Wilson Dam is a stone's throw away from where my grandfather read this book, so it must have been a neat treat for him to see this here.

A lot of kids, including me, spent happy summer days watching boats moving through the dam's locks.

The dam is 4,500 feet long, 137 feet high and was originally built to provide hydroelectric power for the World War I war effort. They needed the power for a nitrate plant nearby. Of course the war was over by the time the dam was completed, in 1924, some nine years before the Tennessee Valley Authority was created by Congress. Fifty-six people died building the dam. The project employed more than 18,000.

After the war, when the dam was finished, not all of the hydroelectric equipment was installed. Henry Ford wanted to buy the surrounding property and build a "Detroit of the South." The locals were up for that in a big way, but Ford lowballed Congress, which wasn't much interested in the deal anyway. Until the Great Depression, and the advent of the TVA, the area was in limbo. Now, the river, the dam and the lake are an important part of local outdoor life and river shipping.

For a modern look of those generators, go here.

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