Lake Keowee Watershed

Lake Keowee Watershed. . Lake Keowee is located in Jocassee Valley. The Cherokee, who formerly inhabited the valley, considered their city of Keowee to be a "mother town" for surrounding tribes. The valley was home to two tribes of the Cherokee: the Oconee (aka the Brown Vipers) and the Eastatoees (aka the Green Birds - likely named for the Carolina Parakeet, the only parrot native to North America). , The name Jocassee is derived from the legend of Jocassee, who was the daughter of Brown Viper Chief Attakulla. According to lore, Nagoochee, a Green Bird, trespassed into Brown Viper territory where he broke his leg. Jocassee brought him home and took care of him and they fell in love. In a later war between the two tribes, Jocassee's brother killed Nagoochee and brought his head back as a trophy. The legend is that Jocassee walked out onto the water, without sinking, to meet Nagoochee's ghost., Jocassee means "Place of the Lost One", while Keowee means "Place of the Mulberries"., In the 1960's, Duke Power Company gained ownership of Jocassee Valley to build lakes in support of a nuclear power station. During preparations for construction of the dams, archeological excavations of historic towns and Cherokee villages revealed several endangered plant and animal species. Duke Power (now Duke Energy) and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources entered into an agreement to designate the Jocassee Gorges as Wildlife Management Area land which allows for public access., Duke Power began construction of the Keowee-Toxaway power project in 1967, and completed filling Lake Keowee and Lake Jocassee in 1973.