Cades Cove Tennessee

Driving along the edges of East Tennessee’s lakes, there are signs that things are not always as they have been.

Decaying grain silos rise up inexplicably from the water. In other places, ancient roads and trails lead down to lakebeds without turning.

In the days before the Tennessee Valley Authority, Tennessee’s rivers ran wild and free. They were dangerous, frequently jumping the banks and damaging crops and farms and livestock. They could be deadly.

The TVA came along and in the words of Ulysses Everett McGill, “Hydroelectric up the whole dern state” or at least the valley.  READ MORE...