Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

Smoky Mt. Power Plant, Bryson City, Oct. 18, 1937

  • wcu_travel-125.jp2
  • This photograph of the Smoky Mountain Power Plant at Ela, North Carolina, near Bryson City, N.C., by R.A. Romanes (1896-1978) was dated October 18, 1937. The dam, which is on the Oconaluftee River near its confluence with the Tuckasegee River, was built in the mid-1920s as a municipal power plant and purchased by the Nantahala Power & Light Company in 1942. The picture highlights the dam's construction with curved retaining walls.