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Tennessee Valley Authority / Cherokee

Construction of Cherokee Dam began August 1, 1940, and was completed December 5, 1941. Cherokee Reservoir provides nearly 400 miles of winding shoreline and about 28,780 acres of water surface. Cherokee Reservoir is named for the tribe of Native Americans who once inhabited the area. The Great Indian Warpath, once followed by Daniel Boone, crossed the Basin now filled by the Reservoir. The dam is 170 feet high and stretches over a mile from one end to another. Cherokee Dam is on the Holston River in east Tennessee, 52 miles upstream from the point at with the Holston and French Broad Rivers converge to form the Tennessee River.

The Reservoir?s fish population consists of striped bass, black bass, sauger, walleye, crappie, white bass, catfish, various sunfish and the usual rough-fish species. Cherokee Reservoir was built to generate hydroelectric power during the World War II emergency, but it also plays an important role as one of the chain of TVA reservoirs that over the years have prevented billions of dollars of flood damage in areas downstream.