Just Askin': Why doesn't Tennessee have natural lakes?
Editor's note: You got questions? We got answers. Just Askin' is a Tennessean initiative that answers your burning questions about Nashville and Middle Tennessee. Created by our nosy newsroom of Nashville reporters.
Like many people living in Nashville, I’m not actually from here. I moved from Maine, which in many ways is the complete opposite of my new home: the food is never spicy, drivers use turn signals, and it seems that every rural road ends at a lake.
So needless to say, I'm used to lakes. Hanging around them, swimming in them, cutting holes in them to fish in the winter, etc. So I was surprised to find out that not only are there not many lakes around the Nashville area but the few that are here were made by people. The idea of a man-made lake like Percy Priest seemed like cheating, like putting up a plastic Christmas tree. Where are all the real lakes?
Well, it turns out that there are some very good reasons for why, despite all the rivers around here, none start their run to the ocean from a lake made by good ol’ mother nature.
To be clear, there is one large natural surface lake in Tennessee. (Tennessee has the largest underground lake in the U.S., but that’s a whole different article). But the state’s one natural lake is so young – geologically speaking – that it is the exception that proves the rule: Tennessee’s landscape doesn’t really create lakes. Unless there's an earthquake.
Reelfoot Lake covers 15,000 square acres in northwest Tennessee, not far from both the Missouri and Kentucky borders. It was created by what is known as the New Madrid earthquakes, named after the river town of New Madrid, Missouri. During the winter of 1811 and 1812, three earthquakes hit the area. Although there was no way of measuring the severity of earthquakes at the time, scientists believe they were by far the strongest earthquakes east of the Rockies since the arrival of European settlers.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the New Madrid earthquakes caused “huge waves” on the Mississippi River that “overwhelmed many boats and washed others high onto the shore. High banks caved and collapsed into the river; sand bars and points of islands gave way; whole islands disappeared.”
And a lake appeared. Because of the earthquakes, the Mississippi River ran backward for a time, causing the flooding that formed Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee’s only natural lake.
Of course, other states have thousands and thousands of lakes. (Minneapolis even named their basketball team after their "10,000 lakes"). The reason northern states have so many natural lakes and Tennessee has just one is that glaciers never made it this far south.
Making a lake requires two things: a big hole in the ground and enough precipitation to fill it. Most of the lakes in the U.S. are in the northern part of the country because the most prolific creators of lake-sized holes are glaciers. As glaciers retreated across North America more than 10,000 years ago, they formed lake basins that were eventually filled by precipitation. But those glaciers didn’t make it to what is now Tennessee. Scientists say the glaciers didn’t go much further south than the 40th parallel north, which cuts across southern Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, and all then all the way to Northern California. States north of that parallel tend to have more natural lakes.
Of course, Tennessee does have lakes. They were just made by people, not glaciers.
Norris Lake, Kentucky Lake, Douglas Lake and Watts Bar Lake are some of the largest bodies of water in Tennessee and are all made by humans. They were all made by one group of humans in particular: Tennessee Valley Authority workers.
Congress formed the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933 and the newly-formed public corporation soon set about building Norris Dam, which would create the reservoir called Norris Lake. Soon the authority was constructing nine other dams to help manage flooding, spread electrification and develop the economy of the Tennessee Valley. More dams would follow, and with them, more lakes.
Of course, not all of Tennessee’s lakes are the product of the TVA. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the Percy Priest Dam between 1963 and 1967.
So while geology and climate history may have only given Tennessee one natural lake to enjoy, as a northerner who spends his Nashville summers in a perpetual puddle of sweat, I’m thankful there are any lakes at all, natural or otherwise. And I'm thankful for the people who built them. As Jason Isbell sings: “Thank God for the TVA.”
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Exploring why the Volunteer State doesn't enjoy natural lakes.
