The Lost Towns of Pickwick

Sacrificing Home and Community for the Greater Good

Pickwick Landing Dam, the second main-river dam constructed by the Tennessee Valley Authority, is a multipurpose facility. It generates 247 megawatts of hydroelectric power and provides 417,700 acre-feet of flood storage. The reservoir also covers part of the treacherous Muscle Shoals, which once hindered navigation on the Tennessee River. But the shoals aren’t the only features hidden beneath the waters of Pickwick Reservoir – remnants of past lives and once-vibrant communities also lie below the surface.

As part of his New Deal, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the TVA Act on May 18, 1933. The new agency was tasked with a broad mission, but most importantly, it aimed to improve quality of life by providing flood control, navigation and affordable electricity to the people of the Tennessee Valley. Engineers and planners quickly began implementing the agency’s unified development plan. For most residents, this was welcome news. For others, it came with a cost.

Relocating Homes and Families

When approval of Pickwick Landing Dam was announced in February 1934, the Tuscumbia Times proclaimed, “President Roosevelt gladdened the heart of every man.” Many local residents, eager for good-paying jobs, celebrated the coming construction. But their enthusiasm was tempered by a less appealing consequence – the loss and relocation of hundreds of homes, farms and families.

The reservoir created by the dam affected parts of Hardin County, Tennessee; Tishomingo County, Mississippi; and Colbert and Lauderdale counties in Alabama. Before construction, TVA surveyed and mapped about 100,000 acres of land. The agency acquired more than 63,700 acres and cleared approximately 12,590 acres of trees, buildings and fences.

TVA concluded that the dam would partially flood two Alabama towns – Waterloo and Riverton. In total, 506 families were relocated, and cemeteries, highways, bridges and utility lines were either moved or protected. The price of progress was the dissolution of home and community.

While these families were forced to move, the relocation was not a Southern diaspora. Most families stayed close to their roots. Many found it difficult to relocate because they wanted to remain in the area, where opportunities were limited. Before the dam, Waterloo and Riverton relied heavily on agriculture. Riverton also benefited from employment at the Colbert Shoals Canal Lock, while Waterloo had a modest lumber industry – though it was estimated that all marketable timber would be gone within two or three years.

Readjusting the Population

In 1935, Congress amended the TVA Act to give the agency authority to advise and assist in the readjustment of affected populations. TVA considered the social and economic needs of displaced families and worked with other agencies to help them adjust. For example, TVA partnered with Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University) and the agricultural extension services of Tennessee and Mississippi to help farm families find and acquire new homes.

During dam construction, TVA recruited many workers from the local farm population for land clearing and construction jobs. Highway, bridge and road projects helped support the town of Waterloo and surrounding rural areas, deferring the worst effects of displacement. It was hoped that recreational and industrial development from the project would improve the region’s economy and provide long-term opportunities. Extension services and other agencies worked to ensure permanent resettlement of displaced families in nearby areas.

Sacrificing for a Stronger Nation

When Pickwick Dam was dedicated on the first Sunday in June 1940, more than 30,000 people attended the celebration. The 61-piece Sheffield (Alabama) High School Marching Band and the Al Chymia Temple Shrine Band of Memphis provided music for a program that included motorboat races, water pageants and speeches.

Tennessee Commissioner of Conservation J. Charles Poe emphasized the lake’s recreational value: “What great news this is to those seeking vacation spots in the South. Here is one of the best motorboat courses in America.”

TVA Director James P. Pope said, “The problems of conservation, power and navigation are not state or regional problems; they are national problems.” He added, “There will be no other chain of lakes to compare with this [the TVA system of dams and reservoirs],” and noted that “its potentialities are far beyond the expectations of most of us.”

Tennessee Gov. Prentice Cooper called Pickwick “a great step in national preparedness,” adding, “One of our biggest shortages of the last war was in power. When a war comes, it is then too late to undertake building a dam for power. As a national defense measure alone, Pickwick is justified.”

He summed up the spirit of the day: “Pickwick and its sister projects will add much to the happiness, the security, the wealth and glory of Tennessee and the nation.”

During the Great Depression, the towns of Waterloo and Riverton were sacrificed for the construction of Pickwick Dam. More than a loss of property, it was a sacrifice of community for the greater good. That sacrifice helped create jobs, economic security, recreational opportunities and a better quality of life for the Tennessee Valley region. Like other lost towns across the region, these communities and the families who lived in them gave their homes, histories and heritage to help build a stronger region – and a stronger nation – for future generations.