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The human history of
western North Carolina is as old as the first native Americans. The
Cherokee Nation left a long and rich heritage in the area. For
centuries this was a remote, isolated environment with rugged
mountain people who lived in loosely
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knit communities.
With the growth in technology, loggers moved in and harvested the
mountainsides, removing old growth forests and leaving scarred earth
in their wake.
However, with the environmental movements of the early 20th century,
the Great Smoky Mountain National Park was created in an effort to
preserve some of the few remaining wild locations in the southeast.
The building of a dam,
especially the tallest east of the Rockies, in the remote area of
western North Carolina, was not high on the federal government's list
of priorities until the threat of World War II.
The need to provide aluminum factories and the newly created facility
at Oak Ridge with electricity to assist in the war effort, motivated a
great sweeping change in that area. The government began building
Fontana Dam less than 3 weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Almost overnight, a large town was formed in the middle of nowhere to
provide shelter, entertainment, education and supplies for the men who
worked 3 shifts over a 24-hour period 7 days a week.
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