Lake Norman is the largest man-made lake in North Carolina and is located in the northern part of Mecklenburg County, just 18 miles northwest of Charlotte. It is sometimes called an Inland Sea, with over 520 miles of beautiful shoreline. The Lake Norman area actually consists of several small towns and communities surrounding the lake and Lake Norman State Park. It is now one of the most rapidly growing and popular areas in the state.
In 1781, General Cornwallis proclaimed Charlotte to be, “A damned hornets nest of rebellion”. At the battle site at Cowans Ford, General William Lee Davidson, along with a band of Catawba Valley farmers were able to slow the advance of General Cornwallis. Early in the battle, General Davidson was shot and killed at the river bank. A monument honoring Davidson is located near the present site of Cowans Ford Dam, but the exact location of his demise is under the waters of Lake Norman.
After the United States became an independent nation and the Civil War left the people demoralized in spirit, the people along the Catawba were simply existing. Ambitious James B. Buck Duke, president of the American Tobacco Company, saw a future in the textile industry in the Carolinas, using the waters of the Catawba to generate power needed to provide clothing for a growing nation. Buck and his brother, Ben, set out to learn everything they could about hydroelectric power. Dr. W. Gill Wylie, who had already experimented with hydroelectric power in South Carolina with his Catawba Power Company, soon began discussions with the Duke Brothers while tending to their illnesses. Wylie introduced the Dukes to William S. Lee, a brilliant young engineer who was designing the Catawba Power Company’s dams and power plants.
Wylie needed funding, and Duke needed power. Duke, Lee and Wylie were looking at the larger picture electricity would attract business and industry to the region. The Southern Power Company was formed and William S. Lees dream of transforming an entire river valley into a hydroelectric system was coming true. In 1927, the Southern Power Company became the Duke Power Company, and by 1928, ten dams were completed with a dozen powerhouses, making the Catawba the worlds most electrified river. William Lees grandson, Bill Lee III, had the honor of designing and completing the one final dam which would be the largest undertaking of all, creating not only the largest lake in the Duke Power system, but the largest lake in the Carolinas.
Homes, family farms, and entire towns would end up under water. The village of Long Island, once a bustling river town with three textile mills, would be completely submerged. Some land owners refused to sell their land, but traded it for land along the future lake. Those who kept it long enough did very well indeed. The ground breaking took place on September 28, 1959. It took four years to finish the huge dam, and another two years to fill the lake.
Named after retired Duke Power President, Norman Atwater Cocke, people predicted Lake Norman to be an inland sea. It is 34 miles long and eight miles across at its widest point. Its surface area of 32,500 acres has 520 mile of shoreline. Lake Norman is 760 feet above sea level, 130 feet deep at its deepest point, and holds 3.4 trillion gallons. There are three generating plants on Lake Norman: Cowans Ford, the original power station; Marshall Steam Station, a coal-burning steam-electric generating station on NC 150; and the William B. McGuire Nuclear Station near the east abutment of Cowans Ford Dam. Those who call Lake Norman the biggest thing to happen on a river since the flood of 1916 appreciate its contribution to flood control. Because the lake can handle enormous amounts of water flowing down from the mountains, the torrential rains of 1940 and 1970 did not create a terrorizing replay of the flood of 1916 which took lives, farms, homes, animals, crops, bridges and roads, and destroyed businesses that were never rebuilt.
Lake Normans deepest point is over 100 feet and the average depth is 25 feet. Lake Norman holds approximately 3,200,000,000 gallons of water, having a weight of approximately 13,600,000 tons. Lake Normans shoreline measures approximately 520 miles, more than the coastlines of North and South Carolina combined. Lake Norman is bordered by four counties: Mecklenburg was named for the home province of King George IIIs wife, Queen Charlotte; Catawba named for the Catawba Indians, who actually called themselves Eswataroa (meaning great river); Lincoln named for Benjamin Lincoln, not Abraham Lincoln; and Iredell named for James Iredell, who never saw the county!. During the Revolutionary War, a battle was fought on February 1, 1781 at almost the exact spot where Cowans Ford Dam now sits. Militia General William Lee Davidson, for whom Davidson College is named, was killed in the battle. There have been several unusual sightings around Lake Norman, including a mysterious cat-like creature known as a wampus, UFOs, man-sized catfish, an alligator or two, and, of course, the famous Lake Norman Monster (our very own version of the Loch Ness Monster). The groundbreaking for Cowans Ford dam was held September 28, 1959. Governor Terry Sanford was the denote speaker at the dedication of the completed dam five years later on September 29, 1964. The first metal bridge to span the Catawba River in this area was built by James W. Brown B.A. Troutman of Mooresville and completed in 1911. it was located about 1/2 mile downstream from the present N.C. Hwy. 150 bridge. Talk about planning ahead, James B. dukes associates began purchasing Catawba Valley bottomland in 1901 to prepare for future power generation. Had Lake Norman not been in place, there probably would have been flooding of the Catawba River Valley in 1970. Severe flooding did occur in 1916 and 1940. The Catawba River froze solid enough for horse-drawn wagons to cross on!
