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Located about midway between Chattanooga and Knoxville, the lake begins as the Tennessee River below Fort Loudon Dam in Lenoir City, Tennessee and stretches 72.4 miles (116.5 km) to Watts Bar Dam, near Spring City, Tennessee. The Clinch River connects to the main channel of the lake at mile 568 near Southwest Point (site of Andrew Jackson and John Sevier's 1803 confrontation) in Kingston, Tennessee, and the widening of the Clinch by the lake makes that river navigable all the way to Melton Hill Dam near Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The partially navigable Emory River connects with the Clinch near the TVA's Kingston Steam Plant just upriver from the meeting with the Tennessee. Including the Clinch and Emory arms, Watts Bar has 722 miles of shoreline and over 39000 acres (160 km²) of water surface. Minor tributaries include Poplar Creek, Caney Creek, and White's Creek. The lake contains several large islands, most notably Thief Neck Island, Long Island, and Sand Island.
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Watts Bar Lake History
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The county is named for Tennessee politician and Revolutionary War veteran John Rhea.
A portion of the Trail of Tears ran through the county as part of the United States government's removal of the Cherokee in the 1830's.
During the American Civil War, Rhea County was considered to be one of the counties in eastern Tennessee that was the most sympathetic to the cause of the Confederate States of America. Rhea raised up seven companies for the Confederate military, compared to just one company for the United States.
Rhea raised the only female cavalry company, on either side, during the Civil War. The unit was made up of young women in their teens and twenties from Rhea County and was formed in 1862. The girls named their unit the Rhea County Spartans. Until 1863, the Spartans simply visited loved ones in the military and delivered the equivalent of modern day care packages. After Union troops entered Rhea in 1863, the Spartans may have engaged in some scouting for Confederate forces. The members of the Spartans were later arrested in 1865 under orders of a Rhea County Unionist and were forced to march on foot to the Tennessee River. From there they were transported to Chattanooga aboard the USS Chattanooga. Once in Chattanooga, Union officers decided that the young women were not a threat and ordered them released and returned to Rhea County. The women were forced to take the oath of allegiance to the United States. The Spartans were disbanded and have drifted into near obscurity. The Spartans were not an officially recognized unit of the Confederate Army.
In 1890, the county seat was moved from the Washington community to its present location in Dayton. The move was a result of Cincinnati-Chattanooga railroad being completed and running through Dayton.
The Scopes Monkey Trial, which resulted from the teaching of evolution being banned in Tennessee public schools under the Butler Act, took place in Rhea County in 1925. The Scopes Trial was one of the first to be referred to as the Trial of the century. William Jennings Bryan was to play a role in trial, and he died in Dayton shortly after the trial ended. A statue of Bryan was recently placed on the grounds of the Rhea County courthouse. In 1954 the laws were changed to allow teaching of evolution alongside Bible studies in school. On June 8, 2004, a federal appeals court upheld a ruling preventing further Bible lessons as being violative of the First Amendment principle of "Separation of church and state".
On March 16, 2004, Rhea County commissioner J.C. Fugate prompted a vote on a ban on homosexualsin the state of Tennessee, and allow the county to charge them with "crimes against nature." The measure passed 8-0. Fugate's reasoning: "We need to keep them out of here."[1] It should be noted that several of the commissioners who voted for the resolution chose not to run for reelection or were voted out of office.
The resolution was withdrawn on March 18. In protest, a "Gay Day in Rhea" was held on May 8, 2004 with about 300 participants.
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Watts Bar Lake Recreation
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Watts Bar's sport fishing ratings for crappie, black crappie, largemouth bass, and spotted bass are at or near the top in the TVA system. (The state of Tennessee advises against eating fish caught in certain areas of the lake due to PCB contamination.) The area also provides many opportunities for birdwatching, with an extremely large population of great blue herons, over 120 nesting pairs of osprey, and a few bald eagles living on or near the lake. Several parks and camps are located on the lake, including the John Knox Center and the Boy Scout facility Camp Buck Toms.
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