The Nickajack Project

Book excerpt: Nickajack Dam was built by TVA in the mid-1960's at Tennessee River mile 424.7 to replace the old and leaking Hales Bar Dam located 6.4 miles upstream. The Nickajack site is located in Marion County, Tennessee, 18 air miles west of Chattanooga and about 2 miles northwest of the junction of the Alabama-Georgia-Tennessee State lines. Historically, the ancient Indian town of Nickajack was located at Shellmound, about a mile and a half upstream from the dam on the left bank of the reservoir. Nickajack was inhabited by the Cherokees as early as 1730. In 1784 the warlike Chief Dragging Canoe, who had earlier broken with the Cherokees, launched his marauding Chickamaugas from the town and used the nearby Nickajack Cave as a hideout. Later, during the Civil War, saltpeter was mined in the cave for Confederate gunpowder.