The Ocoee Dams

The Ocoee River project dates back to the pioneering days of electric power production in the Tennesssee Valley. Ocoees No. 1 and No. 2, built by a private power company between 1910 and 1913, were among the first hydroelectric projects in the region. They were acquired by the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1939. During World War II, TVA added the third dam to the lower Ocoee system.
Ocoee No. 1 creates 765-hectare (1,890-acre) Parksville Lake, a scenic reservoir offering a variety of water recreation opportunities. Of special interest is Ocoee No. 2, with its powerhouse located nearly 5 miles downstream from the low diversion dam. At the dam, water is diverted into a flume-a wooden trough supported on a bench cut out of the mountainside-which carries it to a point where it is discharged through pipes to the powerhouse 250 feet below. While the flume is built on a flat slope and drops very little as it flows its windingcourse,the river bed drops nearly 76 meters over the same distance. Thus, the effect produced by the 9-meter-high dam had been constructed at the powerhouse location.
Ocoee No. 3 takes advantage of similar topographic conditions, using a tunnel instead of a flume to carry water from the dam to its powerhouse 4 kilometers downstream.

Photo by: The Ocoees


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Map by: The Ocoees

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