Walters Dam

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Constructed 1927-1930.

Deep in the Pigeon River ravine, the brick power plant is a landmark at the North Carolina-Tennessee border. The plant is linked by a 6.2-mile concrete lined tunnel to Waterville Lake, 12 miles up river, formed by a concrete dam. The dam is barely visible at the west end of Waterville Lake from I-40, between mile markers 11 and 12, eastbound; access is restricted. The dam pulls the tunnel develop a head of 861 feet, which until World War II was the highest east of the Rockies.

The idea of a hydroelectric plant in this vicinity was explored by Benjamin Sloan, owner of Waynesville’s Sulphur Spring Hotel. With others, he organized the Haywood Electric Power Co. and the Great Smoky Mountain Power Co., and in 1905 built a dam and power plant on the Pigeon River that served Waynesville and Canton. After Sloan’s death in 1922, Great Smoky’s options on power sites were purchased by the Carolina Power and Light Co. (CP&L), which announced plans for a major dam on the Pigeon River in 1926. Work began at the remote site in 1927 and was completed in 1930 by the Phoenix Electric Co., an affiliate of CP&L. Power from this plant has supported communities and industries through the region.

The project gained attention in trade journals because of the challenges presented by the remote location and difficult terrain. Getting equipment and materials to the sites was an immense problem, exacerbated by the lack of rail access beyond the power plant site. The contractors leased a narrow-gauge logging line, but it took a year to extend it five miles to the dam site. The project was further delayed by harsh weather and rock slides, a problem that continues to plague the gorge along the Pigeon River. Separate camps were set up for the crews working on the dam, the powerhouse, and the tunnel drilled through the mountain.

The magnificent concrete arch dam is 180 feet high and about 800 feet long, with the spillway at the center of the arch. Southwest of the dam is the reinforced concrete intake gate to the tunnel. The 6.2-mile tunnel through the mountain carries the water down the slope of the terrain and divides into three penstocks before reaching the powerhouse. The powerhouse, an imposing structure of brick, with tall windows alternating with pilasters above a concrete base, is set in solid rock. The facility is remarkably unchanged, with its original vertical reaction type turbines and generators still at work.

To house the workers at the remote site, CP&L built Waterville Village as a model community, with family houses, a boardinghouse, a school, a post office, and a clubhouse amid the landscaped and terraced grounds. Of these, a few individual dwellings (simple frame bungalows), the 2-story clubhouse (now the plant manager’s residence), and the small, frame schoolhouse still stand. In 1980 the site was designated the state’s first Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the N.C. Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers.