Chickamauga Dam and Reservoir

Chickamauga Dam and Reservoir. . The Chickamauga Dam was built to provide flood control, navigation, and electric power. Chickamauga Dam was the fourth of TVA's projects on the Tennessee River. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Dam on September 2, 1940. At 129 feet high and 5,800 feet across, construction required over 500,000 cubic yards of concrete and almost 3 million cubic yards of earth and rock., The dam created Chickamauga Reservoir with 784 miles of shoreline and 36,000 acres of water surface, The Tennessee River drainage area at Chickamauga is 20,790 square miles. There are four hydroelectric generating units at Chickamauga Dam with a net winter dependable capacity of 129,000 kilowatts , enough electricity to power about 75,000 homes. The lock at Chickamauga lifts and lowers river craft about 50 feet between Nickajack and Chickamauga reservoirs., Chickamauga Dam and Reservoir are named for a confederacy of Native Americans, led by Dragging Canoe who broke away from the Cherokee Nation in the late 1700's. The Chickamauga established five towns along the Tennessee River and Chickamauga Creek, which joins the river just below the dam. There are several interpretations of the word “Chickamauga.” One interpretation is derived from the Creek Indian words “chica” and “mica,” meaning, “dwelling place of the chief.”