Norris Dam State Park

Norris Dam State Park is a state park in Anderson County and Campbell County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The park is situated along the shores of Norris Lake, an impoundment of the Clinch River created by the completion of Norris Dam in 1936. The park consists of 4,038 acres (16.34 km2) managed by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. The park also administers the Lenoir Museum Complex, which interprets the area's aboriginal, pioneer, and early 20th-century history.

Norris Dam was the pilot project of the Tennessee Valley Authority, a Great Depression-era entity created by the United States government in 1933 to control flooding and bring electricity and economic development to the Tennessee Valley. The construction and administration of the dam and reservoir would serve as a model for over two dozen other TVA dams built throughout the Tennessee Valley in subsequent decades. Along with Norris Dam State Park, there are several protected entities along Norris Lake's shores, including Big Ridge State Park, Chuck Swan State Forest, Cove Creek Wildlife Management Area, and River Bluff Small Wild Area. Norris Dam State Park was named for Nebraska senator George William Norris (1861–1944), who lobbied intensively for the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority in the early 1930s.

Read more about Norris Dam State Park:  Geographical Setting, Natural Information, History, The Park Today, Photo Gallery

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    ... disconnecting from change does not recapture the past. It loses the future.
    —Kathleen Norris (b. 1947)

    The devil take one party and his dam the other!
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    Neighboring farmers and visitors at White Sulphur drove out occasionally to watch ‘those funny Scotchmen’ with amused superiority; when one member imported clubs from Scotland, they were held for three weeks by customs officials who could not believe that any game could be played with ‘such elongated blackjacks or implements of murder.’
    —For the State of West Virginia, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    Is a park any better than a coal mine? What’s a mountain got that a slag pile hasn’t? What would you rather have in your garden—an almond tree or an oil well?
    Jean Giraudoux (1882–1944)