures 240 miles.
The building of Fontana Dam was a miracle. After Pearl Harbor was attacked in December 1941, the need to build a dam near Welch Cove, North Carolina became urgent. ALCOA plants demanded a tremendous increase in the amount of electricity to run their plants that produced aluminum. Aluminum for war machinery.
One month later, in January 1942, the first workers arrived near Welch Cove, lived in tents, and began construction on the dam. In six short months, the tiny cove was transformed into a town. 6,000 workers lived in homes in a community that boasted two schools, a grocery store, a post office, a barber shop, sports facilities, dormitories for single workers, a large cafeteria, a community building, and a hospital. These workers, who came from 46 of the country's 48 states, worked in three shifts every day of the week, 24 hours a day (one of the most intensive work schedules known in the engineering field). Their children attended good schools, church, dances, baseball games, tennis matches, and winter ice-skating outings - all in a brand new, thriving community on a mountain hillside.
My latest work-in-progress features ten-year-old Joe Miller. He reluctantly moves to Welch Cove in January 1944 for his mom and uncle to work on the Fontana Dam project. The mountains are a challenging place for Joe. He has intense fears of heights and water. Can he control these fears and his stutter and fit in with his fifth grade classmates? Can he earn the respect and friendship of Frankie, the outspoken Irish/Cherokee Indian girl, whose family and heritage he grows to admire? Can Joe and Frankie solve a local mystery and save the lives of men who work on the monstrous dam hundreds of feet above a dry river bed?
I have spent much time at Fontana Dam. I have had the great honor and privilege to interview multiple Dam Kids - men and women, now in their 70's and 80's, who lived as children in Welch Cove during the actual building of the dam. They have shared their unique lives and stories and memories with me so willingly, so unselfishly, that I am forever indebted to them. Many of them I call my friends.
I am happy to introduce Doris, Homer, Mildred, and Harvey!
love the new blog!
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