History
A pre-inundation archaeological survey of the Center Hill Basin conducted by the Smithsonian Institution located several possible prehistoric village and mound sites, including a 10-foot (3.0 m) platform mound at the mouth of Mine Lick Creek, just upstream from the modern park boundary. Early settlers in the area also claimed to have found Native American graves and other objects. More extensive excavations, however, failed to uncover any major prehistoric sites.
The earliest Euro-American settlers in the DeKalb area arrived in the late 1790s and established the town of Liberty just west of the modern park. Over the years, several families settled in the hollows and valleys of what is now Edgar Evins State Park and adjacent lands that would eventually be inundated by Center Hill Lake. One such settler, Alexander Dunham (1826–1878), whose family arrived in the area in the 1830s, is buried on a hill within the park that overlooks Center Hill Lake. Dunham's son lived near the present site of Center Hill Dam.
The Caney Fork has long been notorious for its volatility. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, business venture after business venture tried to harness the river's power, only to be defeated by one of several catastrophic floods that occurred along the river during this period. Major floods in 1902, 1915, 1928, and 1929 wiped out mills, bridges, houses, and farms, and led to increased calls for flood control. In the 1930s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers initiated several flood control projects in the Cumberland River watershed, including Center Hill Dam, the construction of which was authorized in 1938. Flood control and power production were the primary goals of the Center Hill Dam project.
Center Hill Lake's revised management plan in the 1940s called for the inclusion of recreational areas along the lake's shores. These included several small local parks and boatramps at first. In the late 1960s, the State of Tennessee began construction of facilities for Edgar Evins State Park. The park was officially dedicated in 1975.
Read more about this topic: Edgar Evins State Park
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