Interesting history read on my favorite lake to fish.

[TcRoc]

Pretty cool read for any one interested in a lakes prior form.

https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-1993-10-07-2954769-story.html

[Finessegenics]

All that probably makes some great cover for the fish. Cool stuff.

[EWREX]

awesome stuff! my home lake is the largest in connecticut and is man made. there are countless foundations, road beds, bridge pilings, stone walls, and tons of other unique cover in the depths!

 

https://candlewoodlakeauthority.org/History-of-the-Lake

[jbsoonerfan]

There is a place on Lake Texoma called the rooftops. I have never been there, but apparently it was a community that was flooded and there were some houses made of concrete and sometimes when the lake is low you can see the rooftops of them.

[jkurtz7]

Thanks for sharing this! I love the history. 

[GRiver]

Thanks for sharing, very interesting story. I used to live about 2 hrs from Lake Watauge, Tn. The town of Butler Tennessee was flooded to make the lake, ( they did move the town).

     I had heard they were draining down the lake to accommodate the heavy snow fall in the mountains that year, and to make repairs on something. I grabbed my 12 ft, my trusty old 6hp evinrude, and away I went. A lot of other people had the same thought.

I about frozen to death but it was worth it. 

[GaryH]

16 hours ago, TcRoc said:

Pretty cool read for any one interested in a lakes prior form.

https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-1993-10-07-2954769-story.html

Thanks for sharing. Brings back memories when i lived in Bucks county and used to fish Nockamixon and small game hunted all around there. ?

[TnRiver46]

4 hours ago, GRiver said:

Thanks for sharing, very interesting story. I used to live about 2 hrs from Lake Watauge, Tn. The town of Butler Tennessee was flooded to make the lake, ( they did move the town).

     I had heard they were draining down the lake to accommodate the heavy snow fall in the mountains that year, and to make repairs on something. I grabbed my 12 ft, my trusty old 6hp evinrude, and away I went. A lot of other people had the same thought.

I about frozen to death but it was worth it. 

We call that area little Alaska, it’s as cold as can be. Also, old crow medicine show wrote a song about the town of butler, it’s great. 

“my home town, is a half mile down. It’s a half mile of water all around, all around!” I couldn’t imagine having to dig up my loved ones graves and move them, but that’s exactly what happened 

If you guys will allow me, I’ll tell some family history involving a flooded reservoir, seems at least close to on topic

 

 

I recently learned that my family is one of the “first families” of Tennessee, something I had never even heard of. This means my direct descendants were living here before TN was a state. It is extremely hard to prove this, but my aunt has done all the leg work and acquired the certification. She gave a presentation on it last week that we attended. Cool stuff!

 

My direct ancestor James Cooper was a member of the watauga association and signed the watauga treaty, along with some folks you might remember from history class, especially if you’re from Texas (Davy Crockett and John Sevier). James Cooper was killed by native Americans where gap creek flows into the watauga river near sycamore shoals. I don’t know the story as well as my aunt but I believe a group of settlers were in violation of the treaty with the Cherokee. They were supposed to lease the land for ten years but some didn’t want to leave and began making permanent structures. The fort that James Cooper and others has built came under attack while James and a young 12 year old boy were outside gathering boards to fortify the structure. James jumped into creek at the mouth of the river to avoid the arrows (and maybe bullets, I think natives had guns at this point). The water was too shallow and he was shot, captured, and scalped. The people inside the fort reported hearing his loud screams. The 12 year old boy that was with him was also captured and burned alive. 
 

here’s some info on the watauga treaty 
https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~snipper/genealogy/wau/waupetition.html

and here’s a screenshot from that article, you can see James Cooper’s name on the bottom left 

 

 

 

Many of the people living in the area were also part of the “Overmountain Men” that went over the Appalachian mountains to fight the British at the battle of Kings mountain, NC, a very critical conflict in the American Revolution. As usual, the Americans were outnumbered greatly but shot much more accurately and defeated the British. Who would have ever thought growing up shooting squirrels would be the basic skill that saved us from the crown??
 

here’s some info on that and a screenshot. That statue is very close to where James Cooper was killed in the water 

 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overmountain_Men
 

The story continues a little further downstream into what is now Cherokee lake. James Cooper was married to Prentice Cobb Cooper. Their descendants later settled along the Holston river in what is now Three Springs, TN. There’s even an island in the old river maps before the lake was formed called Cobb’s landing. The original home place foundation can sometimes be seen if they draw Cherokee lake down far enough in the winter. 
 

Sorry for the hijack, and 
thanks to @TcRoc for a great topic and to @GRiver for jogging my

memory, that was cool for me to write that down in one place 

[GaryH]

25 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

We call that area little Alaska, it’s as cold as can be. Also, old crow medicine show wrote a song about the town of butler, it’s great. 

“my home town, is a half mile down. It’s a half mile of water all around, all around!” I couldn’t imagine having to dig up my loved ones graves and move them, but that’s exactly what happened 

If you guys will allow me, I’ll tell some family history involving a flooded reservoir, seems at least close to on topic

 

 

I recently learned that my family is one of the “first families” of Tennessee, something I had never even heard of. This means my direct descendants were living here before TN was a state. It is extremely hard to prove this, but my aunt has done all the leg work and acquired the certification. She gave a presentation on it last week that we attended. Cool stuff!

 

My direct ancestor James Cooper was a member of the watauga association and signed the watauga treaty, along with some folks you might remember from history class, especially if you’re from Texas (Davy Crockett and John Sevier). James Cooper was killed by native Americans where gap creek flows into the watauga river near sycamore shoals. I don’t know the story as well as my aunt but I believe a group of settlers were in violation of the treaty with the Cherokee. They were supposed to lease the land for ten years but some didn’t want to leave and began making permanent structures. The fort that James Cooper and others has built came under attack while James and a young 12 year old boy were outside gathering boards to fortify the structure. James jumped into creek at the mouth of the river to avoid the arrows (and maybe bullets, I think natives had guns at this point). The water was too shallow and he was shot, captured, and scalped. The people inside the fort reported hearing his loud screams. The 12 year old boy that was with him was also captured and burned alive. 
 

here’s some info on the watauga treaty 
https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~snipper/genealogy/wau/waupetition.html

and here’s a screenshot from that article, you can see James Cooper’s name on the bottom left 

 

 

 

Many of the people living in the area were also part of the “Overmountain Men” that went over the Appalachian mountain to fight the British at the battle of Kings mountain, NC, a very critical conflict in the American Revolution. As usual, the Americans were outnumbered greatly but shot much more accurately and defeated the British. Who would have ever thought growing up shooting squirrels would be the basic skill that saved us from the crown??
 

here’s some info on that and a screenshot. That statue is very close to where James Cooper was killed in the water 

 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overmountain_Men
 

Sorry for the hijack, and 
thanks to @TcRoc for a great topic and to @GRiver for jogging my

memory, that was cool for me to write that down in one place 

Great read… Thanks for sharing ????

[TcRoc]

55 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

We call that area little Alaska, it’s as cold as can be. Also, old crow medicine show wrote a song about the town of butler, it’s great. 

“my home town, is a half mile down. It’s a half mile of water all around, all around!” I couldn’t imagine having to dig up my loved ones graves and move them, but that’s exactly what happened 

If you guys will allow me, I’ll tell some family history involving a flooded reservoir, seems at least close to on topic

 

 

I recently learned that my family is one of the “first families” of Tennessee, something I had never even heard of. This means my direct descendants were living here before TN was a state. It is extremely hard to prove this, but my aunt has done all the leg work and acquired the certification. She gave a presentation on it last week that we attended. Cool stuff!

 

My direct ancestor James Cooper was a member of the watauga association and signed the watauga treaty, along with some folks you might remember from history class, especially if you’re from Texas (Davy Crockett and John Sevier). James Cooper was killed by native Americans where gap creek flows into the watauga river near sycamore shoals. I don’t know the story as well as my aunt but I believe a group of settlers were in violation of the treaty with the Cherokee. They were supposed to lease the land for ten years but some didn’t want to leave and began making permanent structures. The fort that James Cooper and others has built came under attack while James and a young 12 year old boy were outside gathering boards to fortify the structure. James jumped into creek at the mouth of the river to avoid the arrows (and maybe bullets, I think natives had guns at this point). The water was too shallow and he was shot, captured, and scalped. The people inside the fort reported hearing his loud screams. The 12 year old boy that was with him was also captured and burned alive. 
 

here’s some info on the watauga treaty 
https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~snipper/genealogy/wau/waupetition.html

and here’s a screenshot from that article, you can see James Cooper’s name on the bottom left 

 

 

 

Many of the people living in the area were also part of the “Overmountain Men” that went over the Appalachian mountain to fight the British at the battle of Kings mountain, NC, a very critical conflict in the American Revolution. As usual, the Americans were outnumbered greatly but shot much more accurately and defeated the British. Who would have ever thought growing up shooting squirrels would be the basic skill that saved us from the crown??
 

here’s some info on that and a screenshot. That statue is very close to where James Cooper was killed in the water 

 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overmountain_Men
 

Sorry for the hijack, and 
thanks to @TcRoc for a great topic and to @GRiver for jogging my

memory, that was cool for me to write that down in one place 

Not a hijack at all, very cool. 

[GRiver]

Thanks for tha added bit of history tnriver