News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
More copies of the book Under The Lake are now available.
The book is a collection of photos, stories and genealogy before the Center Hill Dam was built in the 1940’s. Co-Author Carol Williams said capturing the people’s history before the area was flooded should not be lost to history.
“The history needs to be kept, we need to know why this happened,” Williams said. “The lake is so long, there’s so many families that were displaced and they moved so many different places.”
Williams said the idea for this book comes from a love of history and her own family being displaced. The TVA’s decision to build the dam in the 1940’s has had a lasting effect on those affected.
“It’s just really sad, so many people were very upset that they had to move,” Williams said. “They had family ties here from back when it was first opened up, from Indian territory.”
It was not only the people living who had to move before the dam was built. Williams said people had to uproot their ancestors.
“Knowing that the families had to move their cemeteries, their own cemeteries to some place else,” Williams said. “The government bought some land here in Dekalb County and moved those families and they hired people to move the family’s cemeteries to that location.”
The book is $80 dollars and people can order a copy through information on the Dekalb County Tennessee Caney Fork River Facebook page. Under the Lake is written by Carol Williams, Judy Fuson and Ria Baker.
