Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Power Co. Will Build Nantahala Dam this Fall

  • wcu_travel-152.jp2
  • Among the featured headlines the August 27, 1929 issue of 'The Ruralite' (Sylva, N.C.) was the article 'Power Co. Will Build Nantahala Dam this Fall,'� reporting on plans of the newly formed Nantahala Power and Light Company for a hydroelectric development on the Nantahala River in western North Carolina. The article indicated that the impounded waters of the proposed 175-foot high dam were to be directed through a five-mile long tunnel to a powerhouse at Nantahala, N.C. However, at the end of July 1931 the company halted construction of the Nantahala project as a result of the Great Depression and a resulting lack of need for additional electrical production in the region overall. Not until 1940 did work resume on the Nantahala Development.